Extensions that automatically change the appearance of words in the Google Chrome browser have provided serious laughs. Now for a planning edition.
For those unfamiliar with the concept, Google Chrome offers extensions that, when installed for browser software, automatically replace words found on the Internet with words that until now have only registered in internal monologues.
The most famous example of the Google Chrome substitution extension went viral in February, when John Oliver's show Last Week Tonight announced the creation of a Google Chrome extension that replaces the words Donald Trump with the words Donald Drumpf, in an homage to the presidential candidate's ancestry.
If you missed John Oliver's segment, he explains how the Google Chrome extension works roughly around the 18:50 minute mark of the video below.
Following the lead of John Oliver, as well as the fan-favorite cartoon KXCD, which has previously created lists of substitutions that make reading the news a little more entertaining (KXCD has its very own Google Chrome extension, by the way), we brainstormed a few planning-focused substitutions.
Planning substitutions for Google Chrome would allow a few applications. One would be to cut through the sometimes jargon-filled language of planning practice. Another would be to read what you're really thinking about the word choices and politics of people on the other side of the issue. Here are a few of ideas of the more subversive variety, but we imagine you have your own.
- Public engagement>Loud caring
- NIMBYs>Protectors of the Realm
- Vibrant>Being bae
- Car>Boss
- Bus>Freedom mobile
- City Council hearing>Photo op
- Locally preferred alternative>Plan B
- Urban planning>politics
- Urban design>Fancy planning
- Urban planners>Party planners
- Architecture school>Hazing
- Landscape architecture>Golf course design
- Transportation engineers>NASCAR
- Congestion relief>Recession
- Parking>Car hotels
- California Environmental Quality Act>Cash register
- Developers>Greedy developers
- Federal transportation policy>The auto industry
- Agenda 21>United Nations conspiracy
- Gentrification>Hipsters lining up for fancy toast
FULL STORY: 20 Google Chrome Substitutions for Planners
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UCLA Lewis Center for Regional Policy Studies
Mpact (formerly Rail~Volution)
Chaddick Institute at DePaul University
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Great Falls Development Authority, Inc.
HUDs Office of Policy Development and Research