About

I’m interested in the complex systems that shape everyday life: housing, transportation, infrastructure, technology, public space, climate resilience, and the institutions that decide what gets built.

My background moves between product, urban planning, research, and storytelling, so I use this space to answer the questions that sit between those worlds: how do ideas become real, why do good plans get stuck, and how can cities can better serve the people who live in them? Can we make our cities be more equitable, sustainable, affordable, and efficient?

By subscribing, I can promise that you’ll get interesting essays, notes, interviews, maps, and observations; you may also get a sneak peak into future civic research, media, and digital tools. This is my public notebook on how I think about how cities work — and how they might work better.

— Gibson Chu