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The Most Influential Contemporary Urbanists

The 100 people making an impact on planning and cities today.

21 minute read

August 2, 2023, 5:00 AM PDT

By Planetizen

@planetizen


Planetizen readers valued planners, policymakers, and thinkers who promote sustainable transportation, walkability, and more accessible cities. | Patryk Kosmider / Adobe Stock

When Planetizen published our list of Most Influential Urbanists, voted on by our readers, earlier this year, the list generated a healthy debate surrounding who counts as an ‘urbanist,’ how to compare historic figures with contemporary actors, and the persistent lack of diversity in gender, race, and geography. Despite an effort to expand the scope of the list, the nominees and top 100 vote recipients still presented a largely male, white, North America-centered version of the profession.

The history of urban planning as an academic and professional discipline includes many men—and some women—who have received decades of recognition. By revising our list to only include people currently living and working, we hope to amplify the contemporary voices adding new perspectives to the field of planning. Of the revised list of 100, 37 are women, up from 21 in the original list. Without perennial favorite Jane Jacobs, the top 10 remains 20 percent female, with Anne Hidalgo moving up to #4 and Janette Sadik-Khan coming in at #6. The updated list includes roughly 27 Black, Indigenous, and People of Color, up from 14 on the prior list and 14 in 2017.

We received a strong response from readers who saw gaps in the list and wanted to see other influential people featured. To that end, rather than wait until the next round of voting to compile nominations for the list, we’d like to hear from you now. If you’re one of the people who called out missing nominees, help us improve the next list—this is your chance to make the list more representative and call out the work of urbanism innovators. Send your nominations to editor@planetizen.com with the subject line Most Influential Urbanists Nomination. We will publish an updated list of nominees around this time in 2024.

1. Jan Gehl - An architect and urban designer famous for refocusing design and planning on the human scale. Author of Life Between Buildings; Public Spaces, Public Life; and Cities for People, among other books. Achieved new prominence with the 2011 documentary film Urbanized.  (#4 Most Influential Urbanist in 2017) 

2. Andrés Duany - An American architect, an urban planner, and a founder of the Congress for the New Urbanism. Duany is credited with the plan and code for Seaside, the first new traditional community, the development of the SmartCode, and the definition of the rural to urban transect, among other accomplishments. (#5 Most Influential Urbanist in 2017)

3. Donald Shoup - Distinguished research professor in the Department of Urban Planning at the University of California, Los Angeles. Author of The High Cost of Free Parking, which, since its publication in 2005, has succeeded in launching a new approach to parking policy as a fundamental aspect of planning and land use regulations in communities around the country. Parking reforms inspired by Shoup's writings have increased at a high rate in recent years, at both state and local levels. (#13 Most Influential Urbanist in 2017)

4. Anne Hidalgo - Current mayor of Paris, who has expended major political capital to deprioritize the automobile as the transportation mode of choice in the city's center, with vast improvements on traffic safety and air pollution, in addition to greenhouse gas emissions.

5. Jeff Speck - A city planner and urban designer and a leading advocate for walkable cities. Author of Walkable City: How Downtown Can Save America, One Step at a Time (2012), among other books. Also a prominent figure in the Congress for the New Urbanism. (#21 Most Influential Urbanist in 2017)

6. Janette Sadik-Khan - Commissioner of the New York City Department of Transportation from 2007–2013, while the nation's largest city pursued and delivered one of the most sweeping revitalizations of the city’s streets in a half-century. Currently the principal at Bloomberg Associates and chair of the National Association of Transportation Officials (NACTO). Author of Streetfight: Handbook for an Urban Revolution (2017). (#16 Most Influential Urbanist in 2017)

7. Charles Marohn - Founder and president of Strong Towns, a news and commentary website and a popular portal for advocacy on issues of planning. Authored Strong Towns: A Bottom-Up Revolution to Rebuild American Prosperity (2019) and Confessions of a Recovering Engineer: Transportation for a Strong Town (2021). (#10 Most Influential Urbanist in 2017)

8. Brent Toderian - Vancouver chief planner from 2006 to 2012, during the city's 2010 Winter Olympics-related planning and design process as well as the EcoDensity initiative and the Greenest City Action Plan. Toderian is now a consulting city planner and urbanist with TODERIAN UrbanWORKS and vocal advocate for livability initiatives. (#52 Most Influential Urbanist in 2017)

9. Richard Florida - One of the world's most visible contemporary urbanists. Richard Florida authored The Rise of the Creative Class and, more recently, The New Urban Crisis. Serves as university professor, director of cities at the Martin Prosperity Institute at the University of Toronto, and founder of the Creative Class Group. (#11 Most Influential Urbanist in 2017)

10. Carlos Moreno - Colombian planning professor and researcher at the University of Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne who coined the term 15-Minute City, subject to culture war controversy in the months preceding this writing.

11. Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk - Co-founder of Arquitectonica and Duany Plater Zyberk & Company. A leader in the New Urbanism movement and the co-author of Suburban Nation: the Rise of Sprawl and the Decline of the American Dream, and The New Civic Art. (#15 Most Influential Urbanist in 2017) 

12. Peter Calthorpe - Founder of the award-winning firm of Calthorpe Associates, Calthorpe is also one of the founders and the first board president of the Congress of New Urbanism. Most recently, Calthorpe has been advocating for a "Grand Boulevards" concept to retrofit defunct retail strip malls as housing. The concept was legislated in California by AB 2011, which allows residential construction by-right on lots previously zoned for commercial uses. (#22 Most Influential Urbanist in 2017)

13. Gil Peñalosa - Founder and chair of 8 80 Cities, and a leading advocate for the design and use of parks and streets as great public places, as well as sustainable mobility: walking, riding bicycles, using public transit, and the new use of cars. Ran for mayor of Toronto in 2022 but came up short. (#44 Most Influential Urbanist in 2017) 

14. Enrique Peñalosa - Mayor of Bogotá from 1998 until 2001, and then from 2016 to 2019, overseeing major transportation and public space projects in the city. Also served as the president of the Board of Directors of the Institute for Transportation and Development Policy (ITDP). A controversial inclusion on the 2017 list. (#25 Most Influential Urbanist in 2017) 

15. Michael Bloomberg - Michael R. Bloomberg is an entrepreneur and philanthropist who served three terms as the mayor of the city of New York, during a time of innovation in placemaking in the nation's largest city. Popular urbanism media outlet CityLab was bought by Bloomberg Media in 2019. (#23 Most Influential Urbanist in 2017)

16. Léon Krier - A leading proponent of New Urbanism and provocateur or modern urbanism. Best known for the development of Poundbury, an urban extension to Dorchester, in the United Kingdom. (#35 Most Influential Urbanist in 2017) 

17. Joseph Minicozzi - Principal of Urban3, LLC, Minnicozzi is an advocate for downtown-style mixed-use developments, especially as preferred to big box retail. (#60 Most Influential Urbanist in 2017) 

18. Edward Glaeser - Economist and professor of economics at Harvard University. Glaeser’s book, Triumph of the City: How Our Greatest Invention Makes Us Richer, Smarter, Greener, Healthier, and Happier, is a popular and widely cited reference for urban boosters. (#43 Most Influential Urbanist in 2017) 

19. Saskia Sassen - Professor of Sociology at Columbia University and a member of the Committee on Global Thought. Coined the term "Global City," and authored Global City: New York, London, Tokyo, published in 1991. (#45 Most Influential Urbanist in 2017) 

20. David Harvey - Marxist theorist in the field of urban studies, geographer by training, professor at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York, and prolific author. (#46 Most Influential Urbanist in 2017) 

21. Jarrett Walker - A consulting transit planner, Walker's work in cities like Houston and his blog Human Transit leads current thinking about best practices public transit and mass transportation infrastructure. (#57 Most Influential Urbanist in 2017) 

22. Kennedy Smith - Expert on commercial district revitalization and development, independent main street businesses, and economically and environmentally sound community development. Co-founded the Community Land Use and Economics (CLUE) Group, LLC. Also the longest-serving director of the National Trust for Historic Preservation's National Main Street Center. (#91 Most Influential Urbanist in 2017) 

23. Mike Lydon - Principal with Street Plans and a leading proponent of Tactical Urbanism and the Congress for the New Urbanism. Co-author of Tactical Urbanism: Short-Term Action, Long-Term Change, Vols.1-5. (#75 Most Influential Urbanist in 2017)

24. James Howard Kunstler - Noted author and critic of suburban development patterns, best known for the book, The Geography of Nowhere. (#29 Most Influential Urbanist in 2017) 

25. James Rojas - A leading proponent of Latino Urbanism and the founder of the Latino Urban Forum. Rojas has also championed a public-engagement and community-visioning method called PLACE IT! Rojas is also. Co-authored Dream, Play, Build (2022).

26. Majora Carter - An American urban revitalization strategist and public radio host from the South Bronx area of New York City. Carter's work focuses on inclusion and sustainability. (#70 Most Influential Urbanist in 2017)

27. Earl Blumenauer - The U.S. Representative for Oregon's 3rd congressional district, Earl Blumenauer is one of the federal government's most ardent supporters of alternative transportation, through public transit and bike infrastructure, as well as sustainability initiatives. (#81 Most Influential Urbanist in 2017)

28. Fred Kent - Founder and former president of Project for Public Spaces, and an authority on revitalizing public spaces. (#62 Most Influential Urbanist in 2017) 

29. Tamika Butler - Former executive director of the Los Angeles County Bicycle Coalition, Butler achieved national prominence speaking and advocating on the subjects of racial justice and transportation policy. Butler is currently the principal and founder of Tamika L. Butler Consulting while earning a PhD in urban planning from the University of California, Los Angeles.

30. Yonah Freemark - Senior research associate in the Metropolitan Housing and Communities Policy Center at the Urban Institute think tank. Freemark is one of the leading voices for public transit in the world, including with the popular blog The Transport Politic. 

31. Allan Jacobs - An urban designer and professor emeritus at the University of California, Berkeley. Authored the paper, "Toward an Urban Design Manifesto," with Donald Appleyard, among other books. Also served for eight years as the director of the San Francisco Department of City Planning. (#53 Most Influential Urbanist in 2017)

32. Carol Coletta - President and CEO at Memphis River Parks Partnership. Formerly senior fellow with the Kresge Foundation’s American Cities program, vice president of community and national initiatives for the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, and president of ArtPlace. (#66 Most Influential Urbanist in 2017)

33. Jennifer Keesmaat - Served as chief planner of Toronto from 2012 until September 2017, during which the city underwent a period of rapid growth. Keesmaat is an active participant in the planning discussion, contributing numerous editorials for local publications that argued in favor of progressive transportation planning policies. (#54 Most Influential Urbanist in 2017) 

34. Rem Koolhaas - Architect, architectural theorist, urbanist, and professor in practice of Architecture and Urban Design at the Graduate School of Design at Harvard University. Koolhaus is the author of multiple books, including S,M,L,XL, which includes an essay on urban planning titled "Whatever Happened to Urbanism?" (#56 Most Influential Urbanist in 2017) 

35. Theaster Gates - A Chicago-based installation artist, Gates's addresses urban planning, among other issues. Gates is also the founder and artist director of the Rebuild Foundation, a nonprofit organization focused on cultural-driven redevelopment and affordable space initiatives in under-served communities. (#99 Most Influential Urbanist in 2017) 

36. Ellen Dunham-Jones - Professor at the Georgia Tech School of Architecture and director of the school's urban design program. Authored, along with June Williamson, Retrofitting Suburbia: Urban Design Solutions for Redesigning Suburbs. (#71 Most Influential Urbanist in 2017)

37. Mitchell Silver - Commissioner of the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation. Past president of the American Planning Association (APA) and former chief planning and development officer and planning director for Raleigh, North Carolina. Co-editor of Local Planning: Contemporary Principles and Practice. (#64 Most Influential Urbanist in 2017) 

38. Charles Montgomery - Author of Happy City: Transforming Our Lives Through Urban Design (2013) and founder of the urban design, planning, and research consultant firm, Happy Cities. 

39. Dan Parolek - Architect, urban designer, and the founding principal of Opticos Design, one of the busiest zoning and urban design consultants in the United States. Parolek achieved widespread fame and notoriety by coining the term Missing Middle Housing, one of the most prominent contemporary planning trends and the inspiration of numerous local and statewide legislative reforms around the country in recent years.

40. Dan Burden - A leader in innovative transportation planning, working in the past as Florida's first state bicycle and pedestrian coordinator and as a co-founder of Walkable Communities, Inc. Burden is currently director of innovation and inspiration at Blue Zones, LLC. (#85 Most Influential Urbanist in 2017)

41. Richard Sennett - Centennial professor of Sociology at the London School of Economics and university professor of the Humanities at New York University. Sennett studies social ties in cities, and the effects of urban living on individuals in the modern world, and has authored many books on related subjects, including The Fall of Public Man, published in 1977, about the public realm, and Together: The Rituals, Pleasures, and Politics of Cooperation, published in 2012.  (#90 Most Influential Urbanist in 2017) 

42. Susan Fainstein - Currently a senior research fellow in the Harvard Graduate School of Design, with past professorships at Columbia University, and Rutgers University. Fainstein has authored and edited many books on urban theory, including Just City.

43. Stefanos Polyzoides - Architect and urban planner described as the "godfather of New Urbanism." Co-founder of Moule Polyzoides, Architects and Urbanists as well as co-founder of the Congress for the New Urbanism.

44. Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five - A pioneering hip hop group formed in the South Bronx of New York City in 1976. Their classic song "The Message" is an instantly recognizable urban manifesto. (#72 Most Influential Urbanist in 2017)

45. Bruce Katz - Served for 20 years as the vice president and co-director of the Brookings Metropolitan Policy Program and was the inaugural Centennial Scholar at the Brookings Institution. More recently, Katz founded, with Jeremy Nowak, New Localism Advisors. Also authored the books The Metropolitan Revolution (2013) and The New Localism (2018). (#76 Most Influential Urbanist in 2017) 

46. Jay Pitter - Toronto-based advocate for an inclusive city-building process and an urban planning adjunct at the University of Waterloo. Gained renewed levels of prominence in 2020, and continues to critique popular contemporary planning ideas like the 15-Minute City and the densification of cities as problematic extensions of historic planning mistakes.

47. Naomi Klein - A journalist, activist, and author of This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. the Climate, Shock Doctrine, and No is Not Enough. (#83 Most Influential Urbanist in 2017) 

48. Valerie Plante - Mayor of Montreal since 2017, advancing an agenda of radical innovations in city planning as a response to the risks of climate change. Plante calls this vision for planning "sustainable urbanism."

49. Emily Talen - Professor of urbanism at the University of Chicago, following previous faculty positions at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and Arizona State University. Author of numerous books devoted to the relationship between the built environment and social equity. (#97 Most Influential Urbanist in 2017) 

50. Henry Cisneros - Mayor of San Antonio, Texas, from 1981 to 1989—the second Latino mayor of a major American city and the city's first since 1842. Cisneros also served as the secretary of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) in the administration of President Bill Clinton. (#85 Most Influential Urbanist in 2017)

51. Doug Farr - Founding principal and president of Farr Associates Architecture and Urban Design. Farr also founded the U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED for Neighborhood Development (LEED-ND) Core Committee and is a board member of EcoDistricts. (#88 Most Influential Urbanist in 2017)

52. Deanna Van Buren - Co-founder of Designing Justice + Designing Spaces and co-founder of BIG Oakland. Van Buren is a leader in researching, formulating, and advocating for restorative justice centers, as a radical transformation of the criminal justice system.

53. Diane Yentel - President and CEO of the National Low Income Housing Coalition, an organization growing in prominence for its advocacy during a nationwide housing affordability crisis. 

54. F. Kaid Benfield - Former director for sustainable communities for the National Resources Defense Council and high profile author, writing at numerous urbanism publications and authoring several books. Currently the Senior Counsel for Environmental Strategies at PlaceMakers LLC. (#79 Most Influential Urbanist in 2017)

55. Janet Echelman - Famed for using art to bring a sense of wonder to public spaces. Also delivered a popular TED talk on the subject of imagination.

56. Joe Cortright - A frequently cited source on subjects of urbanism in his working writing and researching for City Observatory.

57. Ann Forsyth - Professor of urban planning and director of the Master in Urban Planning Program at the Harvard Graduate School of Design. Currently editor of the Journal of the American Planning Association.

58. Lynn Richards - Lynn Richards is the former president and CEO of the Congress for the New Urbanism and the current executive vice president and chief policy and implementation officer of Blue Zones. Previously worked at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, including as acting director and policy director in the Office of Sustainable Communities.

59. Oscar Perry Abello - Journalist writing predominantly for Next City, providing in-depth coverage of the responses of communities to economic injustice.  

60. Christopher Leinberger - Research professor and chair of the Center for Real Estate and Urban Analysis at the George Washington University School of Business, president of Locus: Responsible Real Estate Developers and Investors, and founding partner of Arcadia Land Company. Recently a proponent of Walkable Urban Places, or WalkUPs. (#65 Most Influential Urbanist in 2017)

61. King Charles Philip Arthur George Mountbatten-Windsor - Now King of England. As the Prince of Wales, King Charles was a frequent commenter on matters of the built environment. An advocate of neo-traditional ideas, such as those of Christopher Alexander and Leon Krier. Prince Charles illustrated his ideas on the built environment during a 1984 attack on the British architectural community in a speech given to the Royal Institute of British Architects, in which he described a proposed extension to the National Gallery in London as a “monstrous carbuncle.”

62. Denise Scott Brown - Architect, author, educator, and principal of the firm Venturi, Scott Brown and Associates. Co-author, with Robert Venturi and Steven Izenour, of the influential book Learning From Las Vegas. Scott Brown is a symbolic figure in the discourse about the under-representation of women in the urban design professions. One of the subjects of the documentary film “City Dreamers” (2018).

63. Elizabeth Moule - Partner at Moule and Polyzoides, Architects and Urbanists and co-founder of the Congress for the New Urbanism. Coa-uthored the CNU’s Canons of Sustainable Architecture and Urbanism, a companion to the Charter of the New Urbanism. 

64. Rebecca Solnit - A writer on a variety of subjects, including the environment, politics, place, and art. Solnit's books on urbanism-related subjects include A Paradise Built in Hell: The Extraordinary Communities that Arise in Disaster (2009) and Wanderlust: A History of Walking (2001). 

65. Angie Schmitt - Former editor of Streetsblog USA and a leading voice for traffic safety and pedestrian environments. Authored Right of Way: Race, Class, and the Silent Epidemic of Pedestrian Deaths in America (2020) and currently works as founder and principal of 3MPH Planning and Consulting.

66. R. John Anderson - Co-founder and principal for Anderson|Kim Architecture + Urban Design. (#80 Most Influential Urbanist in 2017)

67. Naheed Nenshi - Former mayor of Calgary, Alberta, and the first Muslim mayor of a large North American city. While mayor, Nenshi ended a developer subsidy and fought to curb sprawl, with resulting controversy.

68. Scott Wiener - Current California state senator and previous San Francisco supervisor. Wiener has been leading the charge for state preemption of local control of zoning regulations in California—a movement now picking up momentum around the country. 

69. Marina Khoury - Partner at Duany Plater-Zyberk & Company and project director of Miami 21, the transformation of the city of Miami's use-based zoning code into a form-based code.

70. William Julius Wilson - Professor of sociology, previously at the University of Chicago and now at Harvard University. His many books examine the experience of Black Americans living in urban areas, and the effects of concentrated poverty.

71. Robert J. Gibbs - President of Gibbs Planning Group. Planned Michigan’s first ten New Urban communities and form-based codes, in addition to contributing to commercial developments in more than 400 town centers and historic cities in the United States and abroad. (#7 Most Influential Urbanist in 2017) 

72. Kristen Jeffers - Founder and editor-in-chief of The Black Urbanist website, with a highly visible byline that has been featured on many other planning and urban design media outlets. Also produces the Third-Wave Urbanism podcast with Katrina Johnston-Zimmerman.

73. David Suzuki - A geneticist by training and an outspoken environmental activist, Suzuki has a long history of producing and hosting scientific-focused television and radio shows.

74. Michael Mehaffy - Portland-based consultant and author specializing in walkable mixed-use projects. Mehaffy is also a senior researcher in urban sustainability at KTH University in Stockholm and the executive director of the Sustasis Foundation. (#61 Most Influential Urbanist in 2017)

75. Robert Bullard - Considered the father of environmental justice, Bullard is the chair of the Bullard Center for Environmental & Climate Justice at Texas Southern University.

76. Alon Levy - Blogger at Pedestrian Observations, with a specific research focus on public transit and the extreme costs of capital investments for U.S. transit projects. Levy's pioneering work on the subject led to a relatively nascent movement to study the origins of high costs on U.S. transit projects by mainstream media publications and national research institutions. 

77. Joel Kotkin - A dissenting voice from the standard narratives of progressive urbanism, Kotkin is the presidential fellow in urban futures at Chapman University, executive director of the Houston-based Center for Opportunity Urbanism, and the executive editor of the New Geography website. Kotkin has also written several books.

78. Galina Tachieva - Managing Partner at Duany Plater-Zyberk & Company. Author of Sprawl Repair and the SmartCode Sprawl Repair Module.

79. Alissa Walker - Urbanism editor at Curbed, and one of the most-widely read contemporary journalists writing about issues of planning. Walker is an advocate for walkable environments, public transit, and racial equity.

80. Susan Henderson - Architect and principal at PlaceMakers, LLC. Leads PlaceMakers' charrette teams. Also the director of the Congress for the New Urbanism.

81. Allison Arieff - Editorial director of print at the MIT Technology Review, contributing columnist to the New York Times, and former editorial director at the SPUR think tank. A critical voice on the tech industry's contributions to urbanism.

82. Leslie Kern - Author of The Feminist City: Claiming Space in a Man-Made World (2020) and Gentrification Is Inevitable and Other Lies (2022).

83. Dave Amos - An assistant professor of planning at Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo and producer and host of the popular YouTube channel CityBeautiful.

84. Shelley Poticha - Chief Climate Strategist at the National Resource Defense Council (NRDC). Formerly a senior political appointee in the Obama Administration, where she led the Partnership for Sustainable Communities and launched the Office of Sustainable Housing and Communities at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. (#87 Most Influential Urbanist in 2017) 

85. Roberta Brandes Gratz - A journalist, urban critic, lecturer, and author, Gratz co-founded the Center For the Living City and authored The Living City: Thinking Small in a Big Way, among other accomplishments.

86. Michael Kimmelman - The architecture critic of The New York Times. His criticism has broadened the traditional purview of architecture criticism to include urban affairs, public space, infrastructure, and social equity.

87. William McDonough - Architect, product designer, and advocate. Authored the book Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things (2002), as the most famous expression of his message. Also the founding principal of William McDonough + Partners and co-founder of McDonough Braungart Design Chemistry (MBDC). (#98 Most Influential Urbanist in 2017)

88. Alfred Twu - An architect who has achieved prominence in contemporary planning for artfully depicting land use regulations and proposed legislation in California—as an advocate for pro-development and YIMBY causes.

89. Geoffrey Canada - An American educator, social activist and author. Since 1990, Canada has been president of the Harlem Children's Zone in Harlem, New York. Canada has been repeatedly recognized as one of the most ambitious and accomplished leaders working for social good in the urban arena.

90. Charles Wolfe - Pacific Northwest-based, globetrotting author and blogger and former land use and environmental lawyer. Authored Sustaining a City's Culture and Character: Principles and Best Practices (2021) and Seeing the Better City (2017).

91. Alan Mallach - Senior Fellow with the Center for Community Progress in Washington, D.C. and prolific author and researcher, focusing on Legacy Cities. Authored The Divided City: Poverty and Prosperity in Urban America (2018) among many other books. 

92. Alex Baca - D.C. Policy Director at Greater Greater Washington and one of the most prominent forces in the planning and zoning reform movement commonly described as smart growth or YIMBY.

93. Kongjian Yu - A landscape architect, professor of landscape architecture at Peking University (PKU), and the founder of the planning office Turenscape in Beijing.

94. Jenny Schuetz - Senior fellow at Brookings Metro and a widely cited researcher in housing policy and land use regulation. Advocates for pro-development reforms to address the ongoing housing affordability crisis. Authored Fixer Upper: How to Repair America's Broken Housing Systems (2022). 

95. Katrina Johnston-Zimmerman - Assistant director of the South Street Headhouse District in Philadelphia, founder of THINK.urba, and co-founder of the Women Led Cities Initiative. Johnston-Zimmerman is a prominent speaker and advocate for "urban anthology" and a self-described "professional people watcher."

96. Darrell Owens - A software engineer with a vocal, leading role in the YIMBY movement, Owens is one of the most widely circulating social media users on both Twitter and Substack. Currently a policy and data analyst for California YIMBY.

97. Sara Ishikawa - Architect and professor emerita at the University of California, Berkeley. Specializes in people-space relationships, with particular interest and experience in affordable and low-income housing and community facilities. Co-author of A Pattern Language.

98. Eddie Bautista - The executive director of the New York City Environmental Justice Alliance (NYC-EJA), Bautista is a community organizer and urban planner and former director of the Mayor’s Office of City Legislative Affairs in New York City.

99. Dan Gilbert - The chairman and founder of Rock Ventures and Quicken Loans Inc., Gilbert makes this list for his portfolio of downtown development investments in Detroit and Cleveland. (#67 Most Influential Urbanist in 2017) 

100. Phyllis Lambert - An architect and philanthropist, Lambert founded Heritage Montreal and the Canadian Centre for Architecture. The subject of the documentary film Citizen Lambert: Joan of Architecture” (2007).

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