We all know urban planning has an image problem. But it’s odd to come across an example of a planning department producing a propaganda film to redress the situation. Yet that’s exactly what the Beverley Hills Planning Department did with this short from 2003, It’s a Wonderful City.
As the title suggests, it’s a take on It’s a Wonderful Life, which is already a highly suggestive, must-see film for urban planners (I talk about it more here). The original film shows the fortunes of a classic Hollywood small town as it teeters on the edge of suburbanisation, with the fate of the town depending on the existence or otherwise of affordable-housing pioneer George Bailey. In the Beverley Hills take, we follow George Buildley as we see how the town would fare without a town planning department.
While it’s a brave attempt, I can’t help but chuckle at the efforts to make a world without planning seem so nightmarish. And it’s a little depressing that even in pro-planning propaganda there’s a scene in which someone is driven to the edge of madness by planning bureaucracy. (“Review process… the Planning Commission, the Architectural Commission… there isn’t time!)
It’s also funny to see how the nightmare is characterised. In the context of Melbourne’s difficulties getting development around activity centres rather than at remote fringe locations, it’s interesting to see the way a world without planning is characterised by massive overdevelopment in an established urban area. It’s also weird to see Beverly Hills used as an example of where planning is going right: when George Buildley runs down its soulless streets, it doesn’t quite have the same effect as George Bailey rediscovering the idealised town of Bedford Falls.