Creating the City Beautiful

The Community's Conversation

What makes a city beautiful, livable, walkable, and simply a desirable place to call home? And on the other side, what mistakes can destroy a city’s appeal to residents, visitors, and investors? For the last six years, Cal Poly Assistant Professor of City and Regional Planning Dave Amos has been exploring answers to these questions through his hugely popular YouTube channel, City Beautiful.

City Beautiful embraces a mantra: that cities are amazing, and then seeks to understand what makes some cities succeed while others stumble. Amos’ inquisitive, fast-paced, and approachable style has earned his channel more than 651,000 subscribers, with his videos about cities and city planning regularly attracting millions of views.

Amos has explored what happened when cities banned cars, why high-rise public housing projects were once thought to be part of the answer to America’s chronic housing projects, and even what urban planning looking like in the former Soviet Union. With an expert panel, we explore the factors that shape the cities we call home.

Featuring Dave Amos, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Department of City and Regional Planning, Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo, and City Beautiful YouTube channel creator, producer, and narrator; Manuel Santana Palacios, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of City and Regional Planning, The Knowlton School of Architecture, The Ohio State University; and host Belkis Schoenhals, Principal Planner, The City of Columbus.

This forum was sponsored by Moody Nolan and Burgess and Niple.

The forum was supported by The Ellis and by The Columbus Dispatch. The livestream was presented by The Center for Human Kindness at The Columbus Foundation and The Columbus Dispatch.

This forum was recorded before a live audience at The Ellis in Columbus, Ohio's historic Italian Village on January 17, 2024.