Rik Adamski doesn’t believe in big, dusty plans. He believes in action.

In this episode, we sit down with the unorthodox but deeply practical urban planner and designer Rik Adamski, who’s made a career out of helping cities do rather than just plan. His approach? Start small. Start now. Test it. Prove it. Then go big.

Rik shares stories from his journey—from growing up in walkable Midwest neighbourhoods, to working with the Congress for the New Urbanism, to transforming a dollar store in DeSoto, Texas into a thriving micro-business hub. He champions tactical urbanism and sees policy inertia as something to be poked with pizza and pilot projects.

Along the way, Rik explains why:

• Most planning documents are "300 pages of nothing"
• The simplest act—cleaning a street and feeding people—can kicksta ...