Reflecting on Ukraine, Solly Angel Discusses
The Toll War Takes on Cities
Director of Urban Expansion, Solly Angel, was interviewed on NPR’s 1A podcast in “What We Lose When We Rebuild War-Torn Cities.” Asked how his experience of living in a bomb shelter in Jerusalem for seven months as a young child influenced his thinking on cities and rebuilding after conflict, Angel responded:
The effect that it had on me over time was this great belief that cities pull through. Whatever it is that happens to them, they change, they adapt. [Urban] planners do very little because what cities are, it’s like they are accumulations of millions of decisions taken by individuals to do whatever it is that they need to do to both survive and thrive in these cities. I think it created the confidence in me that cities have this inner resilience to transform themselves to meet new challenges.