Why we should design cities like Disney

141,845 plays|

Zach DeBoer |

TEDxSioux Falls

• May 2023

Where you live shapes your relationships, your emotions and even how long you live, says community designer Zach DeBoer. After studying what a century of building cities around cars has done to downtowns in the US, he turned to lessons from some of the most walkable, carefully designed streets in the country: the ones inside Disney theme parks. With ideas ranging from narrower roads to buildings that pull you around the next corner, he offers a practical guide to turning ordinary downtowns into magical places people want to explore.