Eleanor Sharpe: Redesigning Cities for Equity and Imagination

Eleanor Sharpe, founder of Sharpe Solutions and former interim Deputy Mayor and Director of Planning and Development for the City of Philadelphia, joins us on The Century of Cities. In this bold and deeply personal conversation, Eleanor reflects on Philadelphia's transformation from the post-industrial 1980s to a city defined by "eds and meds," creative resurgence, and continued racial inequities. Drawing from her own life, she unpacks how systemic design, not individual choice, shapes our cities and our neighbourhoods, often in ways we don't realize. Eleanor raises hard questions about education, equity, and who cities are built for. From redlining and racialized land use to calls for planners to actively redress past harms, Eleanor makes the case for a new kind of planning, deliberate, transparent, and deeply community-rooted. As she turns her attention toward her hometown of Kingston, Jamaica, she calls for a bold cultural and civic renaissance built not just on money, but on shared vision.