
The engineer turned city planner built a career around an unfashionable idea: a plan matters only when people can use it. At the Collaborative, that has meant water systems, revived land, public meetings, safer routes and a firm that still calls itself a startup after three and a half decades.
A water district asked for better communication. The research pointed to customer service. Inside the agency that helps governments figure out what the public is really telling them.
Before a water project can change a city, the city has to understand it. Katz & Associates built a communications business around that problem - with facility tours, neighborhood meetings and, occasionally, beer.