Munro Johnson

There are a couple different ways I could answer this question, but the first W-4 I filled out was at age 13 for a job as “deck cook” at the Alpenhof Lodge in Teton Village, Wyoming. I had some trouble lighting the grill on my first day and arrived home denuded of eyebrows and eyelashes.

Intellectually, I think I was always destined to be an urban planner. I’ve always been fascinated by how urban planning brings together different disciplines to solve problems. Once I landed in the profession, I found myself drawn to how it can create public goods like parks, waterfronts, and transit that make life more efficient, equitable, and enjoyable. Also, low-density sprawl both terrifies and depresses me—helping the nation’s largest city succeed is a win for density and for a lighter, more compact human footprint on the earth.

I joined about a month after Superstorm Sandy in 2012. It was an intense time for NYCEDC. Many were volunteering or getting redeployed for disaster response, while others were working 24/7 to produce the Special Initiative for Rebuilding and Resiliency report to articulate commitments to resiliency for a city that had just tangibly experienced the hazards of global climate change. Coming to NYCEDC, I was given the Staten Island portfolio, meaning it was my responsibility to stay abreast of all our projects in the borough, connect dots, and act as a kind of institutional memory, big-picture guy, and information clearinghouse for other NYCEDC staff working on projects there. During the pandemic and recession, while a lot of projects were put on pause, I was given another role, which was to develop an internal data tool for evaluating disparate vulnerabilities within and between city neighborhoods—thereby informing an equitable recovery strategy.