The title for Richmond urbanist Andy Boenau’s proposed documentary is meant to provoke. “White Collar Epidemic: Infrastructure Is Crumbling Our Minds & Bodies” presents Boenau’s thoughts on the failings of traffic engineers and planners after a 25 year-long career spent in the infrastructure business, with 20 of those focused specifically on traffic analysis and street design.

With his crowdsourcing campaign to fund the film scheduled to finish this week, we sat down with Boenau to learn more about the project, how his homebase of Richmond has influenced his worldview, and why he believes urbanist propaganda will save us.

The title of your planned documentary is tentative, but the perspective it will bring to the silver screen seems certain. What made you decide to make a film on how America’s auto-centric infrastructure land use is hurting our health?

The premise of the whole film goes back several years when I synthesized my thinking on how our built environment is making us sick. When a doctor is talking to a senior citizen and prescribes walking or riding a bike for half an hour each day, the patient will go outside, look around, and cannot fulfill the prescription. Why?

With my background in infrastructure, I know this is a white-collar war of professions between the medical industry saying, “Here is what’s good for your body,” and the planning industry saying, “Sorry, but you won’t get it.” America’s urban planners and traffic engineers aren’t maliciously trying to keep people sick, but the profession is not delivering the healthy infrastructure we need.

If planners and traffic engineers know that our current default of sprawling suburbs and car dependency is bad for our health, then why aren’t they doing more to push the built environment to be more walkable, bikeable, and navigable by public transportation?

It’s a competitive industry where you have to win work, so it’s really hard to stand up and say no to your client because it may hurt your bottom line and you could lose contracts. That fact combined with my love for advertising convinced me to begin freelancing as a storyteller for hire over the last few years. So much of what is done in our infrastructure is based on ‘this is how we’ve always done it’ — not some scientific method.

I have an extreme bias for transportation systems that are walk-, bike-, and transit-friendly. The way streets are built directly influences how we feel. Depending on if our infrastructure enables active living or sedentary lifestyles, it can heal or harm. That’s especially obvious in street design which can lead to or prevent crashes.

In a recent Streetsblog article you mentioned a handful of the folks you are consulting with and interviewing for this project including “Right of Way” author Angie Schmitt, “Curbing Traffic” co-author Chris Bruntlett, and “Autonorama” author and UVA professor Peter Norton. Who are some of the other urbanists who you are speaking with for this documentary?

I have already done pre-interviews with 20-25 people, too many people to all be in the film, honestly. The reason I reached out to so many people was to get a broad array of expertise and personal experiences. I won’t know for sure who the final folks in the film will be until I start editing, and I know I will find stories that I wasn’t quite expecting.

For example, I spoke with a combat veteran who said New Urbanism saved her life, and her reasons were exactly the things I am talking about. Her physical surroundings were playing a direct role in her post-traumatic stress disorder, and her doctors were unable to find a prescription concoction to help her. She felt like medicine wasn’t going to improve her situation at all, moved to a walkable neighborhood, and saw a quick and profound change in her outlook on life and how she related to other people. She needed to see human faces on the street, talk with people, and experience community to get better.

Your affinity for advertising and willingness to call your work propaganda reminds me of Tom Flood. Why have you chosen to use a word that has a bit of a negative connotation?

I’m taking that word back. I say propaganda because there is no such thing as telling people a story without bias. I am just applying the principles of advertisers to the message of a better built place. This is propaganda to save the human race. I want to provoke people to action at the local level to make their communities safer and healthier for kids, seniors, and all of us.

Many of America’s most influential urbanists are clustered in big coastal cities like San Francisco, Boston, Seattle, and New York City. How has approaching this topic from a Southern, mid-sized city like Richmond given you a different perspective?

In mid-sized cities, you can get your arms fully around an issue. Everybody everywhere in the U.S. knows a place like Richmond whether it’s the density or the fact that it is a river city. Richmond is relatable. I find it boring to see urban planning articles about the same handful of big cities. Even the folks I am speaking with in big cities are drilling down to individual neighborhoods and blocks to share specific lessons.

Southern cities in particular present an interesting opportunity because they have big problems with obesity. Also, these cities are newer and more likely to be low-density, car-dependent places where folks hop in the car to get around because they can’t imagine getting around without air conditioning. But there are so many opportunities to change that by legalizing walkable, bikeable neighborhoods and better funding public transportation. These places will never be Manhattan, but they don’t need to be in order to be healthier. Don’t give up on Southern cities.

You have [until Thursday 6/29] to meet your goal of raising $12,000 to cover production costs. If you don’t reach your full goal, then what can folks expect to see of this project?

The funding would let me put together a full-length 60 to 70 minute film; however, if I am unable to meet my funding goal, then I will still produce some short films because I love what I am doing and there is too much good material here not to.