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Podcast - News Summary and Analysis

1 February 2007 - 8:00am

As part of a new monthly podcast series, we present a summary and analysis of some of the most interesting news to appear on Planetizen over the month of January 2007.

This segment originally aired on the nationally syndicated radio program "Smart City", which is broadcast in cities across the U.S.

Learn more about "Smart City" and listen to archived shows.

Full Transcript

The people of New Orleans have spoken. Recently, residents of the devastated city offered their support for a sweeping plan to rebuild the city, its districts and its neighborhoods. The “Unified New Orleans Plan” is a multi-faceted document that incorporates a number of different recovery planning efforts, including federal infrastructure plans and specific small-scale blueprints developed by individual neighborhoods. Residents overwhelmingly approved the comprehensive recovery and rebuilding plan, which is expected to be reviewed and ratified by the city in February. And it may be just in time. It seems the guiding vision of a comprehensive plan is sorely needed in New Orleans, as some of the hard lessons taught by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita may have already been forgotten. The Washington Post reports that some residents are beginning to rebuild their homes in the same vulnerable floodplains that in Fall 2005 were under 10 or 15 or even 20 feet of water. Despite the threat, a surprising amount of the new development in New Orleans is being built without raised foundations. Mayor C. Ray Nagin has been a proponent of allowing people to return to their old neighborhoods, even if they are particularly vulnerable. But as rebuilding continues, planning officials recognize that encouraging people to return to susceptible floodplains could pose another big problem down the road.

In big cities, finding land for new parks is less of an expedition than an all-out land-rights battle with property owners. But some cities across the U.S. have found a slightly easier way to add to their greenspace. By utilizing the state’s air rights to the space above freeways that run below ground level, cities can acquire 5 or 10 acres of parkspace essentially for free. Of course, this free "land" is actually nothing more than open air above a freeway, requiring cities to pay the high construction costs of capping the roadway with land. A recent article in Governing Magazine looks at more than two dozen highway deck parks that have been built or are under construction in the U.S. The article finds that even though the price of constructing parks on top of freeways can rise upwards of $500 per square foot, property values and local development boom once they are completed.

A new report released by the research organization Worldwatch Institute warns that uncontrolled urbanization in the form of slums is contributing to serious social and environmental problems around the world. And the issue is only getting worse. The report estimates that more than half of the 1.1 billion people expected to be added to the population by 2030 will be living in slums. Of the 3 billion people currently living in urban areas, more than 1 billion live in slum areas without durable housing, access to clean water, or reliable sewage systems. The report calls on cities to make rapid improvements to their infrastructure to help deal with the coming influx of people and to help ensure public health.

In Vancouver, a 20-year urban success story may yet have a sad ending. The city’s downtown population has doubled to 80,000 in the last 20 years thanks to Vancouver’s "Living First" policy – a planning strategy that favors residential development over commercial. And planners are expecting the population to reach more than 120,000 by 2030. But while downtown booms with people, business is busting. The International Herald Tribune reports that the city’s recently-released jobs and land-use study is estimating that downtown Vancouver may run out of commercial and office space within 5 years. To counter this trend, planners are proposing changes to the city’s zoning regulations, including the passage of more lenient building height restrictions. But because residential developments are so much more profitable than commercial and office space, some public officials are proposing offering better incentives to the developers willing to build commercial. Another option is to expand the moratorium that was placed on new housing development in the central business district two years ago.

And while affordable housing is seeming like a myth to more and more people across the country, an architect and planner in Las Vegas has an alternative housing proposal that could bring home prices down below $40,000. In Business Las Vegas reports that designer Arnie Stalk has plans to build prototype single-family homes out of converted steel shipping containers. Because of their universal design and large global supply, the rectangular steel boxes that stack high on ocean liners and string long on freight trains are the perfect material for affordable pre-fabricated housing, according to the designer. Their strength can also be used in emergency shelter applications and in hurricane-prone areas. Stalk expects to build prototypes of his cargo container homes in the first half of this year and hopes to bring the design into mass production, anticipating home prices as low as $18,000.

Stories Featured In This Month's Segment

Unified New Orleans Plan Gets Green Light

Katrina Lessons Forgotten?

Cities Benefitting From Decking Highways With Parks

Fear Of A Slum Planet

Vancouver's 'Living First' Policy Has Put Business Last

Las Vegas Could See Shipping Container Homes Soon

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