The Planetizen News Brief

• Artist: Planetizen
• Title: Planetizen Podcast - 2007-05-31 - The Planetizen News Brief
• Album: Planetizen Podcast
• Year: 2007
• Length: 4:12 minutes (3.91 MB)
• Format: Stereo 44kHz 128Kbps (CBR)

The Planetizen News Brief is a weekly rundown of some of the most interesting and important news and issues of the past week.

The Planetizen News Brief airs every week 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.

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Full Transcript

Well, it’s 274 years late, but the city of Savannah, Georgia, is finally going to develop a project that was originally envisioned in 1733 as part of the city’s original master plan. The city’s founder, James Oglethorpe, had platted out a mix of housing and commercial uses that would have spread the city’s downtown further out on land along the Savannah River, but the area was never developed. Now, the city’s economic development agency has hired an urban designer to follow up on Oglethorpe’s original plan by building a 54-acre mixed-use development along the river. The new project will be the biggest downtown development since the mid-1800s, and will include retail, office space, condos, townhomes, and more than 25 acres of public space. And with full completion of the $800 million project not expected for more than 10 years, many in the city of Savannah are hoping this development will be better late than never.

In the inner city of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the loss of industrial jobs over the last 20 years put many businesses out of business. Especially hard hit were grocers, who closed shop and left the blighted area’s remaining residents with few nearby options for basic food supplies. But a new state program called The Pennsylvania Fresh Food Financing Initiative is subsidizing the development of grocery stores in urban areas in hopes of providing residents with healthier eating options that are largely absent from many inner-city neighborhoods. The program has already funded the development of two dozen grocery stores in depressed and deprived neighborhoods throughout the state. And many are calling it a national model for both urban renewal and improvement of public health.

And London’s Heathrow airport has announced a pilot program - or more appropriately an auto-pilot program - for automated, fixed railway cabcars that will whisk passengers from parking lot to terminal in just under four minutes. The electrically-powered cabs can hold up to four people and their baggage and will travel the 2 and a half miles directly to the terminal without any traffic, stoplights, or drivers. This will be the world’s largest public personal rapid transit system, and when fully operational, its manufacturers claim the average waiting time for a cab will be less than 15 seconds. The pod-cabs will debut next year, and if all goes well, airport officials and the manufacturers hope to extend the system to all terminals, parking lots, nearby hotels and businesses, and eventually other airports across the world.

Stories discussed in this week's Planetizen News Brief

274 Years Later, Historic City Finally Realizes Master Plan

Innovative Program Brings Fresh Groceries To Blighted Philadelphia Neighborhood

The World's First Fleet of Driverless Taxis