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The Planetizen News Brief

10 January 2008 - 5:00am
Smart City Radio

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.

Full Transcript

On May 4, 2007, a massive tornado swept through the city of Greensburg, Kansas, pretty much completely destroying the entire town. As one of few population centers in its rural county of Kiowa, rebuilding was inevitable. This clean slate left the small city of 1500 with a big opportunity, and they have taken it. The Greensburg City Council recently adopted a resolution that will require all city buildings of 4,000 square feet or more to be certified platinum in the U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED green building rating system. Greensburg is now the first city in the nation to make the platinum requirement, the rating system’s highest certification level. Local officials are touting the move and their small city’s effort to come back to life as one of the nation’s greenest.

Meanwhile, in Seattle, other big plans have just been announced by Washington Governor Chris Gregoire. She has publicly committed to tearing down the city’s aging and damage inner city freeway in 2012, despite the lack of a clear plan to accommodate the traffic that will no longer travel its lanes once it’s demolished. The earthquake-damaged, double-decker freeway known as the Alaskan Way Viaduct has long been a transportation conundrum in Washington, with a variety of proposals to deal with it, but very little consensus. Some say tear it down, other say rebuild it, and others still say replace it with a tunnel, but neither side has been able to generate enough support among fellow politicians and voters to get their respective ball rolling. But now with Gregoire’s announcement last week that the Viaduct is coming down in 2012, transportation planners have a very real deadline to get some sort of plan to a consensus. Local officials are frustrated by the tight timeline, and though they say it will not be impossible to do something by the time the Viaduct comes down, it is going to be a real challenge.

And finally, after municipal Wi-Fi networks in city after city flopped and failed, a private firm has dedicated itself to installing a citywide internet access network in the city of San Francisco. The private firm, called Meraki, plans to install what is called a "mesh" network of up to 15,000 repeater antennas throughout the city creating a web of free internet access. This mesh layout is different from the more traditional Wi-Fi networks proposed throughout the country as it relies on thousands of antennas placed on private buildings. Because it is private, the system needs no approval from the city council. But since it is reliant on thousands of individuals, the system is on shakier ground as far as implementation and connections speed are concerned. But if everything works out, Meraki is hoping this municipal Wi-Fi option will make creating citywide systems a viable goal once again.

Stories discussed in this week's Planetizen News Brief

Kansas City to Require LEED-Platinum City Buildings

Seattle Viaduct's Days Numbered Despite Lack of Replacement Plan

Wi-Fi Plans Revived in San Francisco

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