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The Planetizen News Brief

8 May 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

Getting hit by a tornado can be pretty lame. A huge category 5 twister creamed the city of Greensburg, Kansas, last year, destroying almost everything in town. Left with piles of rubble scattered around the town and virtually everything in sight devastated, the people of Greensburg decided to come back in a major way. A recent piece from National Public Radio looks at the city’s recovery efforts, which are underlined by the city’s decision to rebuild green. Officials are hoping to achieve the LEED Platinum green building certification for the entire city. One year after the tornado, new wind turbines have been built to provide power, a handful of houses are being rebuilt, and the city’s first store just reopened on Main Street. Greensburg’s ambitious green plans are being lauded across the country, and many cities are watching the recovery process closely to see what can be learned from this small town’s attempt to become the greenest city in the U.S.

And while Greensburg hopes to transform itself from a devastated wasteland to a model green city, community activists in Central Los Angeles are making efforts to transform some of the city’s drabbest public spaces into cozy living rooms. An article in The New York Times looks at the efforts of activists and landscape architects to bring furniture to the streets of L.A. Residents have been working with designers to build and install furniture pieces on neglected street corners and near heavily used bus stops. At 15 different locations around L.A., benches, tables, ottomans, and other common furniture pieces have been built, creating what are being called community living rooms. The non-profit group Central City Neighborhood Partners has plans for seven more community living rooms, which they hope will make spending time on the streets and waiting for the bus a little more pleasant for people in these often-ignored parts of town.

And finally, in New Jersey, an environmental group formed by high school students was recently turned down by their school’s principal when the group offered to donate a bicycle rack to the school. The New Jersey Star-Ledger reports that students at Bridgewater-Raritan High School had raised more than $2,000 in the last four years and were hoping to donate a bike parking rack as a way to encourage fellow students to bike to school. The principal reportedly turned down the offer, stating that promoting the riding of bicycles to school "doesn’t make sense". Despite a mass student bike ride held in protest, the principal still refuses to accept the rack. Disappointed members of the environmental club will have to continue chaining their bikes to a fence behind the school. Meanwhile their fellow students will continue to park their cars in the school’s parking lot, where the school has a dedicated parking spot for every senior that drives to school.

Stories discussed in this week's Planetizen News Brief

A Sustainable City Rises From the Rubble

Transforming A Bus Stop Into A Community Space

New Jersey High School Students Protest Anti-Bike Policy

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