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The Planetizen News Brief

14 August 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

With hundreds of the country’s top democratic leaders all converging into one location, ensuring security at the Democratic National Convention is a top priority. He age of terrorism has many standing on pins about what could possibly go wrong when the convention moves into Denver this year. As a result, the Secret Service has issued an order that seeks to keep out one of the modern world’s most notorious terror threats: bicycles. The Denver Independent reports that the Secret Service is banning all bike parking at the convention, mainly over fears that Critical Mass riders will come around and cause a ruckus, like some say they did in New York in 2004 for the GOP convention. So as the Democratic Party seeks to throw one of the greenest national conventions in history, they’re blocking out one of the greenest forms of transportation.

Meanwhile, forward thinking residents in the San Francisco Bay Area are coming up against a little dilemma. On one hand, they have embraced the concept of slow food, a European-spawned idea that has city folk focusing more on growing their own food locally. On the other hand is infill development, a pattern of development that encourages the use of underutilized sites within the urban core rather than empty spaces that are far away. These two seemingly civic minded ideas, however, are butting heads, as infill development is taking away land the slow food movements wants to use for urban farming. And vice versa. A recent op-ed in the Berkeley Daily Planet argues that in the battle between infill and slow food, infill development will most often win. Local food advocates will need to keep this in mind as they attempt to bring their food to the local level.

And finally, as the economy continues to struggle, the prospect of the privatization of public services is becoming increasingly attractive to governments. As budget deficits rise, cities and states are expected to consider selling off some of their expensive public services for private funding and operation. A recent article in Reuters interviewed bankers and economists and government officials and fond that the current economic state is warming more and more hearts up to the idea. Toll roads in Chicago and Pennsylvania are attracting private investors, and governments are hesitant to turn down offers to take over their costly infrastructure. And with rising prices worldwide, the idea of raising taxes to support local infrastructure is not incredibly popular. So infrastructure is up for sale. And while the economy remains in the state it is, much more can be expected on the auction block.

Stories discussed in this week's Planetizen News Brief

Bikes Deemed Too Dangerous for Democratic Convention

Smart Growth or Smart Food?

Hurting Economy Could Expand Privatization of Infrastructure

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But what can planners do to support the kind of connections between people I just described? One idea is promoting mixed-use places where there are simply more opportunities for people to run into each other and connect.
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