Podcast

With more than 100,000 cars driving on it daily, various conflicting replacement plans, and a voting public that doesn't like any of the options on the table, removing a double-decker highway in the middle of one of the nation's major cities is no easy task. We talk with planners and public officials about the controversy over Seattle's Alaskan Way Viaduct.

Listen in for a weekly rundown of some of the most interesting and important news and issues of the past week.

Former Maryland Governor Parris Glendening and Los Angeles City Planning Director Gail Goldberg discuss smart growth, applying lessons of a national scale to the city of L.A.

In this episode we bring a summary of the National Conference on Disaster Planning for the Carless Society, held recently in New Orleans.

In this episode, we bring a summary and analysis of the most interesting and intriguing news to appear on Planetizen in January 2007.

We present the final part of a three-part series of discussions about urban renewal with architect and planner Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk. In the third installment, Plater-Zyberk discusses the increase in public participation in the planning process and the role of the next generation of planners, architects, and designers in creating livable cities.

In this episode, we bring a summary and analysis of the top five issues and trends in the planning world in 2006.

In this episode, we bring a summary and analysis of the most interesting and intriguing news to appear on Planetizen in November 2006.

We present the second part of a three-part series of discussions about urban renewal with architect and planner Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk. In the second installment, Plater-Zyberk discusses the importance of political leadership and public input in urban design.

Enrique Peñalosa, former mayor of Bogotá, Colombia, discusses his experiences reviving the city's public infrastructure with a highly-regarded bus rapid transit, an extensive network of bikeways, and a large collection of pedestrian areas and greenspaces.

In this episode, we bring a summary and analysis of the most interesting and intriguing news to appear on Planetizen in October 2006.

In this episode, we bring a summary and analysis of the most interesting and intriguing news to appear on Planetizen in September 2006.

Journalist Ray Suarez, a senior correspondent for the PBS television program NewsHour with Jim Lehrer discusses how New Orleans, its residents and its economy are evolving in the aftermath of hurricanes Katrina and Rita.

We present an audio book review of The City: A Global History, renowned author and urban commentator Joel Kotkin's condensed history of all the major cities of the world. Kotkin attempts to boil down the entire history of the world's greatest cities into 200 pages, and surprisingly he doesn't do too bad.

We present the first part of a three-part series of discussions about urban renewal with architect and planner Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk. In the first installment, Plater-Zyberk discusses Miami 21, the comprehensive planning project her firm Duany Plater-Zyberk and Company is currently developing for the city of Miami.

We present an interview with Bob Simon, the founder of Reston, Virginia, America's first post-war planned community. For the last 14 years, Simon has returned as a resident of the community he founded 40 years ago, and at age 92, he looks to the future as his community changes with the times.

We present an audio book review of former Secretary of the Interior Bruce Babbitt's book Cities in the Wilderness: A New Vision of Land Use in America. Babbitt writes of the failures of local and state governments to curb sprawl and the ultimately insufficient efforts of the episodic conservation efforts achieved during his own tenure at the Department of the Interior between 1992 and 2000. This review touches on some of the highlights of Cities in the Wilderness, including Babbitt’s views on the necessary components of a sustainable land use policy for the United States.

Developer John Elkington identifies five key factors for successfully re-energizing historic and entertainment districts.

Ecology is and should be the defining force in any plan or development, according to ecologist and land use planner Paul Kephart in his keynote address to the Los Angeles Green Roof Market Development Symposium, a recent day-long conference focusing on implementing green space and ecology into urban areas.

On April 19th, 2006, the University of Winnipeg, Centre for Sustainable Transportation, and the Institute of Urban Studies, presented a symposium and free public lecture featuring James Howard Kunstler, author of "The Long Emergency". We bring you highlights from James Howard Kunstler's speech at the Winnipeg Art Gallery in Winnipeg, Canada.