Podcasts about mayors' institute

Walkability. It's one of the keys to future prosperity in every city and has been a crucial lens to help focus downtown development in Spartanburg in recent years, and at a free event next month, area residents will have the opportunity to learn about the importance of walkability from the person who literally wrote the book on the topic. Walkability expert Jeff Speck will share his thoughts on creating a more walkable Spartanburg at Macedonia Missionary Baptist Church on November 7 at 5:30 p.m.    who advocates internationally for more walkable cities. As Director of Design at the National Endowment for the Arts from 2003 through 2007, he presided over the Mayors' Institute on City Design and created the Governors' Institute on Community Design. Prior to his federal appointment, Mr. Speck spent ten years as Director of Town Planning at DPZ & Co., the principal firm behind the New Urbanism movement. Since 2007, he has led Speck & Associates, an award winning private design consultancy serving public officials and the real estate industry.   He is a co-author of Suburban Nation, which the Wall Street Journal calls "the urbanist's bible.”  His 2012 book, Walkable City was the best selling city-planning book of 2013-2016. Just released, Walkable City Rules: 101 Steps to Making Better Places, takes Walkable City from ideas into action, and was named a Planetizen “Top Ten Book of the Year." His have been viewed more than 4.5 million times.   Today on the podcast, we're talking with Speck to get a taste of what attendees can expect at this exciting event.

Carol Coletta is Senior Fellow, American Cities Practice, at The Kresge Foundation. In addition to leading the foundation's initiative, Reimagining the Civic Commons, she is on loan as president and CEO of the Memphis River Parks Partnership. She previously served as vice president of Community and National Initiatives for the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, a national foundation with deep local roots in 26 cities across the U.S. At Knight she managed a portfolio of more than $50 million annually in grants and a team of 18 in 9 cities to drive success in cities. She was recruited to the foundation to lead a new portfolio created from a merger of two departments. Her strategic focus at Knight has been to understand how robust public life can accelerate talent, opportunity and engagement. To do that, she deployed grants, challenges, research, local leadership development, and national and local convenings of academics, policymakers and practitioners (with special emphasis on practitioners). In particular, she has led a national inquiry into the value of economic integration on America’s cities and how to achieve it. Carol led the two-year start-up of ArtPlace, a unique public-private collaboration to accelerate creative placemaking in communities across the U.S. The collaboration includes 13 of the nation’s leading foundations, eight federal agencies, including the National Endowment for the Arts, and six of the nation’s largest banks. Prior to being recruited to start ArtPlace, Carol was president and CEO of CEOs for Cities for seven years. The organization under her leadership was a Chicago-based national network of urban leaders in 45 of the nation’s top metro areas. She also led the Mayors' Institute on City Design, had her own public radio show, "Smart City," a popular retail store, "Magazine" and her own consulting firm. Follow Carol on Twitter: https://twitter.com/ccoletta

Resilience, civic infrastructure, participatory design — these topics and more play important roles in the work of Taryn Sabia. Taryn is the director of the Florida Center for Community Design and Research at the University of South Florida's School of Architecture and Community Design, where she's also a research associate professor. In a wide-ranging conversation with host Courtney Kashima, AICP, she talks about why planners must encourage the development of a civic infrastructure in their communities — and how they can do that. Taryn discusses the Mayors' Institute on City Design, which she hosted in 2014 and 2017 and gives city officials the opportunity to work with planners, architects, and designers on tough development challenges in their cities. In reflecting on the interdisciplinary nature of her work, she underscores the need for allied professions to come together on resiliency issues — such as building erosion due to saltwater inundation — as many Florida communities grapple with these realities on a daily basis.

Jeff Speck is an unlikely disruptor. He is an urban planner, which is probably also the least likely candidate for a conversation about disruption. In the podcast we explore three things he and others in his field are working to disrupt. No city has become great by trying to solve a parking problem. So he is disrupting the idea that addressing traffic and parking will help to make for a great city. Much of his work is make cities walkable. Jeff is the author of the book, “Walkable City: How Downtown Can Save America, One Step at a Time”. He argues that we know how to make cities livable and walkable, but it is often difficult to convince decision-makers to mobilize the resources that help make cities walkable. On the show, we explore how built form often determines the quality of life within cities.During the podcast, we focus a lot on how so of his work involves educating clients. Many of the approaches to improving walkability in cities is counter intuitive. There is considerable evidence that creating narrow roads actually reduces traffic in cities. We cover a lot in the podcast and mention many other City Planners who are doing very interesting. See the links below to for more information.Links Jeff Speck: http://jeffspeck.com/The Congress for the New Urbanism (CNU): https://www.cnu.org/Andrés Duany and Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk http://www.dpz.com/Sea Side project: http://www.dpz.com/Projects/7903Brent Toderian: http://www.toderianurbanworks.com/Strong Towns podcast: https://www.strongtowns.org/podcast/National Endowment for the Arts: https://www.arts.gov/Mayors' Institute on City Design: http://www.micd.org/This podcast was recorded via Skype. Music provided by Clint Harewood you contact him on these websites: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Tamo.T or LinkedIn: https://www.facebook.com/Tamo.T

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