According to city planner Jeff Speck the key to a thriving city is it's walkability. What are some simple inexpensive steps that we can take to get us our of our cars? What's the matter with traffic engineers and "starchitects." How does Portland rate? Stephanie Potter hosts Jeff Speck in this interview recorded last month while he was in town to promote his book: Walkable City: How Downtown Can Save America One Step at a Time.
“Walkable City” is timely and important, a delightful, insightful, irreverent work – a book designed to knock us out of complacency and make us aware of the simple but real possibilities. It should be required reading for any city planner, architectural designer, traffic engineer, and, need I say, hapless burgher, like yours truly, who pines for a more ingratiating downtown through which to walk. --Richard Horan, Christian Science Monitor