Sunday Pick: Mexico City | Far Flung
TED Talks Daily shares an episode of the TED Audio Collective podcast Far Flung, hosted by Salim Reshemwala, that explores how Mexico City channels the creativity of its 21 million residents. Through interviews with pedestrian activist-turned-public-servant Jorge Canes (a.k.a. Peatonito) and former head of the Laboratorio para la Ciudad, Gabriela Gomez-Mont, the episode shows how citizens and government collaborate to improve pedestrian safety, map chaotic bus routes, crowdsource a city constitution, and create play streets for children. The conversation highlights how viewing crowds as sources of imagination and talent can transform a megalopolis' approach to governance and public space.
(#7) Elise's Top Ten: The ghastly tragedy of the suburbs | James Howard Kunstler
Host Elise Hu introduces a 2004 TED talk by social critic James Howard Kunstler, in which he argues that the immersive ugliness of American suburban sprawl represents a massive misallocation of resources and erodes civic life. Kunstler explains how abandoning traditional civic design has produced places that are "not worth caring about," examines the psychological and social consequences of this built environment, and links these issues to an impending end to the era of cheap oil. He calls for rebuilding towns and cities at a human scale, living more locally, and reclaiming our role as citizens rather than consumers so that America becomes a place worth defending.