Can cities rebound from disaster? Youngstown Mayor Jay Williams is convinced his city is on the rebound from years of job losses and despair. At 36, Mayor Williams is the city’s youngest mayor, and he is determined to turn Youngstown’s “shrinking city” condition into an opportunity. Prior to resigning from City of Youngstown to run for Mayor, Mr. Williams spent five years as director of the city’s Community Development Agency.
Eugenie Birch and Susan Wachter have been looking at disasters of another sort. Their new book is Rebuilding Urban Places After Disaster: Lessons from Hurricane Katrina. Eugenie is professor and chair of the Department of City and Regional Planning at the University of Pennsylvania School of Design. Susan is a professor of real estate and finance at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.
Smart City is a syndicated, weekly hour-long public radio talk show that takes an in-depth look at urban life: the people, places, ideas and trends that affect us all. Host Carol Coletta talks with national and international public policy experts, economists, business leaders, artists, developers, planners and others on the pulse of city life for a penetrating discussion on urban issues.
In Memphis, Smart City is broadcast on WKNO FM, 91.1, at 9 a.m. Sundays. It is also webcast and podcast at the Smart City website, which also has a listing of broadcast times in other cities and the sign up for a weekly newsletter.
