Urban Planning
Cities, transit, zoning, public spaces
31 episodes
#3862: Why Your Books Got the City Centre Wrong
Is the "poor inner city" a literary myth? Jerusalem's luxury towers vs. Dickens' slums.
#3823: How Cities Can Enforce Construction Noise with Real-Time Data
Can cities actually enforce noise limits with real-time sound data? We explore the tech, the gaps, and who's doing it right.
#3599: How Singapore and Japan Master Balanced Land Use
Two radically different approaches to keeping housing, shops, and services mixed together — without leaving it to chance.
#3438: What Makes a Beach Town Charming?
Why Israeli development towns like Ashdod lack charm—and how they could retrofit it.
#3436: Can Tiberias Escape Its Shabby Reputation?
A poor, Haredi-majority city on the Sea of Galilee bets big on tourism to reverse decades of decline.
#3430: Urban Farming: Soil, Community, and Real Livelihoods
What does an urban farmer's life actually look like? Not the glossy renders—the real dirt and daily work.
#3327: Tel Aviv & Jerusalem: From Rival Cities to One Corridor
Two cities, 45 minutes apart, operating like separate planets. What global case studies teach us about real urban synergy.
#3274: Who Wins When Cars Leave the Street?
Removing cars doesn't create abundance—it creates a knife fight over eight meters of asphalt.
#3240: How to Design Cities for People, Not Cars
The thinkers and interventions reshaping urban streets — without banning cars.
#3212: Why Eilat Has 3 Airports for 55,000 People
Israel’s southernmost city is a tourism powerhouse with a neglected core. The VAT zone, land policies, and three airports tell the story.
#3194: Four Schools of Urbanism After Jane Jacobs
Beyond Jacobs vs. Moses: mapping the four intellectual camps shaping today's cities.
#3193: Connected Villages: The Real Alternative to Suburban Sprawl
What if suburbs didn't require a car for everything? Exploring transit-first city planning that actually works.
#3192: Jane Jacobs Made Simple: How Cities Really Work
Decoding the four conditions for thriving cities from the woman who took on Robert Moses.
#3186: Walkable Cities Don't Have to Be Loud
Why walkable neighborhoods feel cramped and loud — and how to fix it without sacrificing density.
#3110: Saving Jerusalem: 6 Policies to Reverse Decline
What would you do if you ran Jerusalem with a mandate for prosperity? Six concrete policies to fix a city in crisis.
#3086: How 2 Cities Banned Cars From Their Centers
Pontevedra and Ghent removed cars from their cores. Emergency response times actually got faster.
#3084: How Jerusalem’s Light Rail Broke Walking
Why a 90-minute walk for a package reveals everything broken about how cities manage construction.
#3008: Israel's Rail Network: Ambition Meets Geography
Why Israel's "high-speed" train isn't high-speed, and what actually determines whether rail makes sense in a small country.
#2874: China's Invisible Megacities: Linyi, Yiwu, and More
Cities larger than London or Paris that most Westerners have never heard of. Meet China's second-tier giants.
#2873: Why Israel's Negev Desert Stays Empty Despite Being 60% of the Land
60% of Israel's land is empty Negev desert. Why can't they just build there to solve the housing crisis?
#2804: Who Actually Runs Your City?
Master plans, zoning codes, and the people who shape where you live.
#2793: The 100-Meter Gradient: How Your Street Changes Your Health
Air quality and noise can shift 5-8x within a single city block. Here's how to find your enclave.
#2757: Can Cities Engineer Calm?
How much green space per person do cities actually need? The WHO says 9 sq meters minimum. Most cities don't meet it.
#2748: What Cities Look Like Without Cars
How Barcelona, Paris, and others are redesigning streets for people instead of vehicles — and what we can learn from them.
#2746: How Zoning Built the Suburbs We Hate
Why walkability advocates loathe suburbs, from Ponzi scheme infrastructure to deadly stroads.
#2745: What Do Urban Planners Actually Do?
The invisible skeleton of cities, from sewers to zoning fights. What breaks if you let cities grow organically?
#2744: What Walkability Actually Means in Urban Planning
The five D’s of walkability — density, diversity, design, destination accessibility, and distance to transit — explained.
#2717: Lower Greenville: From Streetcar Suburb to Food Mecca
How one Dallas street went from farmland to counterculture hub to dining destination.
#2655: The Crossroads That Became a World
The intersection that became the heart of a university town, from post road to modern-day agora.
#2530: Canals as Highways: The Real Pollution Math of Water Transit
Venice moves garbage, ambulances, and Amazon deliveries by boat. How does water transit actually compare to buses on pollution?
#1976: What Counts as a City That Never Dies?
From Jericho's water spring to Aleppo's Silk Road fortress, discover the secrets of 11,000 years of urban survival.