Episodes

  • Upward Social Mobility Part 1: Robert Moses vs Jane Jacobs

    Upward Social Mobility Part 1: Robert Moses vs Jane Jacobs
    Oct 7 2020

    Upward Social Mobility is a podcast mini series on navigating American life during COVID and a contentious political climate.

    It is November of the year 2020 in the United States. Many Americans are trying to find or define life again. They are struggling with their value systems, and how that orients them in relation to living in this country. Should they aim to be rich? Should they aim to be happy? Should they go woke or broke? Or is America just a pit stop?

    The term ’social mobility’ describes how we move through different stages of our lives. In this mini series, we focus on three forms of mobility -- physical, income, and transportation. These three forms of mobility are the pillars to upward social mobility in the United States.

    Guests featured in this mini series:

    • Part 1 | Sam Blake Reporter, dot.la Web | Twitter | LinkedIn
    • Part 2 | Mariya Frost Director of the Coles Center for Transportation, Washington Policy Center Web | Twitter | Facebook
    • Part 3 | Chris Cargill Eastern Washington Office Director, Washington Policy Center Web | LinkedIn
    • Part 4 | Scott Hadzik Department Chair, Professor, Weber State University Department of Automotive Technology Web | LinkedIn

    Passage from The Death and Life of Great American Cities by Jane Jacobs

    A city street equipped to handle strangers, and to make a safety asset, in itself, out of the presence of strangers, as the streets of successful city neighborhoods always do, must have three main qualities: First, there must be a clear demarcation between what is public space and what is private space. Public and private spaces cannot ooze into each other as they do typically in suburban settings or in projects. Second, there must be eyes upon the street, eyes belonging to those we might call the natural proprietors of the street. The buildings on a street equipped to handle strangers and to insure the safety of both residents and strangers, must be oriented to the street. They cannot turn their backs or blank sides on it and leave it blind. And third, the sidewalk must have users on it fairly continuously, both to add to the number of effective eyes on the street and to induce the people in buildings along the street to watch the sidewalks in sufficient numbers. Nobody enjoys sitting on a stoop or looking out a window at an empty street. Almost nobody does such a thing. Large numbers of people entertain themselves, off and on, by watching street activity.

    Related Episodes

    • USM Part 2: Smart Growth vs Efficiency V...
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    20 mins
  • Upward Social Mobility Part 3: Free Markets Destroy vs Create

    Upward Social Mobility Part 3: Free Markets Destroy vs Create
    Oct 7 2020

    Upward Social Mobility is a podcast mini series on navigating American life during COVID and a contentious political climate.

    It is November of the year 2020 in the United States. Many Americans are trying to find or define life again. They are struggling with their value systems, and how that orients them in relation to living in this country. Should they aim to be rich? Should they aim to be happy? Should they go woke or broke? Or is America just a pit stop?

    The term ’social mobility’ describes how we move through different stages of our lives. In this mini series, we focus on three forms of mobility -- physical, income, and transportation. These three forms of mobility are the pillars to upward social mobility in the United States.

    Guests featured in this mini series:

    • Part 1 | Sam Blake Reporter, dot.la Web | Twitter | LinkedIn
    • Part 2 | Mariya Frost Director of the Coles Center for Transportation, Washington Policy Center Web | Twitter | Facebook
    • Part 3 | Chris Cargill Eastern Washington Office Director, Washington Policy Center Web | LinkedIn
    • Part 4 | Scott Hadzik Department Chair, Professor, Weber State University Department of Automotive Technology Web | LinkedIn

    Transcription

    A bold, inspirational and first of its kind campaign to highlight free markets has hit Washington state billboards, computers, and smartphones, but it might not contain the message you'd expect. Before getting into the logic behind Washington Policy Centers' seemingly counter intuitive Free Markets Destroy advertising campaign, here's some background.

    A 2019 Gallup poll showed Americans don't believe in socialism during the past few years. However, young adults overall impression of capitalism and free markets has declined steadily. Most fair-minded Washingtonians have been shocked by the recent events in Seattle's failed city leadership. Any political movement concentrated on turning Seattle into an American socialist experiment are ripping the city apart.

    In Portland, a similar situation is playing out. Protesters view capitalism as the enemy, and they are intent on ruining the city's bottom line.

    We have a real problem in this country. Young generations are warming to the idea of socialism and are skeptical about our free market system. They lay all of the challenges we have as a society at the feet of capitalism. What they want is change and reform. They want to destroy what's broken and replace it with something better. We are in a fight of our lives advocating for free enterprise. It's the future of the country.

    What young people have never heard until now is that it's markets that actually bring about change through a process known as creat...
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    23 mins
  • Upward Social Mobility Part 2: Smart Growth vs Efficiency Vision

    Upward Social Mobility Part 2: Smart Growth vs Efficiency Vision
    Oct 7 2020

    Upward Social Mobility is a podcast mini series on navigating American life during COVID and a contentious political climate.

    It is November of the year 2020 in the United States. Many Americans are trying to find or define life again. They are struggling with their value systems, and how that orients them in relation to living in this country. Should they aim to be rich? Should they aim to be happy? Should they go woke or broke? Or is America just a pit stop?

    The term ’social mobility’ describes how we move through different stages of our lives. In this mini series, we focus on three forms of mobility -- physical, income, and transportation. These three forms of mobility are the pillars to upward social mobility in the United States.

    Guests featured in this mini series:

    • Part 1 | Sam Blake Reporter, dot.la Web | Twitter | LinkedIn
    • Part 2 | Mariya Frost Director of the Coles Center for Transportation, Washington Policy Center Web | Twitter | Facebook
    • Part 3 | Chris Cargill Eastern Washington Office Director, Washington Policy Center Web | LinkedIn
    • Part 4 | Scott Hadzik Department Chair, Professor, Weber State University Department of Automotive Technology Web | LinkedIn

    Passages from Gridlock by Randall O'Toole

    Smart growth vision --

    Smart growth is based on the premise that Americans need to drive less to reduce congestion, energy consumption, and environmental impacts. To reduce driving, the vision calls for spending more money on urban transit, intercity rail, and bike/pedestrian facilities. The vision also calls for reducing the average size of lots for single-family homes and increasing the percentage of people who live in multifamily housing or mixed-used developments, both of which are supposed to reduce driving.

    Efficiency vision --

    Efficiency vision is based on the premise that the resources available for transportation improvements are scarce and should be used as effectively as possible. This vision relies on user fees rather than taxes to pay for transportation. Transportation decisions are made by setting goals (sometimes called performance standards) and ranking transportation projects according to their ability to meet those goals. Goals could include congestion relief, energy savings, pollution reduction, and safety. Reducing driving is not a goal but merely one possible means to attaining some of the other goals. The projects that achieve the goals at the lowest cost are s...
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    24 mins
  • Upward Social Mobility Part 4: The Engineer vs Mechanic Conundrum

    Upward Social Mobility Part 4: The Engineer vs Mechanic Conundrum
    Oct 7 2020

    Upward Social Mobility is a podcast mini series on navigating American life during COVID and a contentious political climate.

    It is November of the year 2020 in the United States. Many Americans are trying to find or define life again. They are struggling with their value systems, and how that orients them in relation to living in this country. Should they aim to be rich? Should they aim to be happy? Should they go woke or broke? Or is America just a pit stop?

    The term ’social mobility’ describes how we move through different stages of our lives. In this mini series, we focus on three forms of mobility -- physical, income, and transportation. These three forms of mobility are the pillars to upward social mobility in the United States.

    Guests featured in this mini series:

    • Part 1 | Sam Blake Reporter, dot.la Web | Twitter | LinkedIn
    • Part 2 | Mariya Frost Director of the Coles Center for Transportation, Washington Policy Center Web | Twitter | Facebook
    • Part 3 | Chris Cargill Eastern Washington Office Director, Washington Policy Center Web | LinkedIn
    • Part 4 | Scott Hadzik Department Chair, Professor, Weber State University Department of Automotive Technology Web | LinkedIn

    Related Episodes

    • USM Part 1: Robert Moses vs Jane Jacobs
    • USM Part 2: Smart Growth vs Efficiency Visions
    • USM Part 3: Free Markets Destroy vs Create

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    27 mins