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Our Future: Walkable Urbanism
Island Press: Thought Leaders on Walkable Urbanism
Thursday, July 1, 2010

This event was the first in a new series, the Thought Leaders Discussion Panel on the Built Environment, sponsored by Island Press at Town Hall Seattle.

The American Dream has long been defined by two markers: the suburb and the automobile. Though planners and environmentalists have worked to redefine that vision, the economy has recently produced a confluence of factors—the rising cost of oil and the declining value of suburban homes, among them—that have ordinary citizens rethinking this archetypical image of our prosperity. Island Press assembled a panel featuring Brookings Institution fellow Christopher B. Leinberger, developer, teacher and author of The Option of Urbanism; Bruce Agnew, Director of the Cascadia Center; Alex Steffen, Executive Editor of Worldchanging.org, and Scott Matthews, Vulcan Real Estate's Senior Director, Acquisitions along with moderator Ron Sher, owner of Third Place Books and a nationally-recognized pioneer in the realm of commerce, community and civic space.

They discussed ways to create walkable urban centers and encourage transit in the context of local and federal policy, as well as opportunities for architects, developers, and preservationists to consider current regulations and policy change. This event was the first in a new series, the Thought Leaders Discussion Panel on the Built Environment, sponsored by Island Press and Town Hall Seattle.