Google Sidewalk Labs Building a Smart Neighborhood in Toronto

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Google Sidewalk Labs is trying to build a smart neighborhood in Toronto. This may or may not happen. For or against? Well, you know, I have nothing against a real estate operation done by Google in Toronto. But when they say that on a piece of land, which is basically the size of Washington Square, they are going to solve housing problem, poverty, transport, pollution. I think that the salesmanship was terrible. And it's going to probably blow in their face.

Markets, Alain Bertaud likes to say, are like gravity: they exist everywhere. But while urban planners are quite good at taking gravity into account, they tend to ignore market forces entirely in their designs, resulting in city development that too often fails to address the needs of their residents.

Following the release of his recent book, Order Without Design: How Markets Shape Cities, Alain joined Tyler in New York City for a discussion of the politics affecting urban centers, his advice to Robert Moses, whether the YIMBY movement can win, why he loves messy cities, what he got wrong about Shenzhen, why the Moscow subway is so wonderful, whether cities can move, favorite movies about cities, the region of the world most likely to start a charter city, how to reform the World Bank, his top three NYC planning reforms, why Central Park is the perfect size, and more.

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Recorded September 9th, 2019 Other ways to connect

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