Podcast 508 – Bob Davis Podcasts Radio Show-29

Bob Davis Podcasts Radio Show-29. A departure for this week’s Bob Davis Podcasts Radio Show-29. Usually for the radio show, I excerpt content from all the podcasts I’ve done during the week. But for Bob Davis Podcasts Radio Show-29, I received so much interest in the podcast I did this week on technology, I decided to use just that podcast. Of course there is original content in this show, as there is every week, just for the radio show. If you weren’t able to listen to Podcast 506, then a condensed version of it might be useful. There’s been a lot of talk lately about planning. Most cities across the country have some kind of planning system, or council, often with legal authority – by state statute – over cities and towns when it comes to this ‘uber’ planning. It’s a subject I have returned to again and again with different wrinkles on the podcasts for a long time. Whether it is light rail systems, bike trails, freeways or state budgeting this issue is evergreen. Meanwhile technology is changing the building blocks of the future in significant ways that will make a lot of the plans obsolete, very quickly. Why do our planners seemingly yearn for a 1920’s urban landscape when we’re on the verge of mind bending new technologies like the driverless car, robotic factories, human-robot hybrids, even more powerful smart-devices, better and faster communications capabilities, options for civilian flight that make it accessible to non-pilot operators, a revolution in materials for building almost everything, all kinds of manufacturing changes, like 3D printing and and we haven’t even mentioned bio-tech, and more. So much more. These new technologies thrive on the individual, decentralized authority and voluntary collaboration. Why are our politicians pushing for more centralization of authority, more regulation and taxation, and less collaboration especially when it concerns planning? Are they leading us in exactly the wrong direction for the future? Sponsored by Ryan Plumbing and Heating of Saint Paul and X Government Cars.

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Podcast 506

Future Shock. As the 24 hour news media and talk radio fixate on gorillas and high school election antics, its hard to get a conversation going about the future. Is the future potential leaders want the future we should have? Is it the future we want? There are developments almost everyday now with autonomous cars, robotics, materials, aviation, and communications; the building blocks of a future wave that will leave nothing untouched and unchanged. A series of stories from today’s headlines shedding a light on one potential future and a question; Planners and government officials are  diverting resources to bring about a vision of the city of tomorrow, which is really the city of the early 1900’s. Is this what you want? Will the driverless car, autonomous software and machines, robotics, and other developments make trains, buses and the standard bureaucracy heavy city, state and federal government ‘obsolete’? If so, why is so much time, effort and authority expended to see that we plan for and create a urban spaces, and that suburban villages and towns conform to a vision of a city that probably never existed and never will. Driverless cars will render the amount of space needed for freeways and parking ramps obsolete. Remote technology, robotics and other technologies may mean that people will not have to travel to large office complexes for their work, with increasing freelance employment. What are our so called leaders talking about? Minimum wages, government controlled health insurance and trains. Trains. Why are we planning for 1940’s Chicago when reality could be closer to Jefferson’s vision than Robert Moses? The old world is being torn down and a new one is being built that will be very different from what we know. Do our leaders understand this? Future Shock. Sponsored by Ryan Plumbing and Heating of Saint Paul and X Government Cars.

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Podcast 501 – Mark Korin

Podcast 501 – Mark Korin. Hear the story of a small town Minnesota Mayor’s battle with the mighty Met Council’s planning czars in Podcast 501 – Mark Korin. Oak Grove mayor Korin has had it with the overbearing manner and attitude of the Twin Cities’ premier regional planning agency; The Metropolitan Council, and he may have actually figured out how to beat them. Major cities all over the country have regional planning councils with varying degrees of authority, with issues related to central planning without the consent of residents in small towns, medium sized and large sized cities. The planning authority in Minneapolis and Saint Paul is something called the Metropolitan Council, a panel of regional ‘representatives’ appointed by the Governor, controlling urban planning, sewer and water, metropolitan airports and transportation including the Metro bus and train services. The Met council has a huge budget, its own police force, and holds sway over small town city councils such as Oak Grove and Lake Elmo and big city councils like Minneapolis and Saint Paul. Who wields this power? A panel of ‘representatives’ appointed, and not elected. This in a state that elects its Supreme Court Justices, and it could be argued, the Justices actually have less power than the Met Council. Over the years we’ve heard many people on all sides of the political spectrum complain about development issues in their towns and cities. Usually residents incorrectly blame these problems on elected officials on planning councils and city councils, all the way up to County Commissioners. In Oak Grove the issue is housing density and long term development plans. In Minneapolis the issue is the planned Southwest Light Rail, which will cut through one of the most pristine urban parks in the country — the Chain of Lakes Area — and one of the most wealthy (and politically liberal) neighborhoods in the city. Here we have citizens on completely different ends of the political spectrum dealing with overbearing – and unelected – government power. What these residents don’t know is, city councils and county councils cannot legally say no to the Met Council. The Minnesota Legislature just passed a bill ‘reforming’ the Met Council, which consists of some cosmetic changes to the terms of council members. Oak Grove and Minneapolis are represented by a collection of powerful politicians in the State House and Senate; Speaker of the House and representative to the residents of Oak Grove, Kurt Daudt, powerful State Senator from SD61 (The Senator representing those rich neighborhoods in Minneapolis up in arms about the light rail cutting through their backyards) Scott Dibble, and Oak Grove’s Senate District 31 Senator, Michelle Benson. How is it these politicians missed how to address the Met Council’s overbearing and unrepresentative power, and a small town Mayor may have figured it out? Sponsored by Ryan Plumbing and Heating of Saint Paul.

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