Cities - Articles

Social innovations that improve the health and resiliency of cities (more)

Joe Simitian and Michael Kirst - Financing California Schools

How is California, home of the technology revolution, preparing the next generation of students to lead the charge of innovation?  In this University podcast, Senator Joe Simitian and Professor Michael Kirst argue that school financing in California is neither adequate, efficient, nor equitable. Speaking at the Stanford School of Education, they discuss the challenges of financing California's K-12 schools in a rapidly changing environment with diffuse accountability and dilute authority.

The People’s IPO - Thumbnail

The People’s IPO

By Anne Stuhldreher

Lower-income patrons of Market Creek Plaza can now invest in the shopping center.

William McDonough - Environmental Sustainability and Green Design

When it comes to environmental sustainability, William McDonough is nothing less than a hero for the planet. In this audio lecture, he discusses how he has designed eco-friendly buildings with unique properties, such as the ability to produce oxygen. He urges his audience of Stanford Graduate School of Business students to set goals not toward an efficient bottom line of doing the wrong thing less badly, but rather toward the effective top line of doing the right thing.

Innovation in Public Education - Bridging the Gap 2005

In this panel discussion, entrepreneurs in the field of education talk about how to work with the market and apply business practices and frameworks to the problem of urban education reform. Their lessons have relevance in areas ranging from teaching to administration, and from recruitment to organizational design.

Rick Lowe - Urban Villages: Art As Social Innovation

Rick Lowe has given new meaning to the phrase "artist-in-residence." This Heinz Award winner and former Loeb fellow at the Harvard School of Design is the founder of Project Row Houses, an organization that merges art and architecture with social activism. In an audio interview with Globeshakers host Tim Zak, Lowe describes how this experiment in "social sculpture" is redefining the role of art and artists in society.

Bowling Alone?

By Alana Conner Snibbe

Civil society may not be in such bad shape.

Marty Ashby - The Future of Jazz

As executive producer of MCG Jazz, Marty Ashby works with musicians who often devote their proceeds to a community arts and vocational training center in Pittsburg, Penn. In this audio interview, Ashby charts for Globeshakers host Tim Zak his career from jazz musician to director of this philanthropic jazz performance and recording venue.

Bill Strickland - Globeshakers

On Pittsburgh's gritty north side, just down the street from where he grew up, Bill Strickland has created a youth development and adult training center like no other. In this audio interview with Globeshakers host Tim Zak, Strickland talks about the environment he has melded over more than 40 years surrounded by stunning art, the sounds of jazz, beautiful orchids, and brilliant architecture, with programs that get kids into college and adults a job with a future.