Active Towns

In this episode, John has a delightful conversation with Heyden Black Walker, Director of Planning with Black + Vernooy Architecture and Urban Design in Austin, Texas about her reflections on walkability and people-oriented design in several European cities. Heyden reflects on walkability and livability factors in London, Paris, and Berlin with a little bit of The Netherlands thrown in for good measure.

Heyden is an engaged advocate with a particular passion for safer more livable streets in Austin for “All Ages & Abilities” and is a driving force behind the Reconnect Austin movement. She is also a leader within the local chapter (CNU-CTX) of the Congress for the New Urbanism, Vision Zero ATX, and Walk Austin.

We touch upon so many different topics in this episode, but in reality, it all just comes down to livability and walkability at the street level… we’ll be sure to have Heyden back on the podcast soon to give an update about the Reconnect Austin vision, which deals with fixing the devastating and dividing reality that is Interstate 35, which rips right through the heart of central Austin.

Four Easy Steps to Support My Efforts:
1. Become an Active Towns Ambassador by "Buying Me a Coffee" or by pledging as little as $1 per month on Patreon
2. If you enjoyed this episode, please give it a "thumbs up," leave a review on Apple Podcasts, and share it with a friend.
3. Subscribe to the podcast on your preferred listening platform and the Active Towns YouTube Channel
4. Pick up some Active Towns #StreetsAreForPeople Merch at my store

Credits:
All video and audio production by John Simmerman

Music:
Optimistic Keys by Mikael Manvelyan via AudioBlocks.com

Resources used during the production of this episode:
- My awesome recording platform is Ecamm
- Adobe Creative Cloud Suite

For more information about my Active Towns effort or to follow along, please visit my links below:
- Website
- Twitter
- Newsletter
- Podcast landing pages
- Facebook
- Instagram

Background:
Hi Everyone, my name is John Simmerman.

I’m a health promotion professional with over 30 years of experience and my area of concentration has evolved into a specialization of how the built environment influences human behavior related to active living and especially active mobility.

In 2012 I launched the non-profit Advocates for Healthy Communities as an effort to help promote and create healthy, active places.

Since that time, I've been exploring, documenting, and profiling established, emerging, and aspiring Active Towns wherever they might be, in order to produce high-quality multimedia content to help inspire the creation of more safe and inviting, environments that promote a "Culture of Activity" for "All Ages & Abilities."

My Active Towns suite of channels feature my original video and audio content and reflections, including a selection of podcast episodes and short films profiling the positive and inspiring efforts happening around the world as I am able to experience and document them.

Thanks for tuning in; I hope you have found this content helpful.

Creative Commons License: Attributions, Non-Commercial, No Derivatives, 2020

Advocates for Healthy Communities, Inc. is a nonprofit 501c3 organization (EIN 45-3802508) dedicated to helping communities create a Culture of Activity. To donate, click here.