I am a progressive urban planner and urban planning PhD from Columbia University. I have helped to initiate and implement many bus rapid transit (BRT) systems around the world. BRT is a way of giving people a fast and environmentally friendly trip everyday for a modest public expenditure. Its a technocratic left solution to a transportation problem that affects working people every day: their commute. I can go very far down into the weeds of transportation and urban planning policy. I was a student of the Marxist geographer David Harvey in the early 1980s and was heavily influenced by Marxist inquiry, though there is much room to debate how such an analysis may translate into policy.

Many friends who I’ve invited to this blog are similarly technocrats starting from a similar ‘left’ perspective but with expertise in other areas. If we are debating something, I hope to invite someone who knows better than I do about the subject. One blogger is the head of a State level union, one is a human rights lawyer, one is an environmental lawyer, others are urban planning or transport professionals like myself. Commentary is welcome from anyone interested.

I hope to pitch this blog at about the level of ‘Wait but Why’, one of the best blogs around, readable by almost anyone, gets right to the heart of critical matters, or at the excellent Vox podcast “the Weeds.” Welcome