Sustainability Forum With David Byrne Wrap Up

Musician, Artist and Bicycle Advocate David Byrne spoke along with BCGP Executive Director Alex Doty, Urban Planner Ignacio Bunster-Ossa, and City Sustainability Director Katherine Gajewski at the Urban Sustainability Forum to a full house at the Academy of Natural Sciences.

Immediately after the introduction Byrne went right to his PowerPoint presentation which looked at the failed urban design schemes of the last 80 years like GM's Futurama Show at the 1939 Worlds Fair. The crowd enjoyed some of Byrne's most surprising images such as the (architectually) attractive boathouse brothels of Amsterdam and the high rise termite colonies in Australia, complete with climate control.



Futurama 1939 Worlds Fair Part 2 on YouTube

Bunster-Ossa presented real world plans for places like the Trinity River Project in Dallas and the rejected plans for the rebuilding of New Orleans. Alex focused on how the Bicycle Coalition has influenced the bicycle environment of the region while Gajewski discussed the City's future plans to become a Greenest City in America.

Neighborhood Bike Works provided Guarded Bike Parking while the museum book shop sold pre-signed copies of the Bicycle Diaries. The expected surge of Talking Heads fans either never emerged or were extremely well behaved. One person was actually ejected for carrying vinyl Talking Heads albums which I assume he wanted Byrne to sign.

Joann Greco has a nice write up of the event on Plan Philly.
Citypaper did too.