River Runs Backwards Cicada Radio

Special Episode: Join Devin and a panel of audio media experts at the 2022 American Planning Association - Louisiana State Conference as they explore the "Power of Podcasting for Public Engagement". Learn podcasting techniques, its impact on public interest, and effective audience connection and how to apply all of this to the practice of Urban Planning.

In Part 2 of Urban Morphology, we look at the agents of change. Who is responsible for destroying the Back O’ Town neighborhood and erecting a City Hall there that no one wants to use? Find out on this edition of “Planner Pop” from River Runs Backwards.

Back-O-Town was a vibrant, black neighborhood in New Orleans that gave birth to jazz. Today it is an area mostly filled of void spaces and a city hall that mayor’s have begged to abandon. How did it come to be this way? Tune into this edition of Planner Pop.

Planter Ludo, designed by 1st Place Winner, Estephania Barajas, is a self-watering planter, focused to meet the height and accessibility of the most vulnerable: children, the elderly, and the disabled. Using the same trapezoid shape, planter Ludo encourages the essence of play and allows for a system that is simple, modular, and flexible. The goal and the ambition was to make a planter that can create more interesting and fun spaces; a planter that can grab a child's attention while simultaneously informing and explain its own operational components - an intersection of education and play.

Lesley Conroy is a Landscape Architect and the second place winner of the NOLA Water Collaborative's Planter Box Challenge! Food insecurity and flooding are issues that will only be solved if the opportunities to address them are widely implemented. This planter system is revolutionary because it can be executed successfully, distributed easily, is accessible to many users, and brings joy. The design limits barriers to implementation, with dimensions that could be shipped more easily, maneuvered without equipment, and accessed from all sides. Lower production costs and quick set-up make these more likely to be used and will more quickly address these two issues.

Like a good gumbo, this planter feeds your body and soul. As intense weather patterns and food insecurity batter our cities, Gumbo Box rises to meet new climate challenges by increasing accessibility to home-grown food, encouraging community connections, and reducing runoff by capturing rainwater. During heavy rain events water is stored in a double reservoir system preventing flooding in the planting bed. Long periods of drought are combated with capillary watering tubes. This sub-irrigation minimalizes wasted water evaporating from the surface.