Alain Bertaud on The Future of Cities

Technology is forcing our cities to evolve. It is redefining the meaning of location and accessibility, it changes the way we work and move around, and it forces us to reconsider many of our basic assumptions.

How should cities respond? What can be done to increase opportunity and tackle inequality? What is the connection between commuting, remote work, and overall prosperity? What should we make of all the trendy ideas that are currently being proposed? And what’s so good about cities anyway?

This is a recording of a conversation between Dror Poleg and Alain Bertaud.

Alain Bertaud is one of the most influential voices on the topic of cities, urban labor markets, and urban transportation networks. He is the author of Order Without Design, a Distinguished Visiting Scholar at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University, and a Senior Fellow at NYU’s Marron Institute of Urban Management. Previously, Bertaud served as the principal urban planner at the World Bank as a resident urban planner across the globe — from Bangkok and Sana’a to Paris and New York. He even worked as a draftsman for Le Corbusier in India.