In this episode of Metro Blueprint, experts take a deep dive into how St. Louis is using office-to-residential conversions to build affordable housing and a vibrant downtown. Tracy Hadden Loh, a fellow at Brookings, and Kurt Weigle, senior vice president and chief downtown officer at Greater St. Louis, explain how cities can look to St. Louis as a model for redeveloping their own downtowns.

Transcript and show notes.

Metro Blueprint is part of the Brookings Podcast Network. Subscribe and listen wherever you listen to podcasts. Send feedback to podcasts@brookings.edu.

In this episode of Metro Blueprint, experts discuss how the catastrophic fires in Los Angeles exposed long-standing challenges in water utility systems in Southern California and beyond. Joe Kane, fellow at the Brookings Institution, and Greg Pierce, the research and co-executive director of UCLA’s Luskin Center for Innovation, explain how policymakers can improve these systems amid a more extreme and destructive climate.  

Transcript and show notes.

Metro Blueprint is part of the Brookings Podcast Network. Subscribe and listen wherever you listen to podcasts. Send feedback to podcasts@brookings.edu.

In this first episode of Metro Blueprint, experts discuss how efforts to weaken DEI protections result in taking away resources from people who deserve them. Andre Perry, a senior fellow at Brookings Metro and director of its Center for Community Uplift, along with Stacy Hawkins, a professor at Rutgers Law School and a Brookings nonresident senior fellow, explain how Black Americans can still achieve economic growth despite these efforts.

Transcript and show notes.

Metro Blueprint is part of the Brookings Podcast Network. Subscribe and listen wherever you listen to podcasts. Send feedback to podcasts@brookings.edu.

Metro Blueprint is a new podcast from the Brookings Institution about ideas and actions to create more prosperous, just, and resilient communities in America. Every two weeks a different Brookings Metro scholar and a guest will discuss research findings and policy actions to improve the well-being of people and their communities. Topics will include economic and workforce development, climate and the built environment, changing demographics, place-based policymaking, the future of work in the age of artificial intelligence, and much more.

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