Curb Enthusiasm Podcast
The Curb Enthusiasm podcast offers unique insight on what’s new, innovative, and exciting in the world of transportation and urban planning. Created by NYC DOT, the podcast is focused on issues at the local, national, and international level and features guests who discuss the most consequential transportation work happening all over the globe.
Listen on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music, and other major streaming platforms, or watch on YouTube.
Episodes
Episode 1: The Future of Transportation in the United States
Our guest, United States Deputy Secretary of Transportation Polly Trottenberg, discusses the transportation sector’s role in addressing the climate crisis, reconnecting communities divided by urban highways, reducing traffic fatalities, building the support needed to bring big ideas to fruition, and her proudest accomplishments at U.S. DOT, among other topics. In true Curb Enthusiasm fashion, she also opines on the most annoying breach of subway etiquette. This episode was recorded in July 2024.
The Host
Each episode of Curb Enthusiasm is hosted by Emily Weidenhof alongside a guest host from NYC DOT.
Emily Weidenhof serves as the assistant commissioner of public realm at NYC DOT working closely with community organizations throughout the five boroughs to transform their streets as public space. Her focus for over a decade has been strengthening communities through the creation of plazas and shared streets to retooling the curb lane to innovative programming and concessions as well as the comprehensive Broadway Vision Plan, which employs a range of tools to reimagine the corridor from Union Square to Columbus Circle to prioritize pedestrians and cyclists. Emily led on the creation of pandemic response programs to support neighborhoods and businesses citywide including the Open Restaurants outdoor dining program and Open Streets. Most recently Emily helped evolve Open Streets into a permanent program, helped shepherd the expansion of the Public Space Equity Program, and developed a series of public realm design strategies that have transformed corridors like 34th Avenue in Jackson Heights and the Berry Street and Underhill Ave Bike Boulevards in Brooklyn.
Emily has worked as an architect and urban designer in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and New York including at the NYC Department of City Planning. She has researched and edited two publications with The Earth Institute at Columbia University on the potential impacts of natural gas extraction to the Upper Delaware community and on strategies for maintaining sustainable agriculture in the Catskill Region. She has researched and lectured on the importance of open space in the chawls in Dharavi in Mumbai, India and the role of streets and public space in preserving cultural heritage in rapidly developing Asian cities such as Hong Kong. Emily received her B. Arch from the Pennsylvania State University and her M.S. in Arch & Urban Design from Columbia University where she was an adjunct assistant professor of architecture and taught for five years with the MSAUD Studio.