Research has shown that effective teachers are the key to student success. Yet our school systems treat all teachers as interchangeable parts, not professionals. In this environment, excellence goes unrecognized and poor performance goes unaddressed. This is the problem addressed in a new report from the New Teacher Project called "The Widget Effect."  We'll talk with Timothy Daly, President of the New Teacher Project about the report and why teachers are not "one size fits all."

And with the summer months upon us, we'll hear from the creator of a unique travel website that shows you the spots you won't find in any guidebook.  Bart Van Poll of the site Spotted By Locals is our guest.

We'll also talk with Joel Mills of the American Institute of Architects about its Sustainable Design Assessment Team that brings cross-disciplinary groups into communities to work with leaders to develop strategies for sustainable planning.

This week on Smart City we'll talk about the most important rules for business and life from the founder of Fast Company Magazine, Alan Webber.  He's written a book that's half how-to business book and half memoir called "Rules of Thumb: 52 Truths for Winning at Business Without Losing Your Self ".

And we'll speak with Dan Biederman.  He's the co-founder of the Bryant Park Corporation in New York, a private organization that transformed  Bryant Park from a dangerous and depressing eyesore, to one of best loved and  most intensely used urban parks in the world.

This week on the show:  B-cycle is the latest bike sharing project to hit the U.S.  Behind the project is Alex Bogusky, a principal with the creative firm Crispin Porter + Bogusky.  We'll find out how B-Cycle works and why easy access to a bike causes big drops in traffic congestion.

And we'll talk with Elliot Brown about Springboard
Forward, an organization that inspires people to develop a long-term vision for career mobility.  Springboard Forward helps transform the lives of entry-wage workers with a unique form of career development.

This week on Smart City we have two authors who are re-imagining some persistent but outdated ideas from the 20th century.

Alex Steffen is a journalist and author who runs the organization and website WorldChanging.com.   The site practices what he calls "Solutions based journalism" on the environment and has become the go-to source for forward thinking solutions on climate change and sustainability.  Alex joins us to tell us about this new vision for journalism and how to build a brighter future.  Alex is the author of "Worldchanging: A User's Guide for the 21st Century "

And we'll talk with author and Harvard professor William Julius Wilson.  He's written extensively on race in America from his seminal work, "When Work Disappears : The World of the New Urban Poor " to his latest, "More than Just Race: Being Black and Poor in the Inner City (Issues of Our Time)."  Professor Wilson joins us to talk about reframing the relationship between race and poverty.

Beauty makes such a difference in the human experience.  And it's readily available to any city.

This is Millennium Park's Lurie Garden last weekend.

This week on Smart city we're heading outside to explore the
greenways and bike lanes of cities.

Greg Moore is the executive director of the Golden Gate National Parks
Conservancy.   He'll tell how us the former military outpost became one
of the largest greenways in the U.S., and how he brought together a group of cross-sector leaders for an event called "Turning The Tide" which focused on bold actions being taken on behalf of the environment.

And we'll speak with author, journalist and avid cyclist Jeff Mapes about his book,
Pedaling Revolution: How Cyclists Are Changing American Cities".
Jeff will share the political side of riding a bike and offer ideas
on how cities can encourage two-wheeled transit.

When GM depicted a new vision of the good life for Americans at the 1939 World’s Fair (vivid pictures of a highway system that ran through the rural farmland into the heart of a well-ordered urban environment, where every family would own at least one car and would use it as their primary mode of transportation)  it looked like a dream come true.

And you know what? It worked.  A lot of people shared that dream.  We have freeways connecting every major city in America.  Most families in America have not just one but two or three cars. 
 
We also have gridlock traffic.
And pollution.
And an addiction to foreign oil.
 
Our health is in danger from sitting too much and moving too little. And we’ve undermined the natural advantages of cities for innovation, opportunity and efficiency by spreading too few people over too much land. 

It is increasingly clear that the old American dream is shattered.  We need a new American dream to replace it, a dream better suited for today’s realities.  We need a new definition of the good life.
 
Do you have an idea about what the new American Dream ought to be?   Post it here.

This week on Smart City:
Change is in the air and we've got the numbers to prove it on today's show. At a time when tax revenues are declining and city budgets are strained, our first guest has a modest proposal that could produce big dividends for cities.  Joe Cortright is an economist for Impresa Consulting in Portland, Ore., and his latest work shows how profitable it can be for a city to be greener, smarter, and with fewer people living in poverty.  The full report is available at CEOSforCities.org

Want to find out what's happening in your neighborhood? Adrian Holovaty knows. He's the creator of Everyblock.com, a website that provides hyper-local news tailored to your street address. We'll give the site a test run and see what's happening on our block.

This week on Smart City: arts, culture and buzz.  Does your city have it?  How can you tell?  And if you don't have it, where do you get it?

First we'll speak with Rick DeVos of ArtPrize - an "open art" contest in Grand Rapids that will offer the world's largest prize ever: $250,000. The contest, which will transform the city's downtown into a virtual art gallery, is open to any artist, established or emerging, and will be voted on by ArtPrize audiences via the web and text messaging. We'll talk to Rick about what kind of mark he expects ArtPrize to make on his hometown and the world.

And we'll explore the nature of that elusive thing called buzz.

We'll speak with Elizabeth Currid and Sarah Williams, two researchers who have studied buzz and identified the hottest spots in L.A. and New York. They'll join us to explain their unusual approach, and they'll tell us how to quantify cool and understand how a creative cultural scene really works.

This week on Smart City we're getting a global perspective on the secrets of successful cities and a peek at the truth about green jobs in America.

Christopher Choa is an architect and urban designer and a principal at EDAW, a design firm that values the relationship between people and their environment.  Chris joins us from London to talk about the design of a successful city and what we can learn from the construction boom happening in cities in the Middle East.

And we'll speak with Joan Fitzgerald.  Joan Fitzgerald is the Director of the Law, Policy, and Society Program at Northeastern University in Boston.  She's studied how U.S. and Western European cities are addressing the interrelated issues of global warming, energy dependence and opportunities for green economic development. Joan is challenging the enthusiasm about green jobs and says there will be fewer than we expect if we don't recapture the manufacturing side of renewables.  She's also the author of the forthcoming book
"Emerald Cities: Linking Sustainability and Climate Change".