Denver’s RTD A Line commuter rail that connects Union Station downtown to Denver International Airport. (Photo provided courtesy of Denver International Airport)
Today, we’re releasing the second episode of Building Better Communities with Transit: “Decarbonize the city, a few blocks at a time.” This month we explore a new smart city concept taking shape in Denver, CO: Peña Station Next.
Our host Jeff Wood talks with George Karayannis, vice president of CityNow, the smart city arm of Panasonic Corporation. George talks about smart cities, how to think beyond shiny new technology, and what it means for cities thinking about the future.
Jeff and George also discuss what CityNow is working on at Peña Station Next—a new smart city concept on Denver RTD’s A Line commuter rail that incorporates ideas such as district energy, smarter streetlights, and intelligent power management in buildings. George talks about how and why the station location was chosen for this innovative project.
Like the name suggests, this smart development is located at Peña Station, the last stop before Denver International Airport. In addition to being a testing ground for new technologies, Peña Station Next will eventually include residential, commercial, and retail space as we explored in a previous post on TODresources.org.
Building Better Communities with Transit is intended to provide more support to communities and local leaders who are working to catalyze new development around transit, give more people access to public transportation, increase access to opportunity, and build robust local economies. For easier access, the podcast now available on a number of platforms: Soundcloud, iTunes, Stitcher, and others with even more coming soon. You can also access the podcast’s raw RSS feed here.
Checkout all the episodes on our podcast page. A new episode is released every month!
Recent TOD News
Here are a few things that have been happening this week with TOD projects across the country.
- Remaking MARTA’s Eastlake Station (Curbed Atlanta)
- Affordable Housing Develops at Fruitvale Station (East Bay Times)
- Palo Alto to Charge Development Fees for Rush Hour Trips (Palo Alto Online)
- Downtown Redmond Development Waits for Light Rail (Seattle Transit Blog)