“America needs to fall in love with planning again,” says Mitchell Silver, New York City’s Parks Commissioner. Since taking his post in May of 2014, this Brooklyn-born city planner (formerly Chief Planning Officer for Raleigh, NC, and Deputy Planning Director for Washington, D.C.) has worked on efforts to better fund nearly-abandoned neighborhood parks and to revitalize the experience of public space beyond the high-fence-around-a-chunk-of-asphalt gestalt of ‘70s and ‘80s New York.

In this episode, Commissioner Silver talks about his new Parks Without Borders project as well as plans to prepare the city’s coastlines for climate change. He also asks New Yorkers for their help in creating the next generation of public spaces throughout all five boroughs. As Silver says, “We need these outdoor spaces for your brain to breathe and relax.”