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In this episode, AJ and Kevin sit down with Mike McKay, Assistant City Engineer for Lubbock, Texas, for a wide-ranging discussion on the past, present, and future of the engineering profession, and its role in the way we’ve built our cities.

Some of the ground we cover in this episode:

• The relationship between engineers and planners—how it could improve, and what each side should understand about the other

• What it means for our cities to be sustainable, and whether we’re on the right track in any meaningful ways

• Whether street standards and specification should have flexibility

• What the ideal Capital Improvement Plan looks like

• Long-term maintenance costs, and whether engineers tend to consider them when evaluating new development

• The overemphasis on auto-based mobility, and where that leaves planners and engineers who want to make life easier without a car

• How to increase support for additional infrastructure funding when cities are struggling to find the money

• Ways to modify design approaches to be more considerate of long-term maintenance costs and to minimize up-front construction costs

• How the different staff members in a city’s development process can better collaborate

• Advice for cities in the early stages of growth

• Lessons learned from Mike’s long engineering career

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