Today on the Ten Blocks podcast, City Journal contributing editor Nicole Jelineas will

interview Janet Sadiq Khan, former commissioner of the New York City Department of Transportation,

about a new book, Street Fight, Handbook for an Urban Revolution.

Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg has called Janet the child that Robert Moses and Jane Jacobs

never had, and we're excited to hear from her today.

Hello, I'm City Journal editor Brian Anderson.

Thanks for joining us for the 10 Blocks podcast featuring urban policy and cultural commentary

with City Journal editors, contributors, and special guests.

Hello, this is Nicole Jelineinas of the Manhattan Institute City Journal.

I'm here today with Jeanette Sada Khan, the Bloomberg Transportation Commissioner for New

York City from 2007 to 2013, and now the author of the book Street Fight, Handbook

for an Urban Revolution.

Good afternoon, Jeanette.

Thanks for coming on this afternoon.

Hey, Nicole. Great to be talking with you.

So you write in your book that, and this was one of my favorite lines toward the end of the book,

I love the smell of asphalt, it's acrid odor, it's superheated shimmer, and sticky texture. And you say that the

tabloids were correct in saying that you are indeed a wacko. But before you grew to love the

smell of asphalt, you write that you never planned on going into transportation at all. So maybe

you can explain to our listeners how

you came to see transportation as so important to the life of the city.

Well, I grew up in New York City, so I grew up on the streets of New York. And I think

...