City People
City People is an immersive podcast + video series about how cities really work and the people who make them magical, messy, joyful, infuriating, and alive. Hosts Sam Roxas and Warren Logan take you out of the studio and into real places -- food halls, sidewalks, trains, cafés -- to talk with the parents, planners, small-business owners, advocates, neighbors, and everyday characters who shape urban life. We keep it human, funny, curious, and brutally honest. More community, more chaos, more vibes, please! If you’ve ever loved, hated, or just tried to survive your city… welcome. You’re a City Person.
The Bureaucracy Behind Your Favorite Taco: Permitting the Street Food Vending Industry in LA
Los Angeles loves its street food. The tacos, the tortas, the vendors who make our neighborhoods feel like home. But here's the thing: selling that food legally can be surprisingly difficult. We're talking carts that can cost up to $22,000, overlapping city and county permits, and a system that sometimes makes it easier to open a McDonald's than a neighborhood food stand.
So how did we get here?
In this episode, Sam and Warren follow the permits (and the tortas) to uncover the hidden bureaucracy behind LA's street food culture.
We sit down with <...
More Than a Farm: How Alma Backyard Farms Is Growing Food, Jobs, and Community
What if an urban farm could do more than grow food? What if it could create jobs, offer second chances, and help an entire neighborhood thrive?
As part of City People's Informal City series in Los Angeles, we're exploring the people, places, and grassroots solutions shaping our cities beyond traditional planning and institutions.
In the heart of Compton, Alma Backyard Farms is doing just that. What was once an abandoned softball field is now a thriving urban farm producing fresh food, creating opportunities for formerly incarcerated people, and bringing neighbors together.<...
The Climate Solution Under Our Feet with Ryan Jackson of LA Compost
What if composting were more than waste management? What if it could help reconnect people to their food, their neighborhoods, and the natural systems beneath the city?
Sam and Warren sit down with Ryan Jackson, Executive Director of LA Compost, at the organization’s Griffith Park site. Ryan explains how LA Compost transforms food scraps into healthy soil through a network of community composting sites across Los Angeles County and why keeping those resources local matters.
They discuss LA Compost’s beginnings as a few friends collecting food scraps by bicycle, the policies that once made...
The Oil Wells Next Door: LA's residential oil drilling reality and the fight for environmental justice
Oil wells aren’t just part of Los Angeles history. They’re still operating today, and sometimes just steps from homes, schools, and entire neighborhoods.
In this episode of City People, Samantha Roxas and Warren Logan speak with Emma from Physicians for Social Responsibility–Los Angeles and STAND-L.A., and Ashley from Communities for a Better Environment, about what it means to live next door to urban oil drilling.
We examine how oil extraction became embedded in Los Angeles communities, the health and environmental consequences residents have raised for decades, and the fight to permanently phase...
Can a neighborhood build Its own BART station? The power of community advocacy with the San Antonio Station Alliance
What happens when an entire neighborhood decides it deserves better transit?
In this episode, we sit down with leaders from the San Antonio Station Alliance (SASA), a grassroots coalition advocating for a new BART station in one of Oakland's most densely populated neighborhoods.
We explore why San Antonio was left without a station, how Link21 and a potential second Transbay crossing could reshape the Bay Area, and what it actually takes to move a multibillion-dollar infrastructure project from community vision to political reality.
Along the way, we talk about organizing, coalition building, housing...
Can joy save transit? BART is throwing comedy shows, prom, and speed dating on trains to find out.
What if public transit wasn't just about getting from Point A to Point B?
BART's Chief Communications Officer Alicia Trost is experimenting with a radically different idea: comedy trains, speed dating, anime festivals, movie nights, birdwatching excursions, fashion shows, and other unexpected experiences designed to reconnect people with transit.
In this episode, we explore how one transit agency is using culture, community, and creativity to boost ridership, reshape public perception, and remind people that infrastructure can be joyful.
Because maybe the future of transit isn't just better trains... it's creating reasons for people...
The death (and rebirth) of Downtown with Shola Olatoye of the SF Downtown Development Corporation
Downtowns don’t just “die.” They unravel.
Office workers disappear. Foot traffic drops. Small businesses close. And suddenly, the economic engine of a city stalls.
So what does it actually take to bring it back?
In this episode of City People, we sit down with Shola Olatoye, CEO of the San Francisco Downtown Development Corporation, to unpack what it means to rebuild a city in real-time.
From post-pandemic collapse to cautious comeback, this is a conversation about how cities function as ecosystems and what happens when the system breaks.
W...
Why some public spaces thrive while others fail
Why do some public spaces feel vibrant and full of life while others feel empty, over-designed, or impossible to love?
In this episode of City People, hosts Sam Roxas and Warren Logan explore what actually makes public space work. From Salesforce Park, an oasis in the sky above downtown San Francisco, to Second Street, where a city street becomes a stage for music, gathering, and civic life, we examine how great public places come to life.
Along the way, we talk with James Kirby of Biederman...
Soul of the City: The curators + creators who are nurturing Barrio Logan's soul
In this episode, we head to Barrio Logan in San Diego, CA to spend time with the people and places that give a neighborhood its soul. We visit Libélula Books & Co., an independent bookstore that serves as a true third place: hosting readings, workshops, and creative gatherings that bring the community together, and meet artist, content creator and sign painter Koy Sun, whose hand-painted, maximalist lettering helps small businesses feel visible and distinct in an increasingly expensive, copy-paste city.
Along the way, we talk about what really makes a place feel alive: affordability, allowed uses beyond f...
What's the bathroom code? Solutions to the shortage of dignified public restrooms in cities
We’ve all done it: you really need to pee, so you buy a muffin you don’t even want… just to get the bathroom code.
In this episode, Sam and Warren uncover why public restrooms are in such short supply in cities, starting at Awaken Cafe in downtown Oakland, where one small business has quietly become the de facto public restroom for a whole slice of the city (including City Hall’s backyard, which is a little wild when you think about it). They sit down with Cortt, Awaken’s founder, to talk about what it actually m...
Why are there so many kids at breweries? And what it says about public parks, safety, and parenting in cities
Why are so many families hanging out in breweries? Sam and Warren headed to Almanac Brewery in Oakland to dig into what looks like a funny trend, but quickly turned into a conversation about urban design, public space, and the realities of parenting in modern cities.
We invited a handful of local parents to talk about identity, community, and raising kids in cities… then revealed that they’re actually transportation planners, policy leaders, and mobility innovators.
Featuring Jeff Hoover (Veo), Danielle Harris (Elemental Impact), Viggy Ram (Serve Robotics), and Audrey Desmuke, this episode unpacks why brewe...
We are CITY PEOPLE.
We recorded our very first episode inside Prescott Market in Oakland, California to introduce our ourselves and share our vision for City People.
Take a listen as we open up about why we started this series, what makes us certified City Girlies, all the emotional baggage we carry, and who we hope will join us.
Plus some fun tidbits about our own cities (Oakland and Los Angeles) who have seen some thangs and done some thangs -- yet we love them anyway.
Enjoy the sights and sounds of the market and join us for...
