The U.S. is known for being big, having big visions, having big plans and projects. But has that all changed in the past few decades? Karrie Jacobs of The Infrastructurist delves into this matter in great deal and concludes: “Apparently…
New Study Looks at Hidden Environmental Costs of Parking
The price of free parking keeps going up. One cost is painful urban congestion, which is made worse bydrastically under-priced street parking. Another is a relative cost to the environment, which occurs when the near-certain prospect of free (or cheap)…
Why Streetcars are Important (& Cool)
Almost 50 years ago, streetcars in Washington, D.C. stopped running and most of their tracks were removed. Now they’re back and ready for a revival, with parts of the first two lines slated to open next spring. In this post, we talk to Dan…
EcoLocalizer Link Drop
New Transit Projects for 2011 A comprehensive list of transit projects scheduled to start construction or open in 2011. “Streetcar lines dominate the nation’s new transit construction landscape, but this year only light and commuter rail lines will open for…
Physicist “Solves” the City, Turns It Into an Equation
I went through a ton of urban theories as a Master’s student in city planning, but something I didn’t have access to at that time was physicist Geoffrey West’s urban equations. Because he had not created them yet. The 70-year-old…
West Oakland Urban Agriculture Gets $4-Million Boost
A leading urban-farming and food-justice organization in Oakland, City Slicker Farms, recently got awarded $4 million from the State of California to buy land for urban farming and a new park. With this money, City Slicker is going to purchase…
Green Makeover of Brooklyn-Queens Expressway
The proposals are in after Monday’s final public meeting to decide the future of the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway trench which severs the Carroll Gardens, Cobble Hill, and Columbia Street Waterfront neighborhoods of Brooklyn. Residents spoke up and prioritized their wishes for a…
10 Most Walkable Cities in World? [SLIDESHOW]
“There are cities where cars reign supreme, others where a bicycle or public transportation will suffice, and a select few that remain a paradise for two feet. By design or purely by accident, each of these 10 cities beckons you…
California High-Speed Rail Video
One of my friends from my city planning graduate studies just tipped me off to a new video for the California high-speed rail (HSR) project that her company, PBS&J (an Atkins Company), is a part of. It is a great,…
Megacity Series on GlobalPost
Not long ago I wrote on the issue of cities becoming more and more powerful, perhaps even more powerful than countries. As a nice follow-up to that, GlobalPost has created a new 5-part multimedia report titled “Rise of the Megacities”…