Cities

Smacked down: How police action is feeding the Occupy movement

Photo: Jessica LehrmanOn Oct. 11, 2011, I asked the mayor of Baltimore to sleep with me. I challenged her to spend one night outside in front of City Hall in solidarity with Baltimore’s 4,000 homeless residents. It was a long shot, I knew. My good intentions notwithstanding, she would likely decline. But even I was […]

Lionel Foster Cities

House’s collaboration cart puts community planning on the street

Grist is proud to present the Change Gang — profiles of people who are leading change on the ground toward a more sustainable society and a greener planet. Some we’ve written about before; some are new to our pages. Some you’ll have heard of; most you probably won’t. Know someone we should add to the […]

Andrew Leonard Cities

Occupy Wall Street can shake up a city — but can it create lasting change?

Photo: Lauren DeCicca via weeklydig“Mike check! “MIKE CHECK!” “Mike check!” “MIKE CHECK!” This call-and-response has become a familiar refrain for those who have attended Occupy Wall Street protests or followed the movement from afar. When police banned sound systems in many encampments, protesters responded by creating human amplifiers: Anyone who has something to say to […]

Greg Hanscom Cities

Sharing time: Tracking the ‘sharrow’ on city streets

A sharrow in Baltimore. Photo: Elly BlueVisiting Seattle last weekend, it was impossible not to notice that its streets are absolutely covered in sharrows. “It’s almost like they polluted the streets with them,” said Tom Fucoloro, proprietor of the Seattle Bike Blog, who took me on a walk through the city’s Central District, pointing out […]

Elly Blue Transportation

Locked out: Where is Occupy Wall Street without Zuccotti Park?

Protesters gathered this afternoon at 6th Avenue and Canal Street.Photo: Sarah GoodyearI woke up this morning to the news that the occupation of Zuccotti Park had been ended, and my first question was, “Where will all the people go?” The strange legalities surrounding Zuccotti Park have been a critical factor in the development of the […]

Sarah Goodyear Cities

Street-art film fest! Reverse graffiti, urban archaeology, and other writings on the wall

The walls of our cities are becoming canvases for creative expression in the hands of a new generation of artists. These kids are street-smart and engaged. (And, OK, they’re not all kids.) They work, on some levels, in the same spirit as Occupy Wall Street, reclaiming and transforming the urban landscape, and infusing their art with […]

Greg Hanscom Cities

Defense insiders: Sustainable communities are key to the future

David Orr.Photo: Lisa DeJongThis story is the second of two pieces excerpted from a feature story in the Chronicle of Higher Education. Read the first piece here, and the full Chronicle story here. Environmental studies professor David Orr has set out to turn the aging rust belt town of Oberlin, Ohio, into a laboratory for […]

Scott Carlson Cities

Pasadena gets to keep its giant fork

This piece of guerilla art was originally put up as a joke — Pasadena, Calif. resident Bob Stane made a lot of corny jokes about putting a fork in the road at this fork in the road, so his friend made him an 18-foot-tall one for his 75th birthday. It wasn't technically legal (the fork's […]

Jess Zimmerman Cities

The last rider: Learning to win on a 100k bike ride

David from Eugene passes a decaying farmouse on the Verboort Populaire.Photo: Elly Blue“I think the rain is really good for us as cyclists,” said my friend Maria Schur. We were in her car, headed to the Verboort Populaire, an annual 100-kilometer (about 62-mile) bicycle ride west of Portland, Ore. “It’s good for character development. It’s […]