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  • Alabama city backing away from destruction of ancient Indian mound?

    Following local protests and international outcry, the city of Oxford, Ala. appears to be backing away from plans to destroy an ancient and archaeologically significant Indian mound in order to use the dirt as fill for a new Sam’s Club, a retail warehouse store operated by Wal-Mart. A local landowner says his property will now […]

    Sue Sturgis Cities

  • Competition dreams up new ways to harass suburbanites

    Dwell magazine and Inhabitat have teamed up to sponsor a “Reburbia” competition in which designers re-envision suburbia in ways that make environmentalists seem as scary and dingbatty as possible. The finalists include a lot of inspiring ideas, but my favorite by far is the proposal to have menacing 3,000-foot-tall robots stomp into suburban villages, rip […]

    Adam Stein Cities

  • Tim Halbur on sprawl, propaganda, and Obama’s approach to urban issues

    This marks the first of a series of interviews with people working to make U.S. communities smarter, greener spaces. Got a suggestion for an interviewee? Send it our way or leave it in the comments section below. Tim Halbur’s career has included a stint as a journalist for NPR, co-producer of an environmental-justice driving tour […]

    Katharine Wroth Cities

  • Neighborhood stores: An overlooked strategy for fighting global warming

    Our new neighborhood fresh food market.What I find most striking about my mother-in-law’s memories of the neighborhood where I live, and where she spent her childhood in the 1940s, is how many businesses our little residential section of town once boasted. Back then, there was a grocery store, hardware store, barber shop, two drugstores, a […]

    Stacy Mitchell Cities

  • Puppies and bunnies and carnivorous eco-curmudgeons

    Carl M via flickrThose of you following our last post (Should Kuba Have a Puppy?) can see that both votes and comments on this question are running 9 to 1 in favor of the gratification of pet ownership. This is even though eco-curmudgeon Ken has made the point, with hard statistics, that keeping domestic animals […]

    Andrée Collier Cities

  • Alabama city destroying ancient Indian mound for Sam’s Club

    City leaders in Oxford, Ala. have approved the destruction of a 1,500-year-old Native American ceremonial mound and are using the dirt as fill for a new Sam’s Club, a retail warehouse store operated by Wal-Mart. A University of Alabama archaeology report commissioned by the city found that the site was historically significant as the largest […]

    Sue Sturgis Cities

  • The amazing promise and many challenges of passivhaus construction

    I’m in decent shape for 52, but it took everything I had to carry a hefty piece of welded steel plate out of the backyard — and I didn’t place it any too gently on the curb when I got it there. So I was impressed when John from Blue Scrap & Recycling casually flipped […]

    Ken Ward Cities

  • Love in a time of cataclysm

    Wanted: Experienced couples therapist, preferably also with degrees in theology and law, for fractious, passionate pair riddled with apocalyptic anxiety, burdened with love for their children (all of them), acutely conscious of the finitude of time and resources, and fearful that the world has gone mad. Must take insurance. Everyone told us that building a […]

    Andrée Collier Cities

  • Can we really make the drive-thru a source of power?

    My father believes that the one modern invention above all others to contribute to the downfall of the planet, not to mention our civilization, is the drive-through — or, in the spirit of efficiency on which it’s based, the drive-thru. Your idling could light this sign!Not only does it encourage laziness and obesity by tempting […]

    Lisa Selin Davis Cities

  • The greenest grocery store, biggest “living wall,” and more eco-innovations

    The green-building news is coming so fast and furious it can be hard to delve deeply into each story. So here’s a survey of a few of the shiniest, brand-spankin’-newiest, innovativest projects taking shape: The nation’s greenest green grocer.Fore SolutionsHannaford Supermarket, Augusta, Maine. This grocery store in the Pine Tree State’s unassuming, working-class capital has […]

    Katharine Wroth Cities