Climate Cities

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  • The best U.S. transit systems you never knew existed

    When it comes to public transit in the U.S., there are certain predictable all-stars: the Metro in Washington, D.C., is convenient, efficient, and clean. The anthropomorphically nicknamed El and BART in Chicago and San Francisco are legendary. And everyone knows it’s easier to navigate New York City without a car than with one. But what […]

    Grist staff Cities

  • Taking coal back to the garden

    “…we can train ourselves to attend to the beautiful things waiting to be noticed. We can become curious and push the perceptions outward towards the surrounding world and society. We can see the miracle of life around us. We can be altered and saved by the situation in which we find ourselves.”  Anne Bogart, Siti […]

    Jeff Biggers Cities

  • Recession redirects a green-building pioneer

    Back around 2006, when the American Dream of home ownership was still intact and green building was officially transferred from the domain of hippies to yuppies, folks got very excited about prefab. Here in New York City, my friends and I felt our second-home prayers had been answered (not that we could afford a first […]

    Lisa Selin Davis Cities

  • Three crucial steps to fixing climate change in cities

    I was just in Boston at the excellent Living Cities Green Boot Camp, which was focused on what it will take to actually start hugely and radically retrofitting existing buildings in cities. Cities are, as you all know, a huge lever in solving climate change. Big cities have big climate footprints, and the bulk of […]

    Auden Schendler Cities

  • Yeah, that’s right, I’ve been to boot camp

    A couple of months ago, I promised (threatened?) that I’d be starting a new column called Sexy Retrofits. Now I’m making good on that notion — but so much news has been swirling around on the topic lately that I’m forced to start with a round-up. Now with more bullet points! Yesterday I had the […]

    Katharine Wroth Cities

  • An interview with the innovators behind ioby.org

    We’ve all heard that eating locally is one way to reduce your environmental impact. But what about donating locally? In the urban wilds of New York City, a new non-profit is betting that locally based, small-scale giving can have a big eco-impact. Ioby, whose name stands for “in our back yards,” connects people working on […]

    Stephanie Ogburn Cities

  • The folks behind the Nano take their vision to suburbia

    On paper, the biggest U.S. export is capital goods–aircrafts, semiconductors, medical equipment, and such. But we’ve been exporting something else in force to developing countries: the suburban lifestyle. From American Village in the Kurdish area of Iraq to “Napa Valley,” a development outside Beijing, the McMansion and its watered lawns are making their way around […]

    Lisa Selin Davis Cities

  • Two homeowners, one monster, and a cutting-edge power source

    There’s a monster in our basement. It eats fistfuls of dollar bills, guzzles No. 2 heating oil, and belches filthy clouds of soot and CO2. We have to kill it before it kills us. Only problem is, we and our tenants are dependent on it — this being New England, we need something down there […]

    Peter Thomson Cities

  • Iowa City needs bike sharing

    CPSC.govKnow what’s awesome? Bike sharing. Know what’s not awesome? Bike sharing programs that get wrecked by theft and general disregard. As many of them seem to do. But let’s hear it for optimism: Check out this editorial in the daily paper of the University of Iowa. It lays out plans for a bike-sharing program based […]

    Katharine Wroth Cities

  • Bike to work, bike from work

    Today is Bike-To-Work day. If you don’t have a job and are feeling left out, you have other options. Frankly, I can’t think of a better way to wait out the recession than to take a bike tour. It’s cheap, especially if you camp. It’s the right speed to see a country. It’s carbon-free, natch. […]

    Adam Browning Cities