Climate Cities

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  • In some cities, the greenest buildings are already built

    It’s a cliché of life in New York: on even the chilliest winter days, windows are flung open to let free the over-cranked, inefficient steam heat. “We literally blow money out the window,” says Nancy Biberman, founder of the Bronx-based WHEDCo, a family and affordable housing non-profit. About a third of New York’s building supply […]

    Lisa Selin Davis Cities

  • Green building in the West Bank

    At the West Bank’s first green-building conference.Courtesy Eric Pallant Read more about Eric Pallant’s eco-explorations in the Middle East. Al Quds University in Abu Dis, Palestine, hosted the first Green Building conference in the West Bank this week. It wasn’t just students who showed up — there were suits, too. Forty-nine people attended, and the […]

    Eric Pallant Cities

  • Failing grades issued for air quality in Seattle, other major cities

    Photo: Peter Davis via FlickrIf Seattle were an 8th grader, she’d probably be grounded right now. And considering the poor scores the city received on its air quality report card (an F for ozone pollution and a C for particulates), it might not be a bad idea if we all stay inside for a while. […]

    Sarah van Schagen Cities

  • EPA tosses flag on Cowboys’ new field

    A mess in Texas?City of ArlingtonRemember how we reported on green sports venues, and one of them was the new stadium of the Dallas Cowboys, and the stadium was steeped in land-use controversy, but the good news was that the team was registering with the EPA to monitor the facility’s long-term performance? Turns out that […]

    Katharine Wroth Cities

  • The United States of Transit Cutbacks

    This is eye-opening, by which I mean brutally depressing: Transportation for America has a map of transportation systems considering fare hikes, service cuts, or layoffs — and sometimes all three. The map went up in late January; they’re still compiling the news and updating the map as best they can, inviting the public to write […]

    Katharine Wroth Cities

  • New York City’s plan to make luxury affordable

    It took a long time for the real estate bubble to burst in New York City — longer, it seemed, than just about everywhere else; we were still selling $45 million penthouses at the Plaza when subdivisions were going bust out in Sprawlville. Which meant that the bubble had time to stretch farther and wider […]

    Lisa Selin Davis Cities

  • From Washers to Wind: Obama in Iowa

    Yesterday was the 39th anniversary of Earth Day, and to mark the occasion President Obama was in Newton, Iowa, to speak about clean energy. Newton is one of those towns where most of the residents are employed by one major employer, and until October 2007, that employer was Maytag. So when Whirlpool bought Maytag and […]

    Billy Parish Cities

  • An interview with author Scott Russell Sanders

    Scott Russell Sanders, author of A Conservationist ManifestoCourtesy of Indiana University PressI’ve had some great teachers over the years, but none quite like Scott Russell Sanders, the gentle guru of Bloomington, Indiana, and a leading light of Midwestern environmentalism. To call him articulate doesn’t begin to do justice. He exudes a sort of intellectual clarity, […]

    Jonathan Hiskes Cities

  • A shopping mall becomes a city

    The poor shopping mall. That once impenetrable fortress now seems as susceptible to the ailing economy as the rest of us. Vacancies are at an all-time high. Dead and dying malls continue to plague the landscape. And, perhaps worst of all, the mall has transformed from an icon of American life — see Fast Times […]

    Lisa Selin Davis Cities

  • “Peak” gas in 2007?

    The Wall Street Journal reports that an increasing number of energy analysts think that U.S. gasoline sales will never surpass their 2007 record: Among those who say U.S. consumption of gasoline has peaked are executives at the world’s biggest publicly traded oil company, Exxon Mobil Corp., as well as many private analysts and government energy […]

    Clark Williams-Derry Cities