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  • Deal could open way for more development in Montana forest

    Plum Creek Timber, which just negotiated a giant conservation deal with green groups, has also made a closed-door deal with the U.S. Forest Service that could ease the way for development on thousands of acres of Montana forestland. For decades, the USFS has enforced restrictions on logging roads that allow them to only be used […]

    Grist staff Cities

  • High-speed rail coming to California

    Looking good.

    David Roberts Cities

  • Protesters demonstrate against British eco-towns

    Hundreds of protesters gathered outside Britain’s Parliament Monday to protest the government’s plan to build 15 eco-towns. The government is proposing communities characterized by sustainable construction, public transportation, green space, and walkability. It hopes to have five eco-towns built by 2016, and five more by 2020. Monday marks the last day of the government’s first […]

    Grist staff Cities

  • As gas prices rise, Americans move back to the urbs

    For decades, Americans have trickled steadily out of cities into suburbia — and then into exurbia. But with gas prices high and likely to stay there, the wallet-conscious are now poised to trickle back in. In 2003, the average suburban household spent $1,422 on gasoline annually; in April 2008, that had leaped to $3,196 per […]

    Grist staff Cities

  • French capital will implement electric-car-sharing program

    Having successfully implemented a bike–sharing program, Paris is revving up plans to provide electric cars that residents can pick up and drop off anywhere in the city. Mayor Bertrand Delanoë announced that 4,000 electric cars will be made available by the end of the next year at 700 pickup points. “There will be a computerized […]

    Grist staff Cities

  • Houston gets real about rail

    “I’ll say it loud and clear: No longer is the city of Houston waffling on rail. With gas headed to $8 a gallon and oil to $200 a barrel, we have to rethink Houston as the happy motoring paradise.” — Houston City Council member Peter Brown, after the council approved the addition of five light-rail […]

    Katharine Wroth Cities

  • Humans have a hand in Midwest flooding

    Photo: Mark Hirsch How much responsibility do humans have for the floods disastrously deluging the Midwest? Of course the rain poured for days, but it fell on plowed-up prairies, drained fields, altered streams, no-longer-wetlands, and developed flood plains — all unable to absorb precipitation to the best of their natural ability. Between 2007 and 2008, […]

    Grist staff Cities

  • NYC unveils plan to open huge swaths of roadway to pedestrians and bikes — temporarily

    On Monday, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg unveiled a new event called "Summer Streets." For three Saturdays in August, pedestrians and cyclists will enjoy exclusive access to a contiguous stretch of city thoroughfares running from the Brooklyn Bridge to 72nd Street. No cars allowed.

     

     

    Grist staff & Ben Fried Cities

  • Found poetry on walkable cities

    This blog often addresses the importance of walkable cities and towns, localities that are really there -- that have a sense of place. A friendly acquaintance of mine, Jacqueline Smay (wife of popular music guru David Smay, who authored SwordfishTrombones) tossed off this charming note that is more powerful than any statistic:

    ... it was cold but not bitter out, Union Square was glittering with lights and ringing with the sounds of competing street musicians, and the sidewalks were crowded with a mix of very late theatergoers, tourists, street people, street performers, local chi-chi store staff closing up for the night, dejected Giants fans, and elated A's fans. Everything felt very shiny and bustling and wide awake.

    Outside a smoke shop on the corner of Powell a couple blocks up from Market, a two-man band composed of two young white guys, one with guitar and one with drums, was playing an improbably terrific version of "No Woman No Cry." Really, they had no right to be as good as they were. The streetcorner was crowded with tourists and miscellaneous wanderers, including a grandma out and about with her two six to eight-ish granddaughters; the girls were dancing deliriously in their teeny girl-power t-shirts and pastel Crocs while their grandmother beamed.

    And right in front of the musicians, a middle-aged homeless black man was dancing with a middle-aged Asian woman all done-up for a big night out in a black, crepe dress with white lace and a long, swoopy duster and loads of makeup. They danced together a bit and then she spun out on her own, and he turned to the crowd, flung his arms out, and shouted, "She's beautiful! She's alive! She's alive and she knows it!"

    Gar Lipow Cities

  • Segway sales at an all-time high

    With gas prices rising, more people are busing, scooting, biking — and riding the electric scooter we all love to mock. Yes, sales of the nerdarific Segway have risen to an all-time high, as more folks deny transportation fashion in the interest of gas-saving comfort. The two-wheeled, electric scooters get up to 25 miles per […]

    Grist staff Cities