Climate Cities

All Stories

  • How design must change in a warming, oil-scarce world

    This week I was able to attend a conference on urban planning hosted by the Penn Institute for Urban Research and the Rockefeller Foundation. Fifty years ago, the same entities had put together another urban conference, at which gathered names like Jane Jacobs and Lewis Mumford, intellectuals who shaped the design world’s thinking about cities […]

    Ryan Avent Cities

  • Nation asks, won’t you choo-choo me home?

    “There is an appetite for city-to-city rail. Why should we be different than any other country in the world? You go to Europe and you can’t get an airplane to a city less than 200 miles away.” — Pennsylvania governor Ed Rendell, commenting on rising national interest in passenger rail

    David Roberts Cities

  • Scots give Donald Trump go-ahead to build giant golf course

    The Scottish government has given Donald Trump the go-ahead to build two golf courses, a five-star hotel, and 500 luxury homes on an untouched stretch of Scotland’s coast. The development plans were originally nixed by the local council over concerns that the project will be, um, detrimental to fragile sand dunes and rare wildlife.

    Grist staff Cities

  • NYC cabs don’t have to bump up fuel efficiency, judge rules

    New York City cab drivers will not be forced to go green, as a federal judge on Friday smacked down a municipal plan to make all new taxis achieve at least 30 miles per gallon by 2012. U.S. District Judge Paul Crotty ruled that fuel-economy standards should be up to the feds, not cities.

    Grist staff Cities

  • U.K. secretary: Economic downturn will not delay measures that could speed economy

    “In order to stimulate Britain’s economic growth and support our position as a leading world economy it is essential that we make the right long-term investments in our transport infrastructure and that we plan for future growth, in a way which is consistent with reducing greenhouse gas emissions overall.”   — U.K. Transport Secretary Geoff […]

    David Roberts Cities

  • Fast Company publishes an unsparing take-down of green architect William McDonough

    This month’s Fast Company has an expose on green architecture guru William McDonough. It is fairly brutal. McDonough’s come in for plenty of hero worship (no small amount of it from me), but as Danielle Sacks tells it, he’s a vainglorious name-dropper and celeb-schmoozer, prone to claiming credit beyond what he is due, devoted above […]

    David Roberts Cities

  • Britain’s eco-town plans are on shaky ground

    Thanks to the shaky economy, a struggling construction industry, and strong local opposition, sources close to British Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s eco-town plans say that only “one or two” of the 15 shortlisted sites are likely to go forward.

    Grist staff Cities

  • KQED takes a look at California’s high-speed rail ballot measure

    Great look at California’s Proposition 1A: The mind-boggling myopia it takes to call something like this an “extravagance” mystifies me. When did we get so hinky about investing in our future? I will bet anyone $100 right now that ridership on this train, if it is built, exceeds the most optimistic assessments. I’ll bet another […]

    David Roberts Cities

  • And they’re super bad

    Seoul is planning 129 miles of bike paths in the next four years. “We will make sure that bicycles will compete with vehicles for commuting in Seoul,” says mayor Oh Se-Hoon. Sweet.

    David Roberts Cities

  • Green group catalogs world’s 10 worst pollution problems

    The world’s worst pollution problems kill millions of people each year and sicken hundreds of millions of others, mostly in developing countries, according to a new report from green group Blacksmith Institute. For the past few years, the group has ranked the world’s top 10 most-polluted sites in order to focus global attention and fuel […]

    Grist staff Cities