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    10 ways cities and towns can kick the offshore-oil habit

    With the Gulf oil spill continuing unabated, powering a 21st century economy on a 19th century fossil fuel looks less and less smart by the day. Luckily, we’ve got other options. I described the most promising steps the federal government could take toward reducing oil use in transportation systems last week. But local governments don’t […]

    Jonathan Hiskes Cities

  • Cars and People Compete for Grain

    At a time when excessive pressures on the earth’s land and water resources are of growing concern, there is a massive new demand emerging for cropland to produce fuel for cars—one that threatens world food security. Although this situation had been developing for a few decades, it was not until Hurricane Katrina in 2005, when […]

    Lester Brown Uncategorized

  • Parking lots to parks: Designing livable cities

    Can you spot the public transportation in Tel Aviv’s car-centric city?Photo: david55king via FlickrAs I was being driven through Tel Aviv from my hotel to a conference center in 1998, I could not help but note the overwhelming presence of cars and parking lots. It was obvious that Tel Aviv, expanding from a small settlement […]

    Lester Brown Cities

  • Ask Umbra’s pearls of wisdom on driving

    Dearest readers, Photo: GmanViz via FlickrIn light of the recent oil spill flooding not only the Gulf but also all of our minds here at Grist HQ, I think it’s an apt time to reflect on the larger issue, which is decreasing our dependence on oil. Now obviously one way to do that on an […]

    Ask Umbra® Culture

  • David Brooks to old folks: cities are better now

    David Brooks writes about the ’60s and ’70s crime wave that scared a generation of Americans–or a generation of white, mobile Americans–away from urban living: [P]eople in all classes lived in fear. “Mugging was nothing unusual. Everybody got mugged,” [John] Podhoretz writes. A serial killer nicknamed Charlie Chop-Off menaced the Upper West Side, emasculating little […]

    Jonathan Hiskes Cities

  • 10 reasons not to own a car in the city [PHOTOS]

    The woes of owning a car run the gamut from pricey maintenance to sitting in traffic, parking tickets to CO2 emissions. And even if you’re not an auto owner, you’ve probably dealt with the hassle of an errant car alarm going off at 2 a.m. or some putz taking up three spaces in your lot […]

    Grist staff Culture

  • Does ‘sustainable transportation’ mean better cars or fewer cars?

    Ohio State University’s excellent Moving Ahead 2010 conference wrapped up with an impromptu panel on the oil spill and oil addiction. (White House energy adviser Carol Browner was supposed to do the final keynote, but got pulled away. Apparently there’s something going on in Louisiana.) I’ll wrap up my coverage by making a point I […]

    David Roberts Technology

  • Green cars do not make green cities

    Cross-posted from PubliCola. In response to last week’s post about how cars cause significant greenhouse gas emissions in addition to what comes out of the tailpipe, some commenters contended that even so, car-dependency is not a problem because cars can be as energy-efficient per passenger-mile as buses and trains. But that perspective is classic “can’t […]

    Dan Bertolet Culture

  • Los Angeles without traffic—in pictures

    Courtesy Tom BakerToday in happy urban eye candy (previous installations here and here), photographer Tom Baker gives us a look at what some Los Angeles thoroughfares would look like without traffic. Point being, L.A.’s built environment is one manner of placemaking — one that uses a lot of cement, takes up a lot of space, […]

    Jonathan Hiskes Cities