cities
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How buses and ferries and light rail have made it cool to live in New Jersey [VIDEO]
Ever heard the phrase “transit-oriented development” and felt like you’d rather take a nice nap than learn what it means? Well, wake up and spend 3 minutes and 18 seconds watching this video from the Streetfilms crew. It shows how investment in excellent transit (light rail, buses, ferries, and commuter trains), along with some zoning […]
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Tell Grist: What’s your favorite green hot spot in Portland?
You know you love it.Photo: megaulYo Portlandia! We’re compiling a guide to the perfect green Portland weekend and we need your help! So you have an out-of-town visitor — where do you take ’em for great local food or beer? What’s the can’t-miss farmers market, bike shop, or organic cupcakery — or is the octopus […]
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How do you sell a city without selling out?
The Super Bowl ad for the Chrysler 200 didn’t bother trying to sell you a car. It was selling a city, because these days, that’s what sells. That city, of course, was Detroit. In the two-minute spot, which was cheered by Monday morning marketing quarterbacks as one of the game’s most successful, Eminem drives through […]
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On eco-architecture and urban farming: Are you kidding me with your f-ing farm skyscraper?
Find a place, do some work, grow some stuff: it ain’t rocket science.Photo: Tracie LeeJust last summer, Broke-Ass was invited to speak on a panel at the New York Horticultural Society with such luminaries of the environmental architectural movement as Amale Andraos and Dan Wood of WORK Architecture Co.; Fritz Haeg, artist, Edible Estates; and […]
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‘Mom, can we get the kind of car that we keep at our house?’
But everybody else does it!Photo: Mario KlingemannOn a recent, rather brisk, walk to church, my 3-year-old daughter, Rosa, asked, “Mom, can we get the kind of car that we keep at our house?” As opposed, that is, to the kind we use for a few hours and then return. I wasn’t especially surprised by the […]
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New evidence cities rule and suburbs drool
Suck it, Thoreau: Looks like big cities are the way to go if you’re looking to lower your environmental impact. According to a new study published in the journal Environment and Urbanization, carbon emissions in cities are lower than in the car-dependent burbs. Okay, so you’ll still come out ahead if you live in an […]
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Winter from hell: Don’t panic about having enough food, panic about all the crap we throw out
Nowhere to go.Photo: Sarah Goodyear When extreme weather is in the forecast, people stock up. They storm the markets, sweep the shelves clean, and load shopping carts with bottled water, canned goods, diapers, corn flakes, milk, batteries, Pop-Tarts, you name it. There are only three days’ worth of food on the shelves of American supermarkets […]
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A talk with economist Edward Glaeser: Why America needs to love its cities more
Edward Glaeser.“If ideas are the currency of our age, then building the right homes for those ideas will determine our collective fate.” That’s what Harvard economist and New York Times columnist Edward Glaeser writes in his new book, Triumph of the City: How Our Greatest Invention Makes Us Richer, Smarter, Greener, Healthier, and Happier. And […]
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In Egypt, you can switch off the internet but not the streets
The streets of Cairo themselves have been the medium that has carried the message of the Egyptian people.