DIY
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The new New Urbanism: Fast, nimble, flexible, and tactical
Creating the new New Urbanism, on the street in Madison, with plenty of beer.Photo: Aurash KhawarzadLast week, the Congress for the New Urbanism (CNU) held its 19th annual meeting in Madison, Wisc. You may not have heard of the CNU, but you have almost certainly seen its influence in American development. The movement — which […]
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A yarn bomb in Hell’s Kitchen [VIDEO]
Yarn bombing — covering stuff on the street with crocheted or knitted cozies — has become a common enough practice that it merited the dreaded “trend” treatment in The New York Times a couple of weeks ago. That doesn’t mean that it can’t still be very cool. And this little video is about an especially […]
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Cities as software, and hacking the urban landscape
What if saving a rundown city wasn’t about building expensive new infrastructure — hardware, so to speak — but instead reprogramming the existing infrastructure? Changing the software of the place? That’s the analogy used by Marcus Westbury, founder of Renew Newcastle, an innovative initiative that has breathed life into the vacant downtown of that Australian […]
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Freewheeling: Bicycling and the art of being broke
This is the seventh column in a series focusing on the economics of bicycling. More and more of us have less and less money these days. Fortunately, there are a lot of things you don’t need money to do, and bicycling is one of them. When you’re broke, a bicycle can help a lot. Financially, […]
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Bringing a dead public plaza to life in Dallas
Cross-posted from the Natural Resources Defense Council. Although it sometimes makes “ugliest building in the world” lists, I rather like I.M. Pei’s iconic Dallas City Hall, featuring his trademark architectural triangles. Photo: Chris Zúniga But I’ll grant that it is imposing. What I don’t like is the vast, forlorn “plaza” and pool that separates the […]
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Stocking the Broke-Ass pantry, and the magical three-day chicken
Making great meals from bubkes is easy when you do it the Broke-Ass way!Broke-Ass has often been asked how she feeds her family of five on bubkes. The answer is: Shop as little as possible, and buy what only what you must, as cheaply as possible. Cutting down on marketing means you not only have […]
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How to tune up your bike for spring [VIDEO]
Considering that at some point in our childhood past, almost all of us rode a bike, it’s pretty incredible how much fear bikes can inspire in adults. There’s the fear of riding in traffic — that’s probably the main one, and something I won’t deal with here. There is also the fear of how to […]
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How one nerd zeroed out his energy bill with solar panels [VIDEO]
George Musser, a physics editor at Scientific American, has dreamed of powering his home with solar panels ever since he was a little boy. And now he does! In New Jersey, no less. His story is a part of Beyond the Light Switch, a totally rad documentary filmed by Detroit Public Television that criss-crosses the […]
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New ‘Tactical Urbanism’ guide for aspiring guerrilla urbanists
With a few trees, some sidewalk tables, and lots of community input, a Dallas street was transformed.Photo: Go Oak Cliff Do you have the power to make your city a better place? It might be easier than you think. The Next Generation of New Urbanists (yes, these are young New Urbanists, because New Urbanism has […]
