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urban planning

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    Stockton Williams on urban retrofits, Obama, and the sexiness of caulking guns

    This is part of a series of interviews with people working to make U.S. communities smarter, greener spaces. Got a suggestion for an interviewee? Send it our way or leave it in the comments section below. Earlier this year, officials from sixteen U.S. cities gathered in Cambridge, Mass., to compare notes on a surprisingly hot […]

    Katharine Wroth Cities

  • The social life of traffic

    This article is part of a collaboration with Planetizen, the web’s leading resource for the urban planning, design, and development community. Traffic is essentially “an engineering issue,” says author Tom Vanderbilt. “But there’s also a layer of culture.” That layer of culture determines, to a large extent, how traffic can become a problem. This idea […]

    Nate Berg Cities

  • USDA to unveil “Know Your Farmer, Know Your Food” initiative

    Vast potential: a farm grows in Brooklyn. Photo: Added ValueAs I prepare for five days of announcements next week, when USDA plans to unveil its new “Know Your Farmer, Know Your Food” initiative, the buzz across my desk is about the potential for urban agriculture. EPA reminds that brownfield moneys can be used to convert […]

    Ken Meter Culture

  • Portland’s newest high-rise has wind turbines on the roof

    The cermonial urban-turbine installation.indigo12west.comTwo weeks ago in Portland, Oregon, a new 23-story building added something you don’t usually see in an urban setting: a series of four Skystream wind turbines, with a total capacity of 9.6kW. There are several reasons why wind turbines are a rarity atop highrises — beyond the obvious one: our power […]

    Osha Gray Davidson Cities

  • Tim Halbur on sprawl, propaganda, and Obama’s approach to urban issues

    This marks the first of a series of interviews with people working to make U.S. communities smarter, greener spaces. Got a suggestion for an interviewee? Send it our way or leave it in the comments section below. Tim Halbur’s career has included a stint as a journalist for NPR, co-producer of an environmental-justice driving tour […]

    Katharine Wroth Cities

  • Neighborhood stores: An overlooked strategy for fighting global warming

    Our new neighborhood fresh food market.What I find most striking about my mother-in-law’s memories of the neighborhood where I live, and where she spent her childhood in the 1940s, is how many businesses our little residential section of town once boasted. Back then, there was a grocery store, hardware store, barber shop, two drugstores, a […]

    Stacy Mitchell Cities

  • Would you pay more for walkability? Should you?

    The Truth About … via flickrForget letting your fingers do the walking: A study released today shows that homebuyers are letting their wallets do the walking, paying more for homes in neighborhoods where you can get around without wheels. Conducted by CEOs for Cities, the analysis looked at 94,000 real-estate transaction in 15 markets across […]

    Katharine Wroth Culture

  • The greenest grocery store, biggest “living wall,” and more eco-innovations

    The green-building news is coming so fast and furious it can be hard to delve deeply into each story. So here’s a survey of a few of the shiniest, brand-spankin’-newiest, innovativest projects taking shape: The nation’s greenest green grocer.Fore SolutionsHannaford Supermarket, Augusta, Maine. This grocery store in the Pine Tree State’s unassuming, working-class capital has […]

    Katharine Wroth Cities

  • Vancouver’s Olympic village aims for green, runs into problems

    Vancouver’s vision for its Olympic village looks dazzling from afar, like the city itself. Up close the details get hairier.Photo: ecstaticistThe city of Vancouver, British Columbia, has a lot to brag about. It’s got an enviable location, wedged between the Strait of Georgia and the snow-capped Coast Mountains. It’s a perennial winner of “most livable […]

    Jonathan Hiskes Technology