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"Sustainable" development in Fulton County?
Metropolitan Atlanta is ground zero of suburban sprawl. Like in other suburban areas throughout North America, the denizens of Atlanta's suburbs have a love/hate relationship with sprawl. They get fed...
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Everybody Loves a Parade
Not too long ago I saw John Norquist, CEO of the Chicago-based Congress of New Urbanism, give a lecture extolling the virtues of traditional urban design as a remedy for suburban sprawl. One of the New...
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Tax Reform and Urbanism
Earlier this year the US President appointed an advisory panel to offer recommendations for "simplifying" the federal tax structure. On Tuesday, the panel presented its report to Treasury Secretary...
View ArticleRedlining Returns to New Orleans??
The Dallas Morning News has an interesting article on the rebuilding of New Orleans. From the early days of settlement in the city, the Lower Ninth Ward was a cypress swamp that was subject to frequent...
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Exploring Chicago's Alleys
The Chicago Tribune had a great series of articles a couple of weeks ago on the culture of alleys in the city. It was an excellent series that actually explored these spaces as important cultural and...
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When Corporations Build the City
"Public-Private Partnerships" are all the rage these days. Municipal governments, strapped for cash and facing crumbling public infrastructure are increasingly looking to private companies to inject...
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China's Cities: A Living Hell?
Given the recent tragedy in Harbin, Heilongjiang Province where, for five days, the city's water supply has been shut off due to an upstream toxic chemical spill, it might be an important time to point...
View ArticleCanada's Mayors Brace for Election
Paul Martin's government officially collapsed yesterday, paving the way for an election scheduled for January 23, 2006. While the issue of the Liberal party's corruption prompted the latest collapse of...
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Australian Labor Party Battles Sprawl
A couple of interesting articles from the Queensland Courier-Mail point to proposals to quell sprawl in Australian metro areas. The first discusses a policy paper to be released by the opposition Labor...
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Transportation and Emission Reductions
With the first major post-Kyoto global conference on climate change underway this week in Montreal, there are interesting proposals emerging from various NGOs concerned with the connections between...
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The Internet Has Finally Proven Its Worth
A few months ago I posted about Google's Ride Finder which allows users to find real-time information about the location of taxis in selected American cities. Based on the google map interface and...
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Sprawl Comes to India
If you can handle Amy Waldman's simplistic neo-colonialist characterization of India's "stubborn natives'" irrational rejection of "progress," then her article in today's New York Times on the Golden...
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New Urbanist Land Grab Begins in Mississippi
It seems as if the land grab is in full swing on Mississippi's hurricane-devastated Gulf Coast as the "Mississippi Renewal" project is starting to survey land and implement the plans concocted by a...
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Seaside, FL - Weight of Success Proving Heavy
The New York Times has an article on the challenges facing Seaside--the Andres Duany-designed Florida Panhandle resort community that presaged the success of the New Urbanist movement in the United...
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EU Ministerial on Sustainable Communities is Underway
I haven't had a chance to digest all of the information coming out of the European Union's Ministerial Informal Meeting on Sustainable Communities that took place in Bristol this week, but it should be...
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California's Central Valley Makes Developers Pay for Pollution
An article in today's New York Times discusses the recent decision by Fresno County to require commercial and residential developers to pay fees for air pollution generated by new development.According...
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Housing Affordability Plummets in US
The Wall Street Journal Reports today on the latest National Association of Realtors' Affordability Index which indicates that, nationwide, housing affordability is at its lowest level since 1991.While...
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Washington, DC Bus System--An Example of Transportation Injustice
The Washington Post has an excellent article on the woes of the city's Metrobus system. Unlike the city's subway system which is relatively efficient, clean, and reliable, the bus system is exactly the...
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Geriatric Commune Built in California
The New York Times today has an interesting article on a cohousing project in Davis, California developed by and for a group of retirees. The small development, called Glacier Circle, features a series...
View ArticleEconomic Doldrums Hurt Affluent Suburbs
The Wall Street Journal has a good article today discussing the travails of the wealthy Detroit suburb of Bloomfield Hills. It seems the recent economic woes hurting the major automakers are "trickling...
View ArticleDensity as an Antidote to Obesity?
According to the Vancouver Sun, SmartGrowth BC has released a study by UBC's Larry Frank that suggests:Each quartile increase in residential density corresponds with a 23-per-cent increase in the odds...
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More Urban Craziness from South Korea
The Taipei Times and the KBS World Radio are reporting on the grand opening of Puju Camp in the shadows of the demilitarized zone separating North and South Korea.Puju Camp is the latest in the...
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Nimby and Brzezinski?
Today's Washington Post reports on negotiations between suburban Virginia's Fairfax county and Zbigniew Brzezinski, Jimmy Carter's former National Security Adviser over a plan by the county to put in a...
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The New Urbanism Comes to the Carribbean
Courtesy of the Cayman Compass, it appears that the global conquest of the New Urbanism planning paradigm is proceeding quite nicely.In a speech last week in the Grand Cayman capital of George Town,...
View ArticleCanada - A Suburban Nation
The Globe and Mail has a decent article today on suburbanization in Canada. Like its southern neighbor, Canadian suburbs are becoming more diverse and densely populated.Like many mainstream...
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