About Social Media Today
May 25, 2013
Geography and Economics of Aspiration
New York, city of aspiration
In any development scheme, you pick a star and try to replicate it in your own backyard. “The Next Silicon Valley!” Yet all the schemes, placemaking, and tolerance overlook what makes global cities such as New York so great.[read more]
May 25, 2013
Bike Month 2013 and Cincinnati Bike Advocacy
bike advocacy in Cincinnati
This year, wheels are spinning as cycling enthusiasts take to the streets of Cincinnati to take advantage of community events and promote cross-collaboration between the city’s many urban cycling groups.[read more]
May 25, 2013
San Francisco’s Uber-Complicated Taxi Industry
san francisco cab
A garbled mess of regulations doesn’t help aspiring drivers, who find themselves stifled within an industry known for bottom-up entrepreneurship. Nor does it help consumers, hit with higher prices and outdated services.[read more]
Recent Infographics
Revisiting Los Angeles' Lost Cycling Highway? [VIDEO]
LA's lost bike highway?
In 1897, Horace Dobbins bankrolled the Cycleway, an elevated wooden boardwalk, connecting Pasadena with downtown Los Angeles, and upon which cyclists would pay $0.10 one-way, or $0.15 for a roundtrip journey.[read more]
Hits and Misses: Bike-Sharing Initiatives in India
India has a young population and for them biking can be an ideal transport mode for the short trips which they used to take by bus, walking or auto rickshaw.[read more]
Artist Andy Brown: A Successful Creative in Downtown Phoenix
creativity in Phoenix
Andy Brown moved back to Phoenix to cut his cost of living so that he can concentrate on making art rather than figuring out how to sell it – and found that the selling of it is starting to take care of itself, through word of mouth.[read more]
Migration Economies and Lessons from Portland
Portland
For Portland, regional planning and urban amenities comprise the economic development strategy. Build it and they (talent) will come. That’s quite different from the usual approach, which is job creation and the attraction of employment.[read more]
Sustainable Cities and Revising Suburbia
suburbia
Times are changing, and there’s evidence that design firms and planners are changing with them. Here are great examples of a refreshing mentality: plans for suburban design that account for sustainability from the very beginning.[read more]
Mistaken Urban Infrastructure: Mostly Empty Syndrome
A large number of projects seems to fall in the category of what I will dub "Mostly Empty Syndrome". MES projects are infrastructure that are underutilized. Mostly they are not underutilized by design, but by mis-forecast.[read more]
Catching Growth: Melbourne’s Public Transit and Its Outer Suburbs
Melbourne's Public Transit
Melbourne is a city that is experiencing the greatest increase in population in Australia, as well as some of the highest levels of traffic congestion.[read more]
Crowdsourcing Infrastructure to Rebuild Cities in Conflict
rebuilding conflict cities
What if I create a channel for anyone in the world to invest in real estate in Afghanistan, Somalia, Libya, Iraq or South Sudan? Most investors would not be deterred by possibly losing 100 USD when the potential return could be 1000%.[read more]
Breaking Social Barriers One Cup of Coffee at a Time
coffee and social change
Cafe de las Sonrisas in Granada, Nicaragua was established to break down the barriers that deaf and mute people typically face in integrating into the labour market.[read more]
Placemaking: People and the Urban Fabric [VIDEO]
people and cities
Initiatives like these are fine examples of how friendly interactions in urban spaces, however simple they may be, can be very beneficial in making the experience of living in a city more inviting and welcoming.[read more]
After Market Fire: Opportunity for Participatory Planning
post-Kantamanto Market fire
Now would be a perfect opportunity to develop a design solution that formally integrates market vendors’ and their activities into the overall economy; to work with those trading at markets like Kantamanto, rather than working against them.[read more]
How to Buy an Energy Efficient Water Heater [Infographic]
energy-efficient appliances
There are a lot of different types of water heaters on the market, though, so how do you know which one will work most efficiently for your living environment?[read more]
Eight Guidelines for Urban Design: Keeping Creativity at the Heart of Cities
creativity in cities
Planners and creatives need the willingness to learn from policy mismatch. For cultural production this would mean sustaining the local urban identity and providing possibilities for creativity to remain at the heart of the city.[read more]
Sustainable Cities: How Clean is Our Urban Air?
urban air quality
Air pollution needs to be dealt with in a more holistic manner, wherein major contributors, like industries, power plants, and vehicles are addressed together. No one policy is sufficient to deal with this multi-faceted problem.[read more]
Oakland's New Transit-Oriented Development Redefines Space
transit-oriented development
Oakland continues to bring new development and innovation to its neighborhoods. Next up is an impressive urban planning initiative to be built in Temescal beside the MacArthur BART station.[read more]
Stuck in Canada: Talent Migration or Lack Thereof
Toronto/WIKIMEDIA COMMONS
Canadian geographic immobility should serve as a cautionary tale for places trying to attract people. Catalyzing migration is hard to do. The reasons behind declining mobility in the United States remain a mystery.[read more]
Lessons from the Africa Urban Infrastructure Summit
summit attendees
Imagine a future for urban Africa in which free thinking reigns supreme, roof tops are adorned with urban parks, and the streets are littered with electric powered scooters.[read more]
Crafting Truly Responsive Cities to Climate Change
green roof in Kabul
Upon identifying the specifics of climate change, we can create relevant methods within our communities to internalize these specifics and to develop strategic, pro-active responses to contend with the harsh reality of climate change.[read more]
Sustainable Cities Collective
What's New on
“Great article!I'd be interested to hear more about point 4. What kind of research are you looking for? I ask because I am doing my graduate research at this intersection. I'm looking at urban flood management in Chennai, India, a low elevation coastal zone. I'm interested in how the yearly floods affect people's lifes and how different actors work together to build resilience. ”
“Toronto has recently opened a new park near our waterfront called Underpass Park. It's located partially beneath a highway underpass, and it incorporates a skate park as well as other elements such as a playground for smaller children, and regular benches. It's an interesting mix, but the surrounding neighbourhood is still undergoing major transformation so it remains to be seen how ...”