Conservation & Recreation

Urban Wildlife

There are a lot of reasons that we should support urban biodiversity. On the utilitarian side, these organisms provide ecosystem services like photosynthesis, decomposition, control of pests, and the processing of air and water pollution.[read more]

Traveling Slowly

June is the time of year we start thinking of Greece. It’s the month when the heat rising off DC’s streets slows us down a notch and we start craving a more European lifestyle and white wine in the afternoon.[read more]

Biking in Miami

Though ranked among the least bike-friendly cities in the country, Miami is improving. Improvements are enhancing some of the country’s most dangerous areas for riders and walkers.[read more]

ideas for sustainable cities

A new ‘toolbox’ is put together annually by the Danish organisation Sustainia, aiming to differentiate itself from other sustainability awards by focusing exclusively on solutions that are available today.[read more]

Phoenix/shutterstock

How does a community lose 2+ acres of prized urban parkland without learning about it beforehand? How does a city government follow open meeting laws but fail to connect with affected residents?[read more]

The 21st Congress for the New Urbanism (CNU 21) was held in Salt Lake City last week. In between sessions, John Simmerman sat down with Urbanism Speakeasy to chat about his efforts to make communities more active. He has an interesting background, coming from a health and wellness line of work. You can hear more about his work at...[read more]

Gezi Park protests

This post aims to inform and stimulate people to think about one of the biggest public protests in the history of Istanbul. The greatest aspect of urban planning, the public, is under attack.[read more]

pocket parks

 

It is no secret that successful cities are also green cities. This includes tree-lined boulevards, large regional or central parks, and smaller, neighborhood-scale pocket parks.[read more]

In addition to games and activities that inspire the next generation of urban planners and architects, books are influential in teaching children the importance of community and how a town or city is built and functions - right down to its plumbing.[read more]

crew on the Anacostia

The Anacostia routinely makes the bad lists of the nation’s most endangered and polluted rivers. Yet a weekday cruise on this urban river reminds us of what’s worth making an effort to restore.[read more]

Pygmy Forest of Mendocino

I recently took a field trip to a pygmy forest in coastal Mendocino County through the City College of San Francisco Biology Dept. If you didn’t know what you were looking at, you’d think the trees are “sick.”[read more]

get the children outside!

If children are the future, we seem to be very short-sighted when it comes to urban design. Very little, if any at all, of the current discourse on the type of cities we should be building truly considers whether these cities will be child friendly.[read more]