Put away the Excel sheet and go for a long walk.
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We often talk about cities in vague phrases and buzzwords that obscure more than they illuminate. It’s time to stop.
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The State of Texas is prepared to fully fund a massive freeway widening project through the heart of Austin. Have we learned nothing? (Answer: apparently not.)
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I’m bullish on strip malls, for all their faults, as places that can adapt and endure even as the cities around them decline and falter. Here’s why.
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Cities with far more street infrastructure than they can maintain are in triage mode, and are going to have to decide what to keep paved and what to walk away from. Even if they won’t admit it yet.
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The famous "Growth Machine" theory of local politics explains a lot about the shape of our cities and their present-day problems. But not in the way you think.
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Compact development isn’t just for big cities. Some of the best walkable urbanism in the world is in the smallest towns. And embracing this is the key to enjoying the best of both worlds: urban and rural.
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This Valentine’s Day, let’s talk about what makes a city a great place to fall in love… and what makes a city lovable in and of itself. Often, these are the same things.
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The process by which aging buildings provide a naturally affordable housing stock is broken in many of America’s cities.
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Why does a healthy pond suddenly become overrun with algae? And what can the natural principle behind this help us understand about how change works—or doesn’t—in cities?
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How will we ensure there’s enough parking if we don’t require property owners to provide any? There’s a simple answer to this question.
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The drive-to version of a walkable main street, surrounded by parking lots, is like a Western movie set made of fake building facades: all hat and no cattle.
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An accidental photo essay courtesy of Street View provides us a look at the appallingly low standard for what we expect people who walk in suburbia to put up with.
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California has the nation’s worst housing crisis. It’s also the place mired in the worst gridlock when it comes to how to respond to it.
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What kind of problem is traffic? Is it a mathematical or programming problem, a physics problem, an engineering problem, an economics problem, or a cultural, behavioral, or political one? The right answer: “Yes.”
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The most exciting advances in public transit in North America are coming from some unexpected places, where they’re figuring out how to achieve more with less. Indianapolis might be the newest to join that club.
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More research from the Upjohn Institute, following an attention-grabbing study last year, helps us understand the cause-and-effect chains that result when a new apartment building opens in a low-income area.
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If you want to see more homes built in your city, good urban design isn’t your enemy. And neither are those who insist on it.
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A street cart, food truck, or pop-up stall is the lowest possible bar to entry for an entrepreneur with a dream. As this kind of retail blossoms in our cities, let’s make sure we don’t kill the golden goose by imposing too much order on a phenomenon that thrives on a little bit of chaos.
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Our world is isolating and disempowering for Americans who don’t drive. As the number of senior citizens reaches an all-time high, this desperately needs to change.
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