San Francisco’s Market Street Is Now Car-Free

The plan to ban private cars from one of the city’s busiest—and most dangerous—downtown thoroughfares enjoys a remarkable level of local support. | Continue reading


@citylab.com | 4 years ago

A Group of Mothers, a Vacant Home, and a Win for Fair Housing

The activist group Moms 4 Housing occupied a vacant home in Oakland to draw attention to the city’s affordability crisis. They ended up launching a movement. | Continue reading


@citylab.com | 4 years ago

Where the Electric Scooter Industry Will Go Next

Dockless e-scooters swept cities worldwide in 2018 and 2019. In 2020, expect the battery-powered micromobility revolution to take a new direction. | Continue reading


@citylab.com | 4 years ago

4 Predictions for the Electric Scooter Industry

Dockless e-scooters swept cities worldwide in 2018 and 2019. In 2020, expect the battery-powered micromobility revolution to take a new direction. | Continue reading


@citylab.com | 4 years ago

The Cities Americans Want to Flee, and Where They Want to Go

An Apartment List report reveals the cities apartment-hunters are targeting for their next move—and shows that tales of a California exodus may be overstated. | Continue reading


@citylab.com | 4 years ago

Can Toyota Turn Its Utopian Ideal Into a 'Real City'?

The automaker-turned-mobility-company announced last week it wants to build a living, breathing urban laboratory from the ground up in Japan. | Continue reading


@citylab.com | 4 years ago

The House Flippers of Pittsburgh Try a New Tactic

In fast-gentrifying Pittsburgh, homeowners say that cash-for-homes buyers are reporting code violations to encourage them to sell. | Continue reading


@citylab.com | 4 years ago

Lots of Americans Want to Move. Just Not Very Far.

An Apartment List report reveals the cities apartment-hunters are targeting for their next move—and shows that tales of a California exodus may be overstated. | Continue reading


@citylab.com | 4 years ago

Bloomberg’s $1 Trillion Infrastructure Plan Would Triple Transit Spending

Democratic presidential candidate Michael Bloomberg's $1 trillion plan echoes the data-led approach he used as mayor. | Continue reading


@citylab.com | 4 years ago

Neighborhoods With a History of Redlining Are Hotter on Average

A new study suggests yet another lingering effect of 1930s-era redlining: extreme heat. | Continue reading


@citylab.com | 4 years ago

What’s the Future of the ‘Sleep Economy’?

As bed-in-a-box startup Casper files for an IPO, the buzzy brand is betting that the next big thing in sleep is brick-and-mortar retail outlets. | Continue reading


@citylab.com | 4 years ago

Paris's Big Green Agenda

Among Mayor Anne Hidalgo's next ambitious ideas: Make the city center “100 percent bicycle” and spend billions converting office space into housing. | Continue reading


@citylab.com | 4 years ago

In Paris, a Very Progressive Agenda Is Going Mainstream

Among Mayor Anne Hidalgo's next ambitious ideas: Make the city center “100 percent bicycle” and spend billions converting office space into housing. | Continue reading


@citylab.com | 4 years ago

Mayors Want Safe Streets, But Not Less Parking

According to the latest Menino Survey of Mayors, climate change and traffic safety are seen as urgent urban issues. But many city leaders are not eager to make big changes. | Continue reading


@citylab.com | 4 years ago

Out of Darkness, Light Rail

In a time of austere federal funding, cheaper-than-a-subway urban mass transit seemed to make sense. | Continue reading


@citylab.com | 4 years ago

An Urbanist Investor’s Table Stakes for Tech Leaders

A plea for basic city literacy. | Continue reading


@citylab.com | 5 years ago

Out of Darkness, Light Rail!

In a time of austere federal funding, cheaper-than-a-subway urban mass transit seemed to make sense. | Continue reading


@citylab.com | 5 years ago

Bernie Sanders Wins Endorsement From the Internet’s Premier Urbanist Meme-Makers

The internet's premier urbanist meme-makers are getting serious about political change. | Continue reading


@citylab.com | 5 years ago

Before Paris’s Modern-Day Studios, There Were Chambres de Bonne

Starting in the late 19th century, Paris's Chambres de Bonne combined different classes under a single roof. | Continue reading


@citylab.com | 5 years ago

What Happened to Baltimore’s Harborplace?

Developer James Rouse pioneered the tourist-friendly festival marketplace model in his hometown. Now Harborplace is looking for a new place in a changed city. | Continue reading


@citylab.com | 5 years ago

Why Amsterdam’s Canal Houses Have Endured for 300 Years

A different kind of wealth distribution in 17th-century Amsterdam paved the way for its iconic home design. | Continue reading


@citylab.com | 5 years ago

Would Capping Office Space Ease San Francisco's Housing Crunch?

Proposition E would put a moratorium on new commercial real estate in San Francisco if affordable housing goals aren’t met. | Continue reading


@citylab.com | 5 years ago

Why Amsterdam’s Canal Houses Have Endured for 300 Years

A different kind of wealth distribution in 17th-century Amsterdam paved the way for its quintessential home design. | Continue reading


@citylab.com | 5 years ago

The Squid and the Governor

A retro-themed, octopus-filled political poster from the New York governor gets mixed reviews from design experts. | Continue reading


@citylab.com | 5 years ago

Would Capping Office Space Ease San Francisco’s Housing Crunch?

Proposition E would put a moratorium on new commercial real estate in San Francisco if affordable housing goals aren’t met. | Continue reading


@citylab.com | 5 years ago

Why U.S. Public Transit Ridership Is Finally Growing

An uptick in bus, subway, and light-rail riders in 2019 was driven by gains in two large cities. | Continue reading


@citylab.com | 5 years ago

Why U.S. Public Transit Ridership Is Finally Growing

An uptick in bus, subway, and light-rail riders in 2019 was driven by gains in two large cities. | Continue reading


@citylab.com | 5 years ago

How Berlin’s Once-Reviled ‘Rental Barracks’ Became Coveted Urban Housing

Why do mid-rise tenements dominate Berlin? The Mietskaserne, or “rental barracks,” have shaped the city's culture and its counterculture. | Continue reading


@citylab.com | 5 years ago

Why So Many Londoners Live in 'Two-Up, Two-Down' Housing

The most common residential floor plans in European cities offer a window into urban history and culture. In London, it’s the “two-up, two-down” row house. | Continue reading


@citylab.com | 5 years ago

Navigation Apps and Traffic Politics

Are navigation apps creating more problems than they’re solving? | Continue reading


@citylab.com | 5 years ago

What London’s Iconic Home Design Says About the City’s Evolution

The most common residential floor plans in European cities offer a window into urban history and culture. In London, it’s the “two-up, two-down” row house. | Continue reading


@citylab.com | 5 years ago

Buttigieg’s Infrastructure Plan Calls for a National Vision Zero

The Democratic candidate promises to tackle traffic safety and climate change along with highway-building and public transportation. | Continue reading


@citylab.com | 5 years ago

What ‘Livability’ Looks Like for Black Women

Livability rankings normally don’t factor in the lived experiences of non-white people, and black women in particular. | Continue reading


@citylab.com | 5 years ago

Mapping the Segregation of Minneapolis

A project called Mapping Prejudice is tracking the enduring patterns created by the racial housing covenants of the early 20th century. | Continue reading


@citylab.com | 5 years ago

As Trump Ditches a Fair Housing Rule, New York City Doubles Down

HUD's pledge to reverse an Obama-era mandate on discrimination comes as New York City releases its own fair housing blueprint. | Continue reading


@citylab.com | 5 years ago

Mapping the Segregation of Minneapolis

A project called Mapping Prejudice is tracking the enduring patterns created by the racial housing covenants of the early 20th century. | Continue reading


@citylab.com | 5 years ago

When the Science Center Was Going to Save Downtown

Civic boosters were once convinced that a new kind of urban attraction, the science center, could revive American downtowns. | Continue reading


@citylab.com | 5 years ago

How Jack Kemp Rewrote the Urban Poverty Playbook

In the 1980s and '90s, Jack Kemp tried to revitalize America’s most distressed neighborhoods. It didn’t work, but cities are still using his approach. | Continue reading


@citylab.com | 5 years ago

New York City’s Campaign to ‘Get Out the Count’ for the 2020 Census

New York City is investing an unprecedented amount—$40 million—in hopes of getting the city’s most elusive residents to fill out the 2020 Census. | Continue reading


@citylab.com | 5 years ago

In Japan’s Vanishing Rural Towns, Newcomers Are Wanted

Facing declining birthrates and rural depopulation, hundreds of municipalities in Japan will soon vanish. But some towns are fighting back. | Continue reading


@citylab.com | 5 years ago

Denser Housing Is Gaining Traction on America’s East Coast

Maryland joins Virginia with a new proposal to tackle the affordable housing crisis. And it’s sweeping in its ambition. | Continue reading


@citylab.com | 5 years ago

The Unequal Burden of Urban Lead

Over the last 40 years, environmental lead contamination has been greatly reduced in U.S. cities. But not for everyone. | Continue reading


@citylab.com | 5 years ago

New York City Unveils a Next-Generation Trash Can

The design that won New York City's BetterBin competition—a lightweight but heavy-duty plastic bin inside a metal stand—beat out some 200 other entries. | Continue reading


@citylab.com | 5 years ago

CityLab Daily: Cities are for People

A final note from the author of the CityLab Daily. | Continue reading


@citylab.com | 5 years ago

Turning a Vast, Post-Industrial Wilderness Into a Park in Pittsburgh

The city acquired the 600-plus acres of Hays Woods, once used for mining and munitions, in 2016, but the work of restoring the land has only just begun. | Continue reading


@citylab.com | 5 years ago

CityLab Daily: The Decade the City Became the App Store

Also: More of CityLab’s most popular stories of 2019, and a next-generation trash bin. | Continue reading


@citylab.com | 5 years ago

What Defined the Decade Since CityLab Launched

Inequality. Multimodal transportation. New kinds of housing advocacy. City literacy. These are the concepts that may come to define the decade. | Continue reading


@citylab.com | 5 years ago

This Was the Decade That the City Became the App Store

During the 2010s, data-gathering companies like Uber, Airbnb, and Amazon fundamentally changed how move live and move through the physical world. | Continue reading


@citylab.com | 5 years ago