A young Native American woman and her partner were on their way to make a doctor’s appointment at a Minneapolis clinic this summer when they came upon a pop-up trailer on the front lawn.The woman stopped for a while to paint a catch a dream catcher with artist Soozin Hirschmugl.“ … | Continue reading
Every December, Manhattan fills up with families and tourists looking for unforgettable holiday decorations. There are the window scenes at Macy's Herald Square, the giant tree in Rockefeller Center, and Winter Village in Bryant Park.But for those who are no longer wide-eyed at t … | Continue reading
For months, the local papers watched breathlessly as a shopping center of unprecedented proportions rose on the outskirts of Detroit. When Northland Center finally opened in March 1954, they could hardly contain themselves.“The size of such a mammoth group of stores as Northland … | Continue reading
The request was simple.“Please pray to help me stay sober,” read the note, scribbled in black pen on a page torn from a notebook. “Pray that my young children can have a healthy, sober mom.”Like many other requests that end up in the prayer deposit box outside Grace United Method … | Continue reading
It’s time to rehabilitate Postmodernism. So at least is the contention of a new book by architectural historians Geraint Franklin and Elain Harwood that catalogs the great works of British PoMo in all their glossy splendor. Post-Modern Buildings in Britain, published by Batsford, … | Continue reading
In Rian Dundon’s latest untitled project, cell towers rise from the pavement like futuristic trees and transmission boxes huddle tightly against poles, lit as though they’re underwater. The Oakland-based photographer is interested in the ways technology dominates our landscapes, … | Continue reading
On Wednesday morning, I queued up at the assigned gate at Dulles Airport to board a flight to India. I was distractedly checking work emails in the line, so it took me a while to realize that the routine boarding pass scan at the gate was actually something different.“What is thi … | Continue reading
Too bad we can’t all travel by flying sleigh: Based on trip data from previous years gathered by INRIX, the transportation analytics firm, this season’s holiday-related car traffic in U.S. metros could slow down drives by as much as three times the normal duration.More than 107 m … | Continue reading
Whenever I travel to blue cities in red states, I hear the same refrain: “The folks in our state government and state legislature are against us.” Or, “How can we prosper when our state leaders are cutting funding to universities, or doing intolerant things like reneging on women … | Continue reading
In cities where ride-sharing apps proliferate, patients are potentially saving thousands of dollars and alleviating the burden on emergency systems by traveling to the hospital in an Uber instead of an ambulance, according to a new study.Economists at the University of Kansas ana … | Continue reading
Earlier this week, Attorney General Jeff Sessions spoke in Toledo, Ohio on “eradicating violent crime in America,” addressing a room of law enforcement officials. Sessions acknowledged in his speech that crime has been on a downswing since the 1990s, but he warned that this trend … | Continue reading
Statues down: A nonprofit in Memphis did last night what the city legally could not: remove two Confederate statues from downtown parks. The maneuver around state laws is likely to draw a lawsuit—the city council first voted to sell the parks to the nonprofit for $1,000 each. Mem … | Continue reading
Traffic is getting worse in New York City—much worse. Average speeds during business hours in Manhattan’s core dropped to a crawl in 2017—about six miles per hour, 15 percent slower than in 2010.That time is everyone’s money: According to INRIX, a transportation analytics firm, l … | Continue reading
In early September, a 19-year-old college student named Mara Castilla was heading home after a night out with friends in Cholula, Mexico, near Puebla. It was late, so she did what anyone would’ve done: She ordered a car using a ride-hailing app (Cabify, in this case). She never m … | Continue reading
Uber is a taxi company. That’s the ruling today from the European Court of Justice, the highest court in the European Union, which interprets the union’s laws and ensures their application across all member states.Uber, of course, has long resisted that label. It presents itself … | Continue reading
Like many tech entrepreneurs, Elon Musk is trying to reinvent public transit. But his comments at an event last month, as reported by Aarian Marshall in Wired, made many people wonder whether he understands the business he’s trying to disrupt:“I think public transport is painful. … | Continue reading
A recent article in Time, based largely on the research of UCLA demographer Dowell Myers, proclaims that U.S. cities are hitting “peak Millennial.” The gist of Myers’s argument is that we’ve seen the high water mark for the effect of Millennials on urban growth, and that like pre … | Continue reading
With an aging, dwindling population, and polluted air, something needed to change in Dunkirk, France. So when Patrice Vergriete became mayor of the post-industrial city by the sea in 2014, he promised to make public transportation totally free.Vergriete foresaw multiple benefits: … | Continue reading
Algorithm accountability: A new bill in New York City—the first of its kind the U.S.—will prompt investigation into the algorithms city agencies use to make their decisions, and whether this artificial intelligence perpetuates unfair biases. Business Insider reports:New York Civi … | Continue reading
When the Ping An Finance Center was finally completed this year, it reached the pinnacle of Shenzhen, China’s obsession with high-rises. Standing 1,965 feet high, the sleek 115-story office building is the second tallest in China and fourth tallest in the world. It’s also the tal … | Continue reading
Nearly 20 years in the making—rife with a series of delays—a high-speed rail linking two of China’s tourist-heavy megacities may finally open as early as next year. It promises to be a “flying dragon,” traveling at speeds of more than 200 miles an hour and cutting the two-hour tr … | Continue reading
Federal officials are still investigating the cause of fatal Amtrak derailment in Washington state on Monday morning, but excessive speed seems to be an obvious factor. One less obvious factor: a lack of accountability.On its maiden voyage on freshly upgraded tracks, a brand-new … | Continue reading
As the Baltimore police department contends with back-to-back years of record-high homicide rates, it’s also dealing with its own internal strife: police caught on body camera planting drugs on suspects, surfaced corruption among the police department’s elite Gun Trace Task Force … | Continue reading
In late October of this year, the office-sharing startup WeWork announced that it was buying Lord & Taylor’s flagship store in New York City. Coming as this did in the wake of the bankruptcies of such long-established retailers as The Limited and Toys “R” Us, it was widely viewed … | Continue reading
Debates over priority seating on the subway can get contentious. The question of whether able-bodied riders should relinquish their seats to pregnant women, for instance, prompts squabbling online, as well as in real life.A good many people will offer a seat to a visibly pregnant … | Continue reading
When Berlin unveiled its plans last week to become a more bike- and pedestrian-friendly city, it was almost immediately hailed as a revolution. Assembled by the Green Party (part of the city’s ruling coalition), the draft of a new law calls for at least 100 kilometers (62 miles) … | Continue reading
This story was originally published by the Huffington Post and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. When Amazon kicked off a bidding war for its second North American headquarters in September, the company laid out a vision of its perfect suitor. The idea … | Continue reading
Tax attacks: Largely engineered by lawmakers from rural and Southern red states, the GOP tax bill creates a host of challenges for urban America, Politico notes, with the largest blow for high-tax, expensive cities coming from a new cap on state and local tax deductions. Other hi … | Continue reading
By the late 20th century, Durham, North Carolina, was in a downwards spiral. The former tobacco hub was bleeding jobs. And by the turn of the century, its downtown area was a shell with boarded-up storefronts, blighted housing, and abandoned factories.In the last two decades howe … | Continue reading
It was a bright, frigid morning in Ann Arbor, Michigan, two weeks before the University of Michigan let out for winter break, and the college town’s numerous coffee shops were abuzz with the gentle tapping of keyboards, the whooshing of espresso machines, the occasional chatter—a … | Continue reading
Editor’s note: This is a breaking news story. This post will be updated as more details emerge. An Amtrak train on its inaugural run from Seattle to Portland on Monday morning derailed on an overpass near Lacey, Washington, striking multiple vehicles traveling below on Interstate … | Continue reading
On a recent Thursday morning at Arundel High School south of Baltimore, Tiara Colbert divided her ninth graders into groups and asked them to write down all the stereotypes they could think of. “They can be awful,” she instructed, doling out markers to use on big sheets of paper … | Continue reading
In 2012, Anne Trubek decided to compile a book of essays about Cleveland, the city where she has lived for the past 20 years. “It was planned to be a one-off endeavor for me,” Trubek said, but the book really touched a nerve.The Cleveland book was so successful that by the follow … | Continue reading
We already know that invisible elements of our environment can harm us: Lead exposure can lower a child’s IQ, and air pollution kills more than 3 million people a year. Now, a study from the University of Southern California’s Keck School of Medicine suggests that air pollution m … | Continue reading
The Toronto subway system left the city on Sunday.After almost a decade of construction, a 6-stop extension of Line 1 breached the northern municipal boundary and traveled 1.5 miles into York Region, the area that adjoins Toronto’s northern border.It’s the first local subway expa … | Continue reading
Mapping displacement: On paper, the U.S. government’s urban renewal projects of 1950s and ‘60s aimed to tear down blighted slums and replace them with affordable housing. But in practice, the strategy ended up displacing hundreds of thousands of city residents, as a new mapping t … | Continue reading
Conservatives in Congress rallied behind a final tax reform bill on Friday, moving one step closer to sweeping legislation that will redefine the Republican Party and remake finance in America. Several hold-outs in the GOP, including Senator Marco Rubio of Florida and Senator Bob … | Continue reading
My hometown and I have a complicated relationship.New Delhi is well known (and well roasted) for its culture of materialism and machismo: The Louis Vuitton bags (specifically, the ones that look like Louis Vuitton bags), the rich young dudes with BMWs who speed with impunity, the … | Continue reading
When the FCC voted Thursday to repeal net neutrality regulations, it went one step further: It banned state and local governments from taking their own action to preserve net neutrality within their borders.It’s a preemption effort that isn’t sitting well with local leaders acros … | Continue reading
“I’m troubled by what we’re seeing nationally. But I think mayors can tell the story of an America that gets things done," Garcetti says.Mayors have always juggled a lot. The day-to-day needs of city management are profuse: potholes, trash collection, tiffs between council member … | Continue reading
London’s new U.S. embassy first opened its doors to architecture critics this week, rising from the riverside ten minutes walk upstream from Britain’s parliament and next to the city’s 1970s wholesale produce market.It’s surrounded by a glittering moat and a maze of bushes. The e … | Continue reading
CVS Health, the largest retail pharmacy chain in America, announced early this month that it planned to purchase Aetna, one of the largest health insurance companies. It was a move analysts say was meant to keep the brick-and-mortar pharmacy juggernaut competitive as e-tailer Ama … | Continue reading
Sprawl is not sustainable. That’s the basic assumption shaping high-rises, infill developments, and master plans in cities around the world—not to mention a guiding principle of this publication.But a new report by the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat challenges one of … | Continue reading
The cities left behind: While the nation as a whole has bounced back heartily from the Great Recession, the recovery among cities has been wildly uneven, with only a select handful of cities flourishing over the past decade. Experts speaking with The Associated Press cite three b … | Continue reading
After Doug Jones pulled off his upset in Alabama’s Senate race on Tuesday, the deadline for reconciling the Senate and House versions of the Republican tax bill acquired a sudden urgency. Republicans want to pass the bill, like, now, or as soon as Monday, in hopes of locking in o … | Continue reading
A wooden panel designed to accompany Frank Lloyd Wright’s Broadacre City model declares that students of his proposed utopia must read Jesus, Voltaire, and Walt Whitman, among others, to truly understand the architect’s ideas for a new way of American living.Broadacre was the hea … | Continue reading
The vacancy rates in New York City’s public housing have fallen to an extraordinarily low rate—0.6 percent. As as of December 2017, just 1,050 units are available, and 25,000 families are lined up waiting for a spot to open up.But it’s not simply that there aren’t enough empty ro … | Continue reading
When Joseph Borg opened his email on Monday morning, he found three new messages, all fervently advertising the same thing: bitcoin.“Earn a Guaranteed $13,000 In Exactly 24 Hours!”“Click here for bitcoin purchase!”Borg is the president of the North American Securities Administrat … | Continue reading