The findings of a comprehensive survey on American discrimination conducted by NPR, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and the Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health has revealed several interesting and not-so-interesting observations so far. There’s the Wait, what?! finding … | Continue reading
It’s been nearly two months since Amazon served notice that it’s ending its exclusive relationship with Seattle and looking to see other cities on the side. Since then, the mega-retailer has received 238 bids for HQ2, its proposed second headquarters. These are places that are vo … | Continue reading
Four days ago, while on my lunch break, I lost my job as editor-in-chief at LAist. I’d just finished a bowl of unmemorable office cafeteria chili and was sitting in the lobby of our WeWork when a coworker in New York sent me a three-word text: “Check your inbox.”At the same time, … | Continue reading
In 1914, during a streetcar strike in Los Angeles, a motorist in a newfangled private car began giving rides for a jitney—slang for nickel. The flexible service and novel automotive technology easily seduced passengers, and soon jitneys swept the nation, challenging run-down and … | Continue reading
Kathy Tran wasn’t the only mother at the political training boot-camp, but she was the only one who brought her baby. Elise Minh Khanh, Tran’s daughter, was born four days after Inauguration Day, and when the course began, she was one month old. It wasn’t the most convenient time … | Continue reading
There’s a radical disconnect between the way electric bikes are perceived on either side of the Atlantic Ocean. This October we got further confirmation of New York City’s bitter opposition to the mode, when Mayor Bill de Blasio vowed to push harder on the city’s enforcement of i … | Continue reading
Problems sharing: A new survey from the National League of Cities finds cities have mixed attitudes toward the sharing economy as more urban partnerships develop. A third of cities described their relationship with Uber, Lyft, and Airbnb as “very poor”—but more than half said the … | Continue reading
It’s been a few weeks of reckoning yet again with the future of local media.The Baltimore City Paper published its last print edition the week before Halloween (though a new publication is coming in its place), the Washington City Paper is up for sale, and Thursday provided the k … | Continue reading
Back in 1915, a man named William Warley put in a bid on a property in Louisville, Kentucky. The owner, Charles Buchanan, accepted the bid. But the sale wasn’t squarely legal. Warley, the buyer, was black. Buchanan was white. Buchanan’s property was located in a white neighborhoo … | Continue reading
American cities have a trash problem: there’s too much of it, and not enough places to put it. Even Nashville, which stores its waste in nearby Rutherford County, is going to have a reckoning when that landfill reaches capacity—which is expected to happen in the next few years.In … | Continue reading
A lot was still possible in Detroit of 2013: As a broke undocumented Nigerian immigrant, I could stumble into co-owning a well-regarded restaurant. We called it (revolver), parenthesis included.Ours was a quirky DIY party. My partner Peter and I stayed up the night before our gra … | Continue reading
Even by recently chaotic global standards, it’s fair to say that Spain has had a pretty bumpy week. Last Friday, the leaders of the Catalan parliament were declaring independence for Catalonia. Today, eight of those leaders are behind bars. Their incarceration pending trial is th … | Continue reading
Uber’s good news: In Uber’s troubled relationship with Europe, one area has emerged as a rare bright spot: the Baltic nations. In Estonia this week, lawmakers legalized the ride-share giant’s operations, following moves by Latvia and Lithuania to regulate and clarify ride-hailing … | Continue reading
In a special hammock about 50-feet above the ground, Tim Kovar sat back and relaxed. Surrounded by green leaves and birds, the only giveaway that he was in the middle of Atlanta was the sound of cars in the distance. That didn’t matter; he imagined it was a babbling brook.Kovar i … | Continue reading
You pass through the Chinese gate and into the red wash of the main thoroughfare. Strings of lanterns hang above you, lighting your passage. To your left, a glaring neon sign blinks on and off, while on your right, pagoda roofing and latticed woodwork adorn an otherwise non-descr … | Continue reading
The promotional video for Neom, Saudi Arabia’s latest desert city project, promises not just a megacity, but a utopian metropolis serving humankind.“This is the blank page you need to write humanity’s next chapter,” the British narrator intones as visions of flawless greenhouse v … | Continue reading
On Thursday, House Republicans revealed their much-awaited tax reform legislation. One of its most-discussed features is a modification to the mortgage interest tax deduction (MID): The bill proposes capping the mortgages on new homes for which interest can be deducted at $500,00 … | Continue reading
Historically, the most convincing case for evolution came from the the parts of the natural world left largely untouched by humans. It was, after all, on the isolated Galapagos Islands off the coast of Ecuador that finches—and their many different beaks—helped shape Charles Darwi … | Continue reading
How do you stop a terrorist, a crazy person, or just a rage-filled asshole in a commercial vehicle from ramming into a sea of people ? Don’t bother: According to the Los Angeles Times, it’s near impossible.“New York truck attack was predictable, just not preventable,” reads the h … | Continue reading
In France, the first day of November triggers a five-month respite for renters at risk for eviction. Called “trêve hivernale” (“winter break”), the measure bans evictions until March 31, and is intended to ensure families aren’t put out on cold streets. During this time, gas and … | Continue reading
The total value of America’s urban land is astounding, adding up to more than $25 trillion as of 2010—that’s roughly more than double the nation’s total economic output or GDP in 2006, according to a recent study by economists at the University of Illinois and the University of M … | Continue reading
On Monday, October 31, former Trump aide Paul Manafort was charged with felony crimes of, among other things in his 12-count indictment, money laundering and conspiring against the U.S. A judge imposed a $10 million bond on Manafort, and $5 million for his alleged co-conspirator … | Continue reading
A Montreal political party vying for mayoralty in the upcoming November 5 election is promising a badly needed extension of the city’s rapid transit system.Led by Valérie Plante, Projet Montréal’s candidate for mayor this year, the party has campaigned on a left-leaning, pro-tran … | Continue reading
The Mile High city punches above its weight when it comes to mass transit: Denver boasts the eighth largest rail system in the United States, radiating out of what’s only the 19th most populous town.That’s because of FasTracks. In 2004, with the hopes to cool congestion and brace … | Continue reading
Preventing the next attack: Responding to Tuesday’s terrorism in Lower Manhattan, Senator Kirsten Gillibrand introduced the “STOP Act” to fund installation of $50 million worth of protective barriers like bollards and planters around the city—a strategy already in use in several … | Continue reading
One Friday morning at the end of September, a troupe of about 18 city, county, and state officials gathered on the seventh floor of Atlantic City’s stubby modernist city hall for an all-day workshop. The job at hand: Brainstorm ideas for the city’s application for a grant sponsor … | Continue reading
My wife Janet and I voluntarily evacuated our house in Santa Rosa, California, at 4 a.m. on October 10. We live just outside a mandatory evacuation zone, but we opted to retreat from the wildfires raging nearby when we saw a bright orange glow on the horizon and a billowing plume … | Continue reading
When you ride a bike in a city, there’s a great sense of safety in numbers. That’s why those Critical-Mass-style rides, where great clots of cyclists fill city streets until no cars can fit, are so intoxicating. In the sea of spokes and pedals, you feel untouchable. Tuesday after … | Continue reading
In January 1979, the architect Philip Johnson appeared on the cover of Time magazine, gazing at the camera over the cover line “U.S. Architects: Doing Their Own Thing,” and hoisting an architectural model like a trophy. The model was of a building that wouldn’t open for another f … | Continue reading
For all of their complaints about it, Americans care about public transit. Surveys show that large majorities support public transit initiatives. Nearly three-quarters of Americans approve of using tax dollars to fund transit initiatives. Every year new transit-focused ballot mea … | Continue reading
NYC attack: The New York Times maps the “trail of terror” of the truck attack that killed eight victims and injured 11 others along a bike path in Lower Manhattan yesterday. Here’s what we know:The attack, occurring blocks away from the World Trade Center, is the deadliest New Yo … | Continue reading
COLUMBUS, OH.— Katrina Lewis could feel impatience radiating off the bus as she struggled to collapse the stroller. That was the rule on Columbus transit, the driver said, even with small children in tow.That meant extracting her newborn and two-year-old from the big doublewide b … | Continue reading
What do San Antonio, Timbuktu, and Peducah, Kentucky have in common? They’ve all been recognized in some way by UNESCO, the United Nations agency for education, science, and culture. The Paris-based agency operates one of the U.N.’s most recognizable brands with the World Heritag … | Continue reading
Halloween is in many ways a glimpse of a distant American past—that fabled place where neighbors talked to each other and children played freely in the streets. Trick-or-treaters prove that even sprawliest suburb can be rendered walkable when sugar is the incentive. On the other … | Continue reading
Clearing homeless people off the streets and out of parks may make cities look tidier to the powers that be, but what happens to rough sleepers when they’re forced to move on?This is a question Berlin is currently grappling with, after the high-profile eviction of homeless people … | Continue reading
Not long ago, it was thought that planes would flatten the world, spreading us out even more than the rise of railroads and cars did in previous eras. But the reality has been much the reverse. Airplanes, airports, and air travel have contributed to our geographic spikiness, fuel … | Continue reading
People unfamiliar with the idea of the bicycle as real transportation sometimes see Amsterdam—the famously bike-friendly Dutch capital—as a fantasyland that has very little to do with the grown-up transportation world of cars and trucks. In reality, a readjustment of perspective … | Continue reading
Testy relationship: To understand the “unremitting hostility” between states and big cities, Governing speaks to two political scientists who examined state legislation over 120 years, who found that bills affecting cities passed at a 15 to 20 percent lower rate than other legisl … | Continue reading
The fifth anniversary of Superstorm Sandy happens to fall just on the other side of a summer bookended by devastating storms.Below, we’ve collated damage reports to estimate how Sandy figures relative to the recent spate of disasters to strike U.S. shores, and to Hurricane Matthe … | Continue reading
In 2014, when Kalyb Primm Wiley was 7 years old, 50 pounds, and not even 4 feet tall, he was handcuffed by his school’s law enforcement officer after he cried and yelled in his Kansas City, Missouri, classroom. Kalyb, who is hearing impaired and was teased regularly about it, was … | Continue reading
Spurred by concerns over climate change and the negative impacts of concrete manufacturing, architects and developers in France are increasingly turning to wood for their office towers and apartment complexes.Concrete was praised through much of the 20th century for its flexibili … | Continue reading
Measuring the scale of America’s eviction problem has been a challenge—the data just isn’t available. While the U.S. Census bureau promised to start more diligently measuring evictions in 2017, there is not yet a national federal database. City-level records measure formal evicti … | Continue reading
Earlier this year, art historian Kilolo Luckett posted a prescient emotion to her Instagram page, which is usually filled with wondrous works of art from her frequent visits to museums around the world. Her March 22 post read: “It is exhausting being the only non-white art commi … | Continue reading
Punishing sanctuaries? A Justice Department program that normally delivers millions of policing dollars to cities and towns across the U.S. has dropped off this year without explanation, which some local officials believe to be tied to the federal government’s sweeping effort to … | Continue reading
I didn’t get into librarianship for the shushing, but when the opportunity arises, I seize it. Particularly when it’s someone being wrong on the internet.That’s what happened this week, when Andrew Walker, a columnist for the New York Observer, presented this insight on Twitter.N … | Continue reading
A trip to some of the U.S.’s top national parks doesn’t come cheap. Once you factor in travel costs, food, lodging, and gear, the dollar amount can easily reach into the hundreds. So when the National Park Service on Tuesday proposed raising the entrance fee per vehicle to $70—mo … | Continue reading
When Superstorm Sandy struck at the end of October 2012, the fallout was widespread and remarkable.Some of the most overt consequences were immediate: signs of crisis were shouted through a bullhorn. Homes and buildings kneeled at the foundation; trees were yanked out by their ro … | Continue reading
Since the end of August, more than half a million Rohingya, a predominantly Muslim minority in Burma (Myanmar), have fled violence in that country and crossed the border into Bangladesh in what the United Nations is calling the fastest-growing refugee crisis in the world today. M … | Continue reading