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+6 +1
How Jane Jacobs changed the way we look at cities
When I first encountered this doyenne of urban activism, she offered one of the sharpest critiques I’d ever heard. Jane Jacobs was relentless, and stood up to anyone in her quest to understand what really makes a city.
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+13 +1
40 Percent of the Buildings in Manhattan Could Not Be Built Today
In Manhattan alone, roughly two out of every five buildings are taller, bulkier, bigger or more crowded than current zoning allows. And often that can actually be a good thing.
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+3 +1
40 Percent of the Buildings in Manhattan Could Not Be Built Today
New York City’s zoning code turns 100 this year. That may not sound like cause for celebration — except maybe for land-use lawyers and Robert Moses aficionados. Yet for almost every New Yorker, the zoning code plays an outsize role in daily life, shaping virtually every inch of the city. The bays and cliffs of the Empire State Building come from zoning, as do the arcades and plazas of Park Avenue.
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+51 +1
The Subtle Design Features That Make Cities Feel More Hostile
Think your city doesn’t like you? You’re right.
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+17 +2
Least Resistance: How Desire Paths Can Lead to Better Design
Informal ‘desire paths‘ can form with as few as fifteen traversals of an unpaved route, creating spontaneous new trails shaped by pedestrians effectively voting with their feet. These paths frequently become self-reinforcing... By Kurt Kohlstedt.
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+27 +1
When New York City tried to ban cars – the extraordinary story of 'Gridlock Sam'
Decades before New York installed bike lanes and pedestrian streets, Sam Schwartz – the man who coined the term ‘gridlock’ – was at the centre of a bitter fight to create a car-free Red Zone in downtown Manhattan
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+30 +1
A One-Stop Guide to Designing the Streets of the Future
A recently published report by the National Association of City Transportation Officials includes insights from dozens of officials and practitioners across North America.
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+30 +1
Ghost Boxes: Reusing Abandoned Big-Box Superstores Across America
Big-box stores promise convenience and jobs for suburbs and small towns, but have a mixed reputation with designers and citizens. Many see big boxes as icons of unsustainable sprawl, reinforcing car culture with highway-oriented access and expansive parking lots. These boxy buildings not only take up vast amounts of land but often also require infrastructure around them to be overhauled. Later, when their super-sized occupants leave: a giant empty structure is left in their wake, which can be difficult to reuse unless a similar retailer takes its place.
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+5 +1
The sky's no limit: unusual uses for urban roof space – in pictures
From detached houses to running tracks to bee keeping, the scarcity of space in world cities means innovative uses are found for otherwise wasted rooftops. (Gallery)
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+16 +1
Where ‘Not in My Backyard’ Prevails, Equality Does Not
A growing body of economic literature suggests that efforts in America aimed at things like “maintaining neighborhood character” contribute to segregation and lead to stagnation.
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+29 +1
The struggle in Iqaluit: north and south collide in Canada's Arctic capital
Iqaluit shot to prominence in 1995 as the capital for a bold endeavour in Inuit self-government. But their fight to carve out a modern city that still pays tribute to ancient traditions had just begun.
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+12 +1
The Weird and Wonderful World of Renzo Picasso
A little-known Italian architect wanted to build seven-layer "superstreets" through American cities.
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+14 +1
The Resilience of Cities
From the ruin porn of Detroit to China's ghost towns, images of failed growth haunt our imaginations. But Darran Anderson, the author of Imaginary Cities, argues that humanity is robust enough to survive its own poor planning.
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+17 +1
America’s First Medal at the Nazi Olympics Was For…Town Planning
Urban planning was once considered an Olympic sport, and Brooklyn’s Marine Park won a medal. By Jack Goodman.
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+5 +1
Guerrilla Bike Lanes Show Cities How Easy It Is To Make Streets Safer
Since the city won't keep bikers safe, a group of San Francisco bikers is taking matters into its own hands, using a very simple tooltraffic cones.
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+31 +1
Superblocks: How Barcelona is taking city streets back from cars
Modern cities are designed for cars. But the city of Barcelona is testing out an urban design trick that can give cities back to pedestrians.
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+5 +1
Urban Geography: Why We Live Where We Do
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+23 +1
Reinventing density: co-living, the second domestic revolution
While some forms of co-living seek to match modern lifestyles and a desire to downsize, other profit-driven models simply exploit a lack of affordable housing alternatives.
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+17 +1
10 mph Moving Sidewalks Could Make Crosstown Buses Obsolete
Perhaps you’ve been stuck behind the wheel on a city street, cursing your fellow drivers and feeling tempted to abandon your ride and hoof it the rest of the way. As you pound the horn and pump out toxins, you dream of a carless future, when cities have banned all private vehicles and turned the open pavement over to walkers, bikers, and streetcars that hover silently above the ground. But maybe you suspect there’s something missing from this scene...
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+20 +1
NYC's brand new subway is the most expensive in the world — that's a problem
Today, New York City is celebrating the opening of the first phase of the Second Avenue subway, a project that’s been anticipated for nearly a century, and that’s sorely needed to relieve overcrowding on the Lexington Avenue lines and to extend access to some very densely populated neighborhoods. But exciting as the opening is, phase one is also a very modest-sized project encompassing just three stations. The plan is, eventually, to extend it up into East Harlem, and potentially then either go further south or...
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