It probably no surprise that I’m a huge proponent of city living. I love being able to hop on my bike, the bus, or walk down the street to one of my favorite neighborhood pubs or cafés. There’s a real sense of freedom that comes when not having a car-centric lifestyle. Each and every time… Read More Want to see more efficient spending of public money? Move to the city.
I love this video produced by Project for Public Spaces, which asks: What are our streets for? It then responds: Streets are for… … walking to school … playing stickball (and other sports) … chilling out … starting a business … learning to tango (and for dancing dance) … expressing yourself … taking gold (in a competition) … a night out … growing… Read More Streets as places…
Amsterdam is running short on bike parking, despite efforts to continuously expand it, creating a ‘problem’ that few city planners could dream of. This cycling mecca has too many rush hour commuters clogging up its bike lanes, and not enough bike parking once they hop off. To tackle Amsterdam’s bike parking challenge, the city uses old shipping barges turned floating cycle-parking garages, builds underground two-tiered parking at… Read More Amsterdam & Utrecht: beautiful bicycle parking
When conjuring up images of New York City’s transportation, the first picture that come to mind is the iconic yellow taxi cab or the screeching silver subway… Lately though, these images compete with NYC’s newest (albeit slower) transport trends: a hipster weaving through the city on a fixie or streets crowded with pedestrians. Locals pacing quickly between errands; tourists slowly sauntering… Read More NYC’s Metamorphosis: reducing cars, increasing livability
Homelessness is on the rise in many U.S. cities, in part due to a lack of affordable housing. According to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, some 600,000 people are homeless. Many cities lack the capacity to provide adequate shelter, and in some instances, local laws criminalize sleeping in public spaces. Homeless populations are… Read More Nashville: ‘Tiny Homes’ for the Homeless
It’s cold this time of year in much of the Northern hemisphere. As temperatures plummet, many of us turn up the heat, or reach for an extra layer – that is if we are lucky. For many of the world’s homeless, colder temperatures are not just inconvenient, they threaten survival. To respond to this, an anonymous… Read More Combating cold in Iranian cities: one ‘kindness wall’ at a time
Last week, I posted an image depicting city streets as deep chasms leading into abyss. An image by Karl Jilg for the Swedish Road Association to rethink urban road design. One city close to my heart, Amsterdam, has worked to reduce these abysses over the years – turning parking lots and arterials into spaces for cafés, bicycles, people…… Read More Amsterdam: historic images depicting a transition from cars to bikes in the city centre
No one likes to sit in traffic, and city traffic is the worst. But equally, when we step out of the car (or hopefully off the bus or metro) in a city, our pedestrian activities remain dictated by cars. We can only cross at designated points; we wait for traffic lights to cross the street – hopefully still… Read More Cars versus people: depicting battles over urban public space
In December 2015, I attended the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) negotiations at the 21st Conference of the Parties (COP21) and other ongoing events at the COP, joining almost 40 members of the IISD Reporting Services team in Paris. My team covered the Rio Conventions Pavilion – linking the 3 UN conventions on biodiversity, climate change… Read More Paris COP21: Tonight we celebrate, tomorrow we act…
On Christmas Eve, Santa is a busy man – taking his (hopefully eco & star-powered) sleigh pole-to-pole and across oceans and continents. If you want to know his exact location, Norad and Google offer ‘Santa tracker sites’ to follow The Claus. Yes, this is a busy man and many families eagerly anticipate his arrival. On his off-time though, Santa has been… Read More Milwaukee: Cycling Santas Welcome the Holiday Season
The Urban Observer 