In modern cities we often forget the intricate relationship between urban and rural areas for the numerous resources we take for granted, including food. Every day, enough food has to be brought in, sold, cleaned, cooked and disposed of for circa three meals a day/ inhabitant. In a city the size of Amsterdam (population 820,000)… Read More Amsterdam: historic connections between food & cities
It’s mid-March, although with snow and frost in Northern Europe, you can’t really tell. Still, as the days get longer, the birds return and the crocuses pop out of the thawing ground; spring is in the air. Store windows change their displays to spring clothes or BBQ grills, but I have become occupied with a… Read More Urban permaculture & balcony compost
Good news for public transport/ bicycle planners – and certainly for our public health and environmental challenges like climate change. According to a graphic found on Visual.ly (see below) it looks like young people in the United States are less keen about the car than former generations – preferring instead the bike, the bus or by… Read More America’s young people: drive less and bike more
Broken glass in the bike lane, a flickering public light fixture or an overflowing waste bin? (Or here in Amsterdam… litter in the canals.) Dislike! Such are the problems of urban living… sigh. But they don’t have to be. Thanks to a new ICT (information communication technology) innovation called PublicStuff, citizens can interact directly with local authorities… Read More Talking cities: ICT tools for better urban environments
Swedish design students Anna Haupt and Terese Alstin decided to take on the challenge to develop an invisible bike helmet (think deployable air bags in a car) as part of a school project at Lund University (my alma mater!) What started as an exam project soon turned into a venture capital quest with 10 million in… Read More An invisible bike helmet for the urban cyclist
And another fabulous TED talk on urban agriculture, can you tell I am excited for the spring? 🙂 Guerilla gardener Ron Finley lives in South Central Los Angeles: the home of drive-thrus & drive-bys. According to Finley, drive-thrus kill more people though, due to obesity & food-related diseases. Some 26.5 million Americans live in food… Read More Los Angeles: urban agriculture and garden graffiti
Short & sweet, but after my rather wordy post the last time, I wanted to share a fun graphic designed by CICLE (Cyclists Inciting Change thru Live Exchange). CICLE is a nonprofit based in Los Angeles working to promote the bicycle as a viable, healthy & sustainable transportation choice. I have to agree with the t-shirt’s message:… Read More The benefits of a bicycle
There are certain cities I have avoided writing about; they are too intimate that it’s hard to conjure a simple observation – where to begin? Still, when I think of high-quality urban living, the cities I hold closest to my heart are among the first that come to mind. One of those is Seattle, my… Read More Seattle: hiking boots & high heels | bicycles & buses
In February 2010, I travelled to Sevilla, Spain to speak at a conference on urban obsolescence put on by La Civdad Viva while working for the City of Malmö, Sweden. The conference focused on retrofitting social housing projects – how to engage residents and promote participation, improve energy efficiency and highlight architectural qualities. It was an impressive… Read More Sevilla: sunshine, orange trees, bicycles and great public spaces
Leave it to the Danes to prove how much cooler public transport can be than the private car. Probably one of the best commercials out there to advertise public transport, depicting the adventure, the glamour, the impressive views… one can enjoy while riding the bus. Albeit, a Danish friend informed me that while bus transport is widely promoted… Read More Making public transport sexy…
The Urban Observer 