Grist | Topics | 231 Results

RESULTS		Results 1 – 25 of 231
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Headline	Author	Published	Section
I Wonder How to Wander Google Maps adds walking directions		22 Jul 2008	News
Posted at 4:40 PM on 22 Jul 2008 Taking another step toward complete indispensability, Google Maps on Tuesday became the first service of its kind to add walking directions. In addition to searches for car and transit travel, pedestrians -- and, hell, Segway-ers too -- can now find the most direct and flat route from Point A to Point B. The function works for trips up to 6.2 miles long, and recognizes that one-way streets only apply to ...
Topics: green living, news, placemaking, tech, travel, websites (all these topics)

Street arts Artists and environmentalists team up to create vibrant cityscapes	Sarah van Schagen	18 Jul 2008	Gristmill
The Olympic Sculpture Park. Photo: Jeff Wilcox. 'Cities are what's going to get us out of this mess ... and what makes cities livable is art.' That was the take-home message, summarized by Cascade Land Conservancy President Gene Duvernoy, following a discussion Thursday on art and the environment at the Seattle Art Museum's Olympic Sculpture Park. Built on nine acres of restored urban green space, the Olympic Sculpture Park was a fitting backdrop for a di ...
Topics: art, environmental movement, green living, green space, placemaking, public lands, Seattle (all these topics)

Take a Short Walk, and a Long Peer Major U.S. cities ranked by relative walkability		17 Jul 2008	News
Posted at 12:31 PM on 17 Jul 2008 Software company Front Seat has released a ranking of the most walkable U.S. cities, rating the relative distance to and density of businesses like grocery stores, bars, book stores, and coffee shops to calculate an overall walkability score. San Francisco took top honors, followed by New York City, Boston, Chicago, and Philadelphia; the lowest scoring cities were Jacksonville, F ...
Topics: business, green living, news, placemaking, Smartish Cities, urban planning (all these topics)

Oh lord, won't you clean up my Mercedes-Benz? Mercedes to offer a petroleum-free lineup by 2015	Sara Barz	27 Jun 2008	Gristmill
In the next seven years, Mercedes-Benz wants to eliminate petroleum-powered vehicles from its lineup. According to AutoblogGreen, 'The German giant is working on a variety of technologies that will help provide crude oil free transport such as battery electrics, fuel cells and highly efficient internal combustion engines that can operate on biofuels.' The automaker already has two new powertrains in either the concept or trial stages of development. The concept F700, ...
Topics: cars, electric vehicles, green living, placemaking (all these topics)

Making cities less dumb Select Committee examines the benefits of smarter urban planning	Kate Sheppard	20 Jun 2008	Gristmill
The House Select Committee for Energy Independence and Global Warming held a hearing on Thursday about the opportunities for better urban planning to reduce energy use and greenhouse-gas emissions. 'Planning Communities for a Changing Climate' brought together a panel of experts on 'smart growth,' clean air policy, and transit. Witnesses included Dr. Sultan Al Jaber, who works in smart growth in Abu Dhabi; Steve Hewitt, administrator of Greensburg, Kan., the town ...
Topics: green living, Muckraker, news, placemaking, politics, urban planning (all these topics)

Some clarity on the Clarity Honda fuel-cell vehicle: Not marketable, practical, or environmental	Joseph Romm	20 Jun 2008	Gristmill
Technology Review asked me to comment about the hype over the new Honda fuel-cell car, which the company optimistically calls 'the world's first hydrogen-powered fuel-cell vehicle intended for mass production.' The key word here is 'intended.' Here it is: ----- Would you buy a car that costs 10 times as much as a hybrid gasoline-electric, like the Prius? What if I told you it had half the range of the hybrid? What if I told you most cities didn't have a single ...
Topics: Big Auto, cars, energy, green living, placemaking (all these topics)

Clarity Begins at Home Honda produces new fuel-cell car		16 Jun 2008	News
Posted at 10:47 AM on 16 Jun 2008 Honda Motor Co.'s hydrogen-powered FCX Clarity rolled off the line Monday and will be leased to high rollers in California. The Clarity -- an update of Honda's original FCX, a handful of which were leased in 2005 -- runs on hydrogen and electricity, emits only water, and is twice as fuel-efficient as a gas-electric hybrid. Actresses Laura Harris and Jamie Lee Curtis, filmmaker Christopher Guest, and Little ...
Topics: Big Auto, California, cars, celebrity, green living, hydrogen, news, placemaking (all these topics)

A radiant documentary Radiant City is a mesmerizing documentary on sprawl	JMG	12 Jun 2008	Gristmill
Radiant City is as described in the trailer -- oddly disturbing, strangely amusing, and sadly illuminating: A terrific movie. It features planning guru/God Andres Duany and dyspeptic sprawlhater James Howard Kunstler (in a strange and hilarious tie that looks like he slept in it for a couple days) intoning, in a reasonable tone, some of their most on-target slams on sprawl and the suburban paradigm. It includes lots of "fun facts" about the suburbs, including on ...
Topics: green living, movies, placemaking, sprawl (all these topics)

Bed-Stuy Garden Party Eco-celebrity, design, and social justice coalesce in a new Brooklyn green space	Emily Gertz	12 Jun 2008	Grist Feature
Sun, open space, and celebrity -- the opening of Brooklyn's "Garden of Hope" had them all. On an unseasonably warm and sunny afternoon last month, Bette Midler was in high spirits as she celebrated the transformation of a slice of land between two century-old brownstones from a paved walkway with a few trees into a park-like oasis. "I hope anyone who wa ...
Topics: celebrity, gardening, green living, placemaking, urban planning (all these topics)

Converting a Yaris into a plug-in hybrid Toyota may have something up its sleeve	biodiversivist	12 Jun 2008	Gristmill
The first car I ever owned didn't have power anything. Today you will be hard pressed to find a car without power brakes and steering. But those features also consume energy. This explains how the first wave of economy cars from Japan got such notoriously high mileage (they didn't have power anything either). One reason I chose a Yaris for my next car is that it has electric power steering and power brakes. In theory, you should be able to turn the engine off without ...
Topics: cars, electric vehicles, green living, hybrids, placemaking, Prius (all these topics)

Notable quotable Even green space can't get us off our lazy you-know-whats	Katharine Wroth	10 Jun 2008	Gristmill
'This study shows you don't really need green space.' -- Dutch researcher Jolanda Maas, commenting on a new study showing that living near green space doesn't correlate to exercising more
Topics: placemaking, green living, health, quotables (all these topics)

The Road to Recovery Commuting can drive you crazy -- no, literally		09 Jun 2008	News
Posted at 3:04 PM on 09 Jun 2008 Think your commute drives you crazy? Well, you might be right. In a culture so accustomed to being on-the-go, sitting immobile in traffic for hours each day can take a toll on mental health, researchers say. "If you're stuck in traffic, there's a feeling of being out of control," says psychologist Laura Pinegar, who says she's hearing more and more complaints of traffic anxiety in her ...
Topics: cars, green living, insanity, news, placemaking (all these topics)

The Missing Links Public transit ridership is up, but no one's talking about a better system	Ryan Avent	06 Jun 2008	Grist Feature
But how long will they wait for infrastructure improvements? Photo: Sharat Ganapati One year ago, as America prepared for the traditional summer-driving crush, op-ed pages nationwide fretted over a disturbing trend. Only a decade earlier, oil had plumbed depths near $10 per barrel, and dirt-cheap gas had allowed us to roll over the nation's blacktop in vehicles of monster-truck ...
Topics: green living, placemaking, politics, public transportation, sprawl, urban planning (all these topics)

When Casual Friday Means Pajamas More employees encouraged to telecommute, work short weeks		30 May 2008	News
Posted at 3:20 PM on 30 May 2008 Employers across the country are offering workers the option to telecommute or work a four-day week to help cut down on fuel costs. Compressed work weeks are particularly attractive to employees who work in places without reliable mass transit -- especially since a 10-hour day can mean coming in early and leaving late enough to avoid rush hour traffic. As an added bonus, ...
Topics: green living, news, placemaking (all these topics)

Metro Effectual City residents emit less CO2, study says		29 May 2008	News
Posted at 6:58 AM on 29 May 2008 Residents of the 100 largest metropolitan areas in the United States emit less carbon dioxide pollution per capita than the U.S. average, according to a new study. The Brookings Institution analyzed data on household and transportation energy use and found that the average U.S. resident was responsible for about 2.87 tons of carbon pollution a year, but that residents of the U.S.'s 100 largest metro areas ...
Topics: green living, news, placemaking, United States, urban planning (all these topics)

Where Many Have Gone Before Prius sales top 1 million		15 May 2008	News
Posted at 3:17 PM on 15 May 2008 Worldwide sales of Toyota's Prius hybrid have passed the 1 million mark, the auto company announced Thursday. The world's first mass-produced hybrid was introduced in Japan in 1997 and in other markets in 2000. While it was at the time a risky business venture, it didn't take long for the word Prius -- Latin for "to go before" -- to become synonymous with popular hybrid technology (and yuppie enviro ...
Topics: Big Auto, cars, green living, hybrids, news, placemaking, Prius (all these topics)

Smart(ish) Cities A Grist special series on unexpected urban progress		12 May 2008	Grist Feature
Hear the phrase "smart growth" or "green city," and chances are you'll think of one place: Portland, Ore. That progressive pocket of the Northwest has become synonymous with sustainability, landing atop many a list and capturing more than a few hearts and minds along the way. Not far behind, other stars of the Northwest and Northeast vie for the top spot -- places like Seattle, Vancouver, Boston ...
Topics: green building, green living, placemaking, Smartish Cities, special series, sprawl, urban planning (all these topics)

C'mon ride the train, the Coachella train Festival-goers hop free ride -- and stay car-free, too	Sarah van Schagen	06 May 2008	Gristmill
As we've reported in the past, music festivals across the country are making moves to be more sustainable -- mostly involving recycling efforts, compostable utensils, and biodiesel generators. But this year's Coachella music festival, held in Indio, Calif., April 25-27, took an interesting track, chartering an Amtrak train to transport festival folk to and from L.A. The Coachella Express was set up by the creative minds behind Global Inheritance, a group focusin ...
Topics: green living, music, placemaking, public transportation (all these topics)

What is the Vectrix? Electric bike zips up Berkeley hills with ease	Adam Browning	24 Apr 2008	Gristmill
An ex-girlfriend of mine placed great diagnostic weight on the following question: Would you rather have one cookie now or two cookies later? I am generally a two-cookies-later person, and she ... well, now that I think of it, she was more of a two-cookies-now kind of person, which explains ... Photo: Sonietta46 I digress. The point is that if you have been reading all the recent news about the Tesla and the Volt, and now Think is coming to America, a ...
Topics: bikes, electric vehicles, energy, fuel efficiency, green living, placemaking (all these topics)

Sidewalks are sexy! and other things I learned at Hahvahd	Katharine Wroth	14 Apr 2008	Gristmill
I just spent a couple of days at a journalists' forum at Harvard whose topic was climate change and cities. The basic premise being that -- as our Mayor Nickels and his climate-fighting compatriots well know -- cities contribute a hell of a lot of carbon to the world, but are also in the best position to slow our handbasket voyage. Over the two days (which could easily have been two weeks), we heard from planners and architects working in places like New York, New O ...
Topics: green living, placemaking, urban planning (all these topics)

State Farm pulls bike-bashing ad	David Roberts	11 Apr 2008	Gristmill
Remember that stupid ad from State Farm, where the natty professional laments that gas prices have gotten so high he's been forced -- gasp -- to ride a bike to work? Oh, the humiliation. Well, apparently the hubbub about the ad got so heated that it made its way back to State Farm. In response, they have pulled the ad. Streetsblog has the details, and deserves credit for generating the kind of blowback that might make the next big corporation think twice before dispa ...
Topics: bikes, cars, green living, placemaking, TV (all these topics)

'State Farm can get you back behind the wheel'	David Roberts	03 Apr 2008	Gristmill
Witness the humiliation as this distinguished professional is forced to ... my God, I can barely say it ... ride a bike to work. Do something, State Farm! Anything! "You know that place where you're swapping four wheels for two? Oh, man, I'm there." Says Streetsblog: "Yeah, I know that place. It's called a city." UPDATE: State Farm has pulled the ad.
Topics: bikes, cars, green living, placemaking, TV (all these topics)

The sweet smell of victory Seattle gets five more blocks of bike lanes	biodiversivist	02 Apr 2008	Gristmill
In this post, I talked about Seattle's efforts to improve bicycle safety. I mentioned that the busiest part of a key road was not striped, thanks to pressure from a local real estate baron who didn't want business disrupted. This created a dangerous gauntlet to run as bikers left the bike lane to start their long, hard slog uphill. I'm happy to report that the city has since reconsidered, and it has made a world of difference for safety. Which gives me the opportun ...
Topics: bikes, cars, green living, placemaking, Seattle (all these topics)

If It's Broke, Fix It EPA announces new lead standards for renovation of older buildings		31 Mar 2008	News
Posted at 3:04 PM on 31 Mar 2008 Contractors will have to train workers to follow "lead-safe work practice standards" when renovating or repairing older dwellings that house children or pregnant women, according to new standards introduced Monday by the U.S. EPA. The new requirements are an attempt to keep lead out of the bloodstreams of babes, as structures built before 1978 are likely to contain ...
Topics: green building, green living, health, news, placemaking, toxics, US EPA (all these topics)

Play Ball! Washington Nationals will play in first U.S. green-built stadium		28 Mar 2008	News
Posted at 4:00 PM on 28 Mar 2008 The Washington Nationals will play their baseball season opener Sunday in the first green-built professional stadium in the U.S. The LEED Silver certified ballpark was built on a restored brownfield, and many building materials were produced locally. The stadium boasts efficient lighting and plumbing, drought-resistant plants, a concession area with a green roof, filters to keep stormwat ...
Topics: green building, green living, news, placemaking, sports, Washington DC (all these topics)

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