Grist | Topics | 22 Results

RESULTS		Results 1 – 22 of 22
Headline	Author	Published	Section
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)

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)

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)

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)

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)

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)

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)

Where the Streets Have No Name -- But the Skyscrapers Do Environmentalists upset over Dublin's planned U2 Tower		05 Dec 2007	News
Posted at 10:14 AM on 05 Dec 2007 Bono and his fellow U2-ers are stuck in a melee (and they can't get out of it) over a plan to construct a skyscraper in band members' native Dublin. The tower, monikered U2 Tower in the name of self-love, would be the highest building in Ireland. Ian Lumley of heritage group An Taisce says the building is not the sweetest thing -- it would "be an ...
Topics: celebrity, green living, Ireland, music, news, placemaking, urban planning (all these topics)

Brit's Eye View: Greening our cities How do U.K. cities stack up in terms of sustainability?	Peter Madden	26 Nov 2007	Gristmill
Peter Madden, chief executive of Forum for the Future, writes a monthly column for Gristmill on sustainability in the U.K. and Europe. Every year more and more people live in cities. Globally, we became a majority urban world for the first time last year, while here in the U.K., nine out of 10 of us live in towns and cities. Cities are clearly important for sustainability. Although the romantic green notion of us all living on small holdings with a goat, a vin ...
Topics: ecological footprint, green living, placemaking, United Kingdom, urban planning (all these topics)

Slow your city Like they do it in Italy	Tom Philpott	08 Oct 2007	Gristmill
From Der Spiegel:It's not easy to be punctual for a meeting with Stefano Cimicchi. Parking places are hard to come by in Orvieto, even if cars are still legal. Cars in the city center stick out like a sore thumb among strolling pedestrians, who move to the sides of the streets with studied slowness. After a couple of twisty laps though the narrow medieval alleyways of the old town center, you might find a parking place on the edge of the small Umbrian town -- and pay ha ...
Topics: cars, green living, placemaking, urban planning (all these topics)

Wheeling and Dealing U.S. Transportation Secretary blames bikes for decay of roads and bridges		14 Sep 2007	News
Posted at 2:15 PM on 14 Sep 2007 When one rides a bicycle, one is able to transport oneself from place to place -- thus, one might call a bicycle "transportation." But not if one is U.S. Transportation Secretary Mary Peters. Despite the fact that 10 percent of all U.S. trips to work, school, and store happen on bike or foot, Peters said in August that bike paths "are really not transpor ...
Topics: bikes, Department of Transportation, green living, news, placemaking, politics, urban planning (all these topics)

World's first carbon (and car) free city planned Can it happen here?	Jon Rynn	09 Aug 2007	Gristmill
From CNNMoney.com: It may seem strange that the emirate of Abu Dhabi, one of the planet's largest suppliers of oil, is planning to build the world's first carbon-neutral city. But in fact, it makes a lot of financial sense. The 3.7-square-mile city, called Masdar, will cut its electricity bill by harnessing wind, solar, and geothermal energy, while a total ban on cars within city walls should reduce the long-term health costs associated with smog. Masdar will be filled ...
Topics: green living, placemaking, United Arab Emirates, urban planning (all these topics)

Congestion pricing saves more than it costs Bloomberg�s law: Environment equals economic growth	Grist	28 Jul 2007	Gristmill
This guest essay comes from Steven Cohen and Jacob Victor. Steven Cohen is executive director of Columbia University's Earth Institute and director of its Master of Public Administration Program in Environmental Science and Policy at the School of International and Public Affairs. Jacob Victor is an intern at Columbia's Earth Institute. After overcoming numerous obstacles in Albany, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg's controversial congestion-pricing plan finally appear ...
Topics: cars, green living, New York, New York City, placemaking, politics, public transportation, urban planning (all these topics)

Step right up, get your 'lifestyle center'! Walkable town centers are hip	Jon Rynn	24 Jul 2007	Gristmill
In 'Center points: Urban lifestyle gains foothold in growing list of suburbs,' a Chicago Tribune journalist describes the beginnings of a new phenomenon that could have a bigger impact than better CAFE standards, carbon taxes, or cap-and-trade of emissions, in my humble opinion: walkable town centers. If people could actually walk from their residence to a store, train station, or even work, perhaps the constant rise in miles driven in automobiles would start to come d ...
Topics: green living, placemaking, urban planning (all these topics)

Leo, I've Got a Feeling We're Not in Hollywood Anymore DiCaprio-produced series will rebuild tornado-ravaged Kansas town		16 Jul 2007	Daily Grist
Leo, I've Got a Feeling We're Not in Hollywood Anymore DiCaprio-produced series will rebuild tornado-ravaged Kansas town It's official: Nine months after the rumors began, Leonardo DiCaprio has confirmed that he and a partner will give birth to ... a reality series on green building. DiCaprio will executive produce the 13-part Eco-Town on the Discove ...
Topics: celebrity, green living, Kansas, Leonardo DiCaprio, news, placemaking, severe weather, urban planning (all these topics)

What "bike friendly" looks like Is your town?	Alan Durning	19 May 2007	Gristmill
What if cities had no sidewalks and everyone walked on the road? Or, for urban recreation, they walked on a few scenic trails? What if the occasional street had a three-foot-wide 'walking lane' painted on the asphalt, between the moving cars and the parked ones? Well, for starters, no one would walk much. A hardy few might brave the streets, but most would stop at 'walk?! in traffic?!' Fortunately, this car-head vision is fiction for most pedestrians, but it's not ...
Topics: bikes, green living, placemaking, Portland, Seattle, urban planning, Vancouver (all these topics)

Metrofarming in the NYT Coming to a city near you?	Erik Hoffner	11 May 2007	Gristmill
The New York Times ran a story this week on a grassroots effort that aims to demonstrate the potential for growing food in our cities. NY Sun Works' Center for Sustainable Engineering has a sustainable energy and hydroponics project floating on a barge in the Hudson River, and it's causing a minor buzz ... Their goal is to get Big Apple rooftops under full production: they claim there is enough rooftop space in the five boroughs to grow vegetables for the entire city ...
Topics: agriculture, food, green living, New York City, placemaking, urban planning (all these topics)

Social engineering, Soviet style There's more to freedom than free parking	Eric de Place	08 May 2007	Gristmill
I keep seeing the phrase "social engineering" used to describe policies that don't kowtow to the car. See, for example, this inexplicable subhead about a third of the way through this Seattle newspaper story. Not only is this usage annoying, it's exactly backward (as others have noted before me). First, let's look first at specifics. The paper reports that the city will put parking meters on some formerly-free spots in a rapidly urbanizing district near do ...
Topics: cars, green living, placemaking, Seattle, urban planning (all these topics)

Putting a price on congestion Realizing that freeways are not free	Eric de Place	03 May 2007	Gristmill
Every once in a while there's a truth that everybody knows, but that no one will acknowledge. And when someone finally says it aloud, it sounds shocking. Like this: ... what we're doing now isn't working. Not for drivers, taxpayers or the environment. We can't tax and build our way out of this. That's Seattle Times columnist Danny Westneat in his column this week, talking about what most people in Seattle already know: the area's freeway system is flat broke an ...
Topics: cars, green living, placemaking, Seattle, urban planning (all these topics)

Another refreshing change: Taming the auto Cities find that people like not being killed by cars!	JMG	02 May 2007	Gristmill
Good story in the Christian Science Monitor about places that are taking steps (albeit tiny, tiny baby steps) to take back some of the public space given over to cars and letting people use it: The auto's demotion at Golden Gate Park follows dozens of similar moves in at least 20 American cities in the past three years. It's a trend that is gaining ground rapidly in the US, say urban planners. New York is proposing to shut down perimeter roads of Central Park and Brookly ...
Topics: cars, climate, green living, placemaking, urban planning (all these topics)

The Green Expo at Highpoint Seattle's -- possibly the country's -- coolest new neighborhood	David Roberts	19 Sep 2006	Gristmill
This past Sunday, I went out to the Highpoint neighborhood in West Seattle to attend the Green Living Expo. Highpoint is extraordinary (check out this map of the master plan). When it's completed (about a third is finished at this point), it will be the largest interurban redevelopment in the country. I won't get into all the details -- check out the website -- but here's the short summary: The community will be mixed-use, mixed-income, and mixed-ethnicity. They're ...
Topics: green living, placemaking, Seattle, urban planning (all these topics)

What a green wants: An index-card manifesto (first draft) A positive environmental program that can (almost) fit on an index card	David Roberts	17 Feb 2006	Gristmill
Without further ado, here's the first draft of my index-card manifesto. It turned out to be two index-card manifestos, with five points each: one for stuff I consider immediately urgent, and a second for what I consider longer-term goals. Feedback is welcome -- nay, requested. (I'll discuss the whole project more in a subsequent post.) WHAT A GREEN WANTS: IMMEDIATE PRIORITIES Energy efficiency: Proven techniques can get the same amount of work with 50% of the oil. ...
Topics: agriculture, cars, electricity grid, energy, environmental movement, green living, messaging, placemaking, renewable energy, urban planning (all these topics)

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