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RESULTS		Results 51 – 75 of 1220
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Headline	Author	Published	Section
Vertical farms and future cities Sustainability a big theme at the World Science Festival	Maywa Montenegro	02 Jun 2008	Gristmill
What do vertical farms, green roofs, soft cars, breathing walls, and Dongtan, China, have in common? They were all subjects of discussion at Friday's Future Cities event in New York City, part of the four-day 2008 World Science Festival. To a packed house, Columbia University microbiologist Dickson Despommier described his vision for feeding the planet's burgeoning, and increasingly urban, population. The vertical farm takes agriculture and stacks it into the tie ...
Topics: food, innovation, local food, placemaking, tech, 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)

Muddy footprints What a ranking of cities can tell us -- and what it can't	Eric de Place	30 May 2008	Gristmill
There's a big carbon footprint report out yesterday from Brookings. It ranks cities [PDF] according to their per capita carbon emissions. Sort of, anyway. Before I pick on it a little, I guess I should mention that Pacific Northwest cities do exceptionally well. Out of the 100 cities in the analysis, Portland ranks 3rd, Boise is 5th, and Seattle 6th. There's very little difference between them. That's wonderful and all, but the analysis only covers about 50 pe ...
Topics: climate, ecological footprint, greenhouse-gas emissions, placemaking, public transportation, Seattle (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)

Notable quotable Yes we can! (ride bikes)	David Roberts	22 May 2008	Gristmill
'It's time that the entire country learn from what's happening right here in Portland with mass transit and bicycle lanes and funding alternative means of transportation. That's the kind of solution that we need for America.' -- Barack Obama, speaking to a rally in Portland, Ore., where an estimated 8,000 out of 75,000 attendees arrived on bikes (via Streetsblog)
Topics: Barack Obama, bikes, placemaking, politics, Portland, public transportation (all these topics)

Surely there must be some mistake	David Roberts	20 May 2008	Gristmill
Branch of U.S. federal government accidentally passes bill that would provide $1.7 billion in grant funding for public transit.
Topics: brilliance, legislation, placemaking, politics, public transportation (all these topics)

He doesn't say so explicitly ...	David Roberts	19 May 2008	Gristmill
... but this Paul Krugman column is about placemaking. On that note, don't miss our Smart(ish) Cities series.
Topics: placemaking, public transportation (all these topics)

It's Also National Pizza Party Day Greens celebrate two holidays today		16 May 2008	News
Posted at 2:03 PM on 16 May 2008 If you saw a tiger riding a two-wheeler to the office this morning, that's because it's Endangered Species Bike to Work Day. Wait, wait, we're getting a memo -- oh, actually, it's both Endangered Species Day and Bike to Work Day. (Then what the hell was that tiger doing?) In honor of Bike to Work Day, bicyclists in many cities picked up free swag along their commute routes this morning. In ho ...
Topics: bikes, endangered species, holiday, news, placemaking, wildlife, World Wildlife Fund (all these topics)

Your Cities, Yourselves Smart-growth advocates offer tips for changing your neck of the woods		16 May 2008	Grist Feature
This week we've profiled several cities that are changing the way their residents live, work, and get around -- all with an eye toward fighting climate change and building a more sustainable future. So what can you do if your community hasn't seen the light? We asked our sources for advice, and here's what they had to say. Kimber Lanning. "Buy local whenever possible. Whether you're hir ...
Topics: advice, grassroots activism, green building, placemaking, Smartish Cities, special series, urban planning (all these topics)

Urban Legends Smart(ish) Cities series ends, sustainability efforts march on	Lisa Selin Davis	16 May 2008	Grist Feature
By now, you may have forgotten that Portland was ever crowned the Miss Universe of Sustainability, and have started packing up your bicycles and solar panels for the big move to Syracuse or Tampa. OK, maybe you're not thinking of uprooting yourself and your family. More likely, you're evaluating your own city to figure out what green things it's got going for it, where it lags behind, ...
Topics: environmental justice, green building, placemaking, Smartish Cities, special series, sprawl, 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)

Shinier, Happier People How three Rust Belt cities are changing		15 May 2008	Grist Feature
For more on Rust Belt cities, see our full feature on sustainability initiatives underway in Cleveland. It may not be intuitive to link an area historically associated with steel mills, coal mining, and automobile assembly lines to sustainable development. But green growth is catching on in the Rust Belt, long an economically unendowed area of the country -- and its manufacturing-heavy past is coming in handy in emerging ...
Topics: green building, New York, Pennsylvania, placemaking, Smartish Cities, special series, urban planning, Wisconsin (all these topics)

Those About to Rock Can Cleveland bring itself back from the brink?	Kristine Hansen	15 May 2008	Grist Feature
Still known for smokestacks and football, Cleveland is turning its ship around. Photo: Craig Hatfield "Most people know Cleveland by the Browns or The Flats," says Marc Lefkowitz. From the roof of his office building, which is dotted with native wildflowers and grasses, he gestures to the downtown skyline -- marked by the iconic Mittal Steel smokestacks that gave The Flats neighborhood it ...
Topics: green building, Ohio, placemaking, Smartish Cities, special series, urban planning (all these topics)

Outer Limits Sprawling Atlanta seeks new routes to the future	Robert DiGiacomo	14 May 2008	Grist Feature
The City in the Forest hopes to get back to its roots. Despite its reputation as a city of wall-to-wall subdivisions, office complexes, and shopping centers, Atlanta's not a complete stranger to matters of green. At the time of its mid-19th century founding, in the woods at the end of a railroad line, it was called the "City in the Forest." And in the early 20th century, the city created the 1 ...
Topics: Georgia, green building, placemaking, Smartish Cities, special series, sprawl, urban planning (all these topics)

A Moment in the Sun How three Southeast cities are changing		14 May 2008	Grist Feature
For more on Southeast cities, see our full feature on sustainability initiatives underway in Atlanta. With rapid population growth and increased climate vulnerability, the Southeastern U.S. would seem a prime place for sustainability initiatives. But the area has been slow to cotton on to the greening trend. We chalk it up to the South's shade-shifting toward red in the last fifty years -- aligning with a party that was, unt ...
Topics: climate, Florida, green building, placemaking, Smartish Cities, special series, Tennessee, urban planning, Virginia (all these topics)

Dry, Dry Again How three Southwestern cities are changing		13 May 2008	Grist Feature
For more on Southwest cities see our full feature on sustainability initiatives underway in Phoenix. Scan any list of "green U.S. cities" for winners from the Southwest, and you'll find a geographical void. Sure, a liberal-leaning place like Austin or Santa Fe or Boulder might sneak onto the list, but in general, there's a dearth of entries from this sun-drenched region. And that's troubling, as Southwest cities tend ...
Topics: green building, Nevada, New Mexico, placemaking, Smartish Cities, special series, sprawl, Texas, urban planning (all these topics)

Hope for a Desert Delinquent What Phoenix, the poster child for environmental ills, is doing right	Lisa Selin Davis	13 May 2008	Grist Feature
Can Phoenix remake its desert-gobbling ways? In order for Phoenix to truly be a green city, it would have to be brown. Or not brown, exactly, but the sandy shade of the mountains that surround it: the jagged peaks and parched hills that enclose the Valley of the Sun. These days, though, Phoenix is a less-natural shade of brown; a ring of smoggy pollution known locall ...
Topics: Arizona, climate, green building, placemaking, Smartish Cities, special series, urban planning (all these topics)

The transit surge is working Despite increased ridership, we need more funding as well as support for our trains	Jon Rynn	12 May 2008	Gristmill
Paul Krugman ponders the reason that conservatives are so enamored of the idea that speculators are driving up the price of oil: The odds are that we're looking at a future in which energy conservation becomes increasingly important, in which many people may even -- gasp -- take public transit to work. I don't find that vision particularly abhorrent, but a lot of people, especially on the right, do. And indeed -- gasp -- according to an article in The New York Times, 'Gas ...
Topics: energy, oil, placemaking, public transportation (all these topics)

Easy Rider Transit ridership up across U.S.		12 May 2008	News
Posted at 3:57 PM on 12 May 2008 Transit ridership has jumped across the U.S. as folks get tired of paying at the pump. From January to March, transit ridership jumped 10 percent in Boston, 8 percent in both Los Angeles and Denver, and 7.2 percent in the Twin Cities. In Philadelphia, transit ridership in March 2008 was up 11 percent from March 2007; in April, ridership in south Florida was an impressive 28 percent above the year before. "Nobody b ...
Topics: Boston, Florida, Los Angeles, news, Philadelphia, placemaking, public transportation (all these topics)

Urban Index Fast facts about cities, climate change, and sustainability		12 May 2008	Grist Feature
Less than 1: Percent of the earth's surface covered by cities (1) 75: Percent of global energy consumed by cities (2) 80: Percent of global greenhouse-gas emissions contributed by cities (1) 6.7 billion: World population in 2007 (3) 50: Percent of world population expected to live in urban areas by the end of 2008 (3) 70: Percent of world population expected to live in urban areas by 2050 (3) 840: Mayors who have ...
Topics: climate, green building, placemaking, Smartish Cities, special series, urban planning (all these topics)

What's a Sustainable City, Anyway? Green-city ranking group SustainLane explains its methodology	James Elsen	12 May 2008	Grist Feature
With a chart-topping 26,000 people per square mile, New York City has to be smart. Photo: Tom Twigg How smart is your city? Take our quiz to find out. Back in 2004, the news emerged that two-thirds of the world's population might be living in cities by 2030. At SustainLane, we got curious about what cities were doing to handle that growth, and we began taking a closer look ...
Topics: green building, placemaking, public lands, public transportation, Smartish Cities, special series, sprawl, urban planning (all these topics)

Where the Lead Comes Sweepin' Down the Plain Tornado ravages town already ravaged by pollution		12 May 2008	News
Posted at 10:41 AM on 12 May 2008 Six people were killed in Picher, Okla., this weekend as a giant tornado swept through. The not-so-bright bright side: It's likely that some fatalities were avoided, since many residents of Picher have already left. Picher is so polluted with mining waste that it's listed as a Superfund site; the town's booming lead and zinc mines closed decades ago, and its population ...
Topics: air pollution, health, mining, news, Oklahoma, placemaking, severe weather, toxics, waste (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)

That infrastructure thing Congestion pricing might come in handy	Ryan Avent	12 May 2008	Gristmill
Speaking of our crumbling public facilities, CBO Director Peter Orszag testified in Congress on Friday and detailed the country's infrastructure needs. They are dire, in some cases. He notes in a related blog post (yes, the CBO director has a blog): Although capital spending on transportation infrastructure already exceeds $100 billion annually, studies from the Federal Highway Administration, the Federal Aviation Administration, and elsewhere suggest that it would cost ...
Topics: placemaking, public transportation (all these topics)

California, here we come Unprecedented land conservation deal	Jason D Scorse	09 May 2008	Gristmill
The biggest land conservation deal in California's history was announced yesterday, totaling nearly 240,000 acres in Southern California.A couple of features, while not entirely new, are worth pointing out: The deal involved allowing the owners to develop about 10 percent of the area pretty intensely and maintain some natural resource extraction while preserving as wilderness the overwhelming majority -- a good example of making a trade-off that doesn't pit economi ...
Topics: California, habitat protection, placemaking, public lands, wildlife (all these topics)

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