Grist | Topics | 158 Results

RESULTS		Results 1 – 25 of 158
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Headline	Author	Published	Section
The Golden-State Touch California bill aims to curb sprawl		21 Aug 2008	News
Posted at 12:10 PM on 21 Aug 2008 Hopes are high that a bill aimed at curbing California sprawl will pass the state legislature and be signed into law by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. The bill, SB 375, would channel transportation funding toward projects that encourage smart growth. Each of California's 17 metropolitan regions would create a "sustainable community strategy" to encourage compact development; projects included in t ...
Topics: California, legislation, news, placemaking, politics, progress, sprawl, state politics, urban planning (all these topics)

Highway Near the Danger Zone One in three schools too close to highways for clean air, study says		18 Aug 2008	News
Posted at 5:38 PM on 18 Aug 2008 One third of American public schools are in an "air pollution danger zone," researchers at the University of Cincinnati found in a new study to be published in the Journal of Environmental Planning and Management. They defined danger zones as areas within a quarter-mile of heavily trafficked highways. Diesel particles and other pollutants from highways can ...
Topics: air pollution, health, news, scientific research, urban planning (all these topics)

The (renewable) electron economy, part 5 More ideas for a post-oil society	Michael Hoexter	14 Aug 2008	Gristmill
This is the fifth in a series on how we can build an energy future based on our best science and no longer critically dependent upon exhaustible and polluting fossil fuels. Promoting battery and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles Governments can play a key role in promoting electric vehicles by buying electric vehicles en masse and helping develop battery electric and plug-in hybrid electric fleets and fleet systems. With current technology, battery electric tr ...
Topics: electric vehicles, energy, fossil fuels, placemaking, urban planning (all these topics)

Leading indicators	David Roberts	11 Aug 2008	Gristmill
When the conservative Washington Post editorial board is stumping for smart growth and transit-oriented development, you know the tide is turning!
Topics: placemaking, public transportation, trains, urban planning (all these topics)

Plan B minus Some disappointments in Obama's new energy proposal	Ryan Avent	07 Aug 2008	Gristmill
Joe Romm isn't off the wagon in calling Barack Obama's latest energy policy outline [PDF], 'easily the best energy plan ever put forward by a nominee of either party,' particularly given its release during a general campaign targeted at purple state voters. All the same, I found the plan to be ... a little meh. There are good things in there to be sure. I'm particularly happy that climate change features prominently and that he remains committed to cap-and-trade. The g ...
Topics: Barack Obama, energy, politics, urban planning (all these topics)

Urban farming gets its day in the sun Amid climate crisis and rising costs, big media discovers city-grown food	Tom Philpott	05 Aug 2008	Gristmill
Back in 2006, a Los Angeles developer, Ralph Hurwitz, bull-dozed a highly productive 13-acre farm in the city's South Central neighborhood. In its place, he intends to plunk down a vast warehouse designed to facilitate trade in goods shipped in from Asia destined for our great nation's big-box stores. (I wrote about the South Central Community Farm saga at the time here; for an update, check this out.) At the time, I think, urban farming generally seemed like a 'low- ...
Topics: food, gardening, local food, urban planning (all these topics)

Matt Yglesias is making sense	David Roberts	22 Jul 2008	Gristmill
On Republican gas price demagoguery: [Anti-density zoning and minimum parking mandates] are regulatory barriers to solving our energy problems every bit as much as the ban on offshore drilling is. And conservatives are against regulation, right? Except the anti-drilling regulation is good for the environment and for coastal economies whereas anti-urbanist regulation is economically inefficient and environmentally destructive. Naturally, conservatives have chosen ...
Topics: energy, oil and gas drilling, politics, regulation, urban planning (all these topics)

Norton hears a who Ed Norton on greening affordable housing	Sarah van Schagen	21 Jul 2008	Gristmill

Topics: celebrity, green living, urban planning, video (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)

Dean Quixote Nashville mayor stumps for public transit	David Roberts	16 Jul 2008	Gristmill
Here's Mayor Karl Dean of Nashville, Tenn., on MayorTV talking in almost jarringly common sense terms about the challenges facing cities and the solutions -- public transit, diversity, economic development -- that can overcome them: Good stuff.
Topics: gas prices, placemaking, public transportation, Tennessee, urban planning, video (all these topics)

Driven to extinction How transportation wonks can make your city rank	Eric de Place	16 Jul 2008	Gristmill
Here's an interesting ranking. For each major U.S. city, the list-happy editors at Men's Health calculated the negative effects of driving. They aggregated scores on transit ridership, air pollution, fuel consumption, and driving miles. (Presumably, the data are for metropolitan areas, not city limits.) Northwest cities do exceptionally well: Seattle ranks number one, Portland ranks third, and Spokane is eighth. Men's Health doesn't appear to include a methodo ...
Topics: placemaking, Portland, public transportation, Seattle, urban planning (all these topics)

Your city council could save the world How local building codes can be adapted to meet the 2030 Challenge right now	Edward Mazria	09 Jul 2008	Gristmill
Compared to cutting-edge technologies -- nanotechnology, coal with carbon capture and sequestration, biomimicry -- building codes seem downright stodgy and, dare I say it?, boring. Yet, much to the surprise of many, building codes are fast becoming the Titans in the battle against climate change. Able to fell with a single blow the giants on the other side of the battlefield -- out-of-control greenhouse-gas emissions, thoughtless energy consumption, and gross energy in ...
Topics: energy, green building, legislation, placemaking, urban planning (all these topics)

Sour Town Protesters demonstrate against British eco-towns		30 Jun 2008	News
Posted at 10:18 AM on 30 Jun 2008 Hundreds of protesters gathered outside Britain's Parliament Monday to protest the government's plan to build 15 eco-towns. The government is proposing communities characterized by sustainable construction, public transportation, green space, and walkability. It hopes to have five eco-towns built by 2016, and five more by 2020. Monday marks the last day of the government's first phase of consultation wit ...
Topics: England, grassroots activism, news, placemaking, 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)

Screwing the goose that lays the golden eggs Better cities, better growth	Ryan Avent	16 Jun 2008	Gristmill
The Overhead Wire directs us to a Christian Science Monitor write-up of a new Brookings report on how we might want to support metropolitan economies: 'If you're going to get serious about the economy, then you've got to get specific about how you're going to leverage metropolitan economies,' says Bruce Katz, director of the metropolitan policy program at Brookings. Even though America's 100 largest cities generate two-thirds of U.S. jobs and three-quarters of dom ...
Topics: placemaking, politics, public lands, public transportation, urban planning (all these topics)

The Daley show Hot plans rile the Chicago waterfront	Katharine Wroth	13 Jun 2008	Gristmill
Two curious things going on along the waterfront in Chicago, which Mayor Richard Daley envisions as the 'greenest city in America': a brouhaha over plans to relocate the children's museum to Grant Park, and a billion-dollar dream of a semicircular Eco-Bridge in the same area. A mock-up of the Eco-Bridge. Photo: Chicago Tribune. The $100 million museum plan was handily passed yesterday by the city council in what sounds like a stereotypical example of ...
Topics: Chicago, local politics, placemaking, urban planning (all these topics)

Keeping tabs on Tampa Florida city takes another smart(ish) step	Katharine Wroth	13 Jun 2008	Gristmill
Yesterday, the Tampa city council gave preliminary approval to a plan that offers incentives for green building; they're expected to formally approve it later this month. We mentioned in our rockin' Smart(ish) Cities series that this was in the works -- nice to see it pursued, and heartening to see such places taking green(ish) steps.
Topics: Florida, green building, placemaking, 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)

Richer, greener Focusing population growth in the right places will make us both	Ryan Avent	09 Jun 2008	Gristmill
The New York Times looks at the impact of high gas prices in communities across the nation today and concludes that increases are most painful in rural areas. Part of this analysis involves an examination of money spent on gas as a share of total income. The big middle of the country does badly, and Appalachia and the deep South do very badly. We can explain some of the excessive spending on fuel in these places by noting their dependence on trucks and the lack of ...
Topics: environmental justice, gas prices, placemaking, public transportation, urban planning, Washington DC (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)

Car culture on the skids USA Today: oil prices drive up asphalt costs, derail road maintenance	Tom Philpott	06 Jun 2008	Gristmill
For decades, public cash has gushed into building infrastructure designed to get us around in those little (or not-so-little) privatized pods. Indeed, the mobilization to create and maintain our road and highway network probably counts as our greatest public achievement of the last half-century. Meanwhile, while the highway rode high, our rail-transportation network crashed. Attacked and defunded by politicians and rejected by the public, Amtrak lurches on, barely. It's ...
Topics: gas prices, oil, placemaking, public transportation, urban planning (all these topics)

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)

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)

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)

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