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U.S. Census Bureau changes its definition of an urban area, impacting 1,300 former cities and towns

2022-05-03T11:41:00-04:00

The U.S. Census Bureau has changed its definition of an urban area, which will cause hundreds of existing urban areas to be reclassified as rural. The change is centered on a new methodology for how urban areas are calculated, with the number of housing units being used as the key metric, rather than the number of inhabitants.

Under the century-old definition used prior to now, an urban area was classed as one with at least 2,500 people. Now, a place will need 2,000 housing units before being classed as urban, equivalent to around 5,000 people. In addition, the previous distinction between an “urbanized area” (50,000 residents or more) and an “urban cluster” (2,500 to 50,000 residents) will be removed, with all qualifying areas simply referred to as “urban areas.”

In addition, the Census Bureau has created three levels of definition for census blocks, the smallest geographic unit in the United States. Census blocks will be considered urban if they contain a density of 425 housing u...

Lille, France and Sydney, Australia named as World Design Capital 2020 finalists

2017-07-12T14:59:00-04:00

The World Design Organization today announced that Lille, France and Sydney, Australia have made the shortlist to become World Design Capital 2020, for their effective use of design to drive economic, social, cultural, and environmental development in their cities. City visits will be conducted prior to final WDC 2020 selection, to better assess the scope and capacity of each of the cities’ proposed programs. The winner will be announced on 14 October 2017 in Torino, Italy during WDO’s 30th General Assembly.

"Once an industrial center facing economic upheaval, Lille aims to engage its 2.1 million inhabitants (including companies, local authorities, research and training centers, cultural destinations and civic spaces) in collaborative design-driven projects. Under the theme, Eldorado: the greatest design experiment, it places design at the heart of its economic, societal and environmental transformation.

Sydney, in collaboration with Parramatta and other surrounding suburbs, wil...

Suicide rates are higher in rural areas than in cities, but why?

2015-11-03T13:59:00-05:00

Rural adolescents commit suicide at roughly twice the rate of their urban peers, according to a study published in the May issue of the journal JAMA Pediatrics. Although imbalances between city and country have long persisted, “we weren’t expecting that the disparities would be increasing over time,” said the study’s lead author, Cynthia Fontanella, a psychologist at Ohio State University. “The rates are higher, and the gap is getting wider.”

"Suicide is a threat not just to the young. Rates over all rose 7 percent in metropolitan counties from 2004 to 2013, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In rural counties, the increase was 20 percent."

Africa's challenges and opportunities to get urbanization right

2015-10-14T14:15:00-04:00

This is important for Africa, where despite high urbanisation rates the development focus has been primarily rural. Consider Ghana. The country’s urban population has grown from four million in 1984 to more than 14 million today. Fifty one percent of Ghanaians now live in cities. While urbanisation rates vary across Africa, Ghana reflects an overall global trend towards a predominantly urban future. Ghana demonstrates how cities can be highly productive in Africa.

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UCLA's Patricia Greenfield Tracks Urban Psychology With Words

2013-08-13T18:21:00-04:00

As a society slowly urbanizes over time, its psychology and culture change, too... If American culture and psychology grew more individualistic as the country urbanized, wouldn't that transformation be clear in the words from American books (and the concepts that lie behind them)?

Urban and rural environments impact personal psychology differently, according to research published by UCLA psychologist Patricia Greenfield in Psychological Science. While observational evidence may draw a clear line between current city- and country-mindsets, Greenfield's source material draws on data from over 200 years of publishing in the United States. Using Google Books Ngram Viewer, Greenfield tracked English words that refer to certain trends or larger ideas, such as "obliged" vs. "choose", to see if urbanization accompanies a more individualistic mentality. It's given that a word's frequency of use will change over time, but seeing how that frequency correlates with urbanization is an exciting metric for the collective urban unconscious.

Britain could become Los Angeles-style ghetto under planning reforms, warns Lord [Richard] Rogers

2011-11-16T00:00:01-05:00

A leading architect has launched a scathing attack on Government planning reforms and warned that large parts of the country could resemble Los Angeles. Lord [Richard] Rogers of Riverside claims that under the plans Britain's biggest cities could merge into one enormous urban sprawl.

One Path to Better Jobs - More Density in Cities

2011-09-04T23:38:55-04:00

How great are the benefits of density? Economists studying cities routinely find that after controlling for other variables, workers in denser places earn higher wages and are more productive. Some studies suggest that doubling density raises productivity by around 6 percent while others peg the impact at up to 28 percent.

Vertical Farming: Can Urban Agriculture Feed a Hungry World?

2011-07-25T12:18:51-04:00

Agricultural researchers believe that building indoor farms in the middle of cities could help solve the world's hunger problem. Experts say that vertical farming could feed up to 10 billion people and make agriculture independent of the weather and the need for land. There's only one snag: The urban farms need huge amounts of energy.

Venice CityVision Competition Announces Winners

2011-07-20T17:40:05-04:00

Two winners, one special prize, and eleven honorable mentions have been announced in the Venice CityVision Competition. The international ideas competition routinely challenges architects, engineers, designers, students and creative individuals to develop visionary urban proposals with the intention of stimulating and supporting the contemporary city, in this case Venice.

Sustainable cities must be compact and high-density

2011-07-01T16:11:09-04:00

For at least a century, governments have tried to urbanise their nations. Communist states sought to drag people out of what Marx and Engels called their "rural idiocy". Capitalist governments – Mahatir Mohammed's administration in Malaysia is a good example – tried to persuade and bully indigenous people into leaving the land (which then became available for exploitation) and move to the cities to join the consumer economy. Urbanisation was equated with progress and modernity.