The City Charter, the document that lays out the rules of city government, has traditionally been the domain of municipal lawyers and few others. Its pages are a tangle of esoteric language and run-on sentences... But in a decision born of desperation and perhaps a touch of naïveté, a... View full entry
New Yorkers would do well to pay attention a proposal to tear down several buildings in the Greenwich Village Historic District if they care about the city’s future. NYT View full entry
The capital hasn't seen this kind of an architectural makeover since the Mongols overtook the city, but a new Beijing may not be what's best for a modern China. CSM View full entry
Highway 443, a major access road to Jerusalem — has taken on special significance in the grinding Israeli-Palestinian conflict. For the first time, the Supreme Court, albeit in an interim decision, has accepted the idea of separate roads for Palestinians in the occupied areas. NYT What is... View full entry
Martin filler explores how cities and musuems hoping for the Bilbao effect are being slightly disingenous towards their constituents. Arch RecordHe writes;I applaud cities that subsidize museums rather than stadiums, but officials should just level with taxpayers, admit that spending on culture is... View full entry
Matt Schuerman, WNYC economic development reporter, and Greg David, editor of Crain's New York Business, look at the new railyard deal for Manhattan's west side and check in on the development of the Atlantic railyards in Brooklyn. Listen @ WNYC | previously 1 2 3 View full entry
Toby Segaran has used free data to make an animated map of Walmart's growth in the US. View full entry
So what exactly did New York Times architecture critic Nicolai Ouroussoff mean last Friday when he counted himself among "we" opponents of the Atlantic Yards project? I observed that "more likely, he’s an opponent of [architect Frank] Gehry’s vision being stymied." Indeed, more of... View full entry
“Tanks, roadblocks, refugees, bypass roads, columns of villagers on foot, ambulances driving haphazardly down improvised dirt paths—a great and awesome suffering is the view that the Israeli settler from Beth El sees every day from his window, and yet he remains indifferent."... View full entry
Joel Kotkin, of The American, makes a case for Houston as the most likely candidate in Lone Star Rising. Maybe I’m biased as a former Houston resident, but I need to question his arguments. View full entry
Lord Rogers argues that public space should not be seen as an additional "amenity" for urban areas, but as an essential element of urban infrastructure - part of the transport system, the drainage system, the ecosystem, the health service, and part of the daily life of every citizen. Guardian View full entry
...a flat, fat, growing urban experiment. via new-territoriesRumours I’ve heard about something that builds up only through multiple, heterogeneous and contradictory scenarios, something that rejects even the idea of a possible prediction about its form of growth or future typology... View full entry
In a rare interview Niemeyer, now 100 and still professionally active, told the Guardian that his planned city is out of control. The Guardian View full entry
It is one of the most seismic changes the world has ever seen. Across the globe there is an unstoppable march to the cities, powered by new economic realities. But what kind of lives are we creating? And will citizens - and cities - cope with the fierce pressures of this new urban age? Deyan... View full entry
I am sure it has been blogged to death. link View full entry