"Iraq's reconstruction has been a crude taxpayer rip-off -- and while $30 billion has been spent, only 30 percent of Iraqis are even aware of the rebuilding effort." Joshua Holland writes a good piece on the reconstruction of Iraq, which "has become a boondoggle of historic proportions, but make... View full entry
A new report from the grantmaker behind plans by the CHA (or CHA?) for public housing in Chicago. MacArthur View full entry
70 years after Robert Moses's Triborough Bridge opened to traffic, his pro-automobile career is being re-appraised. "'He made it all fit together,' said Laura Rosen, the archivist for Metropolitan Transportation Authority Bridges and Tunnels." NYTimes. View full entry
Digitally Distributed Environments published a flythrough movie of Virtual London circa 2005 created by CASA View full entry
Sorry, city sophisticates, but the metropolis of the future may prove far less intensely urban than you hope. For all the focus on trendy downtowns and skyscrapers, the real growth in jobs and population is likely to take place on the periphery. Newsweek View full entry
The 60-foot-tall Pabst beer bottle that had loomed 185 feet above Newark for 75 years has been destroyed. Is this the mark of burgeoning future for the southern neighbor of the Empire City? NYT View full entry
Dejan Sudjic writes this article for the BBC's ongoing report on managing cities in an age of hyper-urbanization. 19 million people, 40% below the poverty line, 40% of the economy is informal, and with the rich living in a sprawl of gated communities, some are saying the metropolis is becoming a... View full entry
A snapshot of urban gentrification in San Francisco shows what is happening throughout the U.S., according to a new Brookings Report. The middle class is not only losing ground, but entire neighborhoods, and the consequences are far-reaching. Read | via View full entry
"A strip of industrial sprawl and barren semi-wasteland that stretches for 150km along the northern coast [of China] is being turned into a development zone far bigger than either Shanghai's or Shenzhen's." It's called the Binhai New Area, and it's "intended to help a swathe of northern China... View full entry
Dubai: Burj Dubai, which will be the world's tallest tower, yesterday reached 50th floor, or 25 per cent of its habitable height. Gulf NewsDubai's Manhattanism View full entry
Just a reminder to anyone in the Vancouver area that the UN World Urban Forum kicks off Monday, 19 June 2006. "The World Urban Forum was established by the United Nations to examine one of the most pressing issues facing the world today: rapid urbanisation and its impact on communities, cities... View full entry
New Scientist introduces us to eco-cities : "If we are to protect what is left of nature, and meet the demand to improve the quality of living for the world's developing nations, a new form of city living is the only option." Complete article included here. 16 June 2006 / NewScientist.com / Fred... View full entry
A pictorial story from BBC news. View full entry
"Hiding in Plain Sight" says the NYTimes: a massive computing factory "at the intersection of cheap electricity and readily accessible data networking." Perhaps more importantly, this architecture is bigger than Yahoo's and Microsoft's. "The project has created hundreds of construction jobs... View full entry
In 2003-2004 we did a study that looked at what impact market rate housing development in Downtown Los Angeles was having on the film industry. As part of that study we offered the city a number of ideas on how to mitigate conflicts between residents and film crews. One of these proposals was to... View full entry