It emerged...that the property developer Argent was using the cameras “in the interests of public safety” in King’s Cross, mostly north of the railway station across an area including the Google headquarters and the Central Saint Martins art school, but the precise uses of the technology remained unclear. — The Guardian
Residents in the King's Cross district in London have mixed feelings concerning the use of facial recognition CCTV in the area. “For law enforcement purposes, there is some justification, but personally I don’t think a private developer has the right to have that in a public place,” one... View full entry
Bleutech Park Properties, a real-estate investment trust (REIT), and KME Architects have unveiled plans for a new "Digital Infrastructure City" in Las Vegas. The digitally-focused, smart city-style development is set to feature "automated multi-functional designs," "supertrees," and... View full entry
Recognized as a UNESCO City of Design in 2015, Detroit has dedicated time and effort to help the city grow and thrive. This year, Design Core Detroit launched its first edition of the Detroit City of Design Competition. The international and multi-disciplinary competition invites... View full entry
The four-person California Renters Legal Advocacy and Education Fund, or CaRLA, has one reason for being — to sue cities that reject housing projects without a valid reason. The litigious nonprofit with YIMBY roots struck again last month, suing Los Altos after the city rejected a developer’s bid to streamline a project of 15 apartments plus ground-floor office space. — The Mercury News
CaRLA continues its aggressive efforts to get San Francisco Bay Area cities to stop denying by-right housing developments. “Something, by hook or by crook, has to make these cities actually build housing,” Sonja Trauss, co-executive director of CaRLA, told The... View full entry
In her lecture, entitled “Diverse City: How Equitable Design and Development will Shape Urban Futures,” Dowdell drew on her experiences growing up in Detroit and her work in real estate development. — The Harvard Crimson
Earlier this year, architect, Detroit native, and current National Organization of Minority Architects president Kimberly N. Dowdell presented a lecture discussing the importance of equity in design and development. With her multi-disciplinary background in real estate development... View full entry
San Diego approved new growth blueprints Thursday that allow for mid-rise housing and dense urban villages in neighborhoods near new trolley stops in Linda Vista and the northeast corner of Pacific Beach.
City Council members said the new zoning will simultaneously help solve San Diego’s housing crisis, reduce carbon emissions that cause climate change and revamp blighted areas where bicyclists and pedestrians face major challenges.
— The San Diego Union-Tribune
The YIMBY-inspired plan will more than quadruple the number of housing units allowed in areas surrounding a forthcoming $2 billion transit line slated to run through San Diego's northwest quadrant. Matt Adams, vice president of the local chapter of the Building Industry Association... View full entry
Fifty years ago this summer, word reached New Orleans that John Volpe, secretary of the Department of Transportation under President Richard Nixon, had canceled the Riverfront Expressway—the high-speed, elevated interstate highway slated for the edge of the French Quarter. — Nola.com
Tulane University urban geographer Richard Campanella pens a lengthy remembrance for the failed Riverfront Expressway, a Robert Moses-designed highway that would have cut New Orleans off from its historic waterfront and the Mississippi River. The epic struggle to turn back the highway was... View full entry
In the 2014 deal, Forest City Ratner vowed to expedite affordable housing for the 17-building development, under threat of a lawsuit from neighborhood groups that alleged the firm had broken faith with a community benefits pact signed nearly a decade earlier. — The City
After years of delays and false starts, construction on Brooklyn's Pacific Park development is finally moving along. But, the number of affordable housing units that the developer—Greenland Forest City Partners—agreed to construct through the project is falling short of... View full entry
As the United States suffers through a summer of record-breaking heat, new research shows that temperatures on a scorching summer day can vary as much as 20 degrees across different parts of the same city, with poor or minority neighborhoods often bearing the brunt of that heat. — The New York Times
Using a series of dramatic, color-coded maps, The New York Times highlights the growing disparity between exactly which neighborhoods in America feel the ever-increasing urban heat island effect. The report details stark temperature differences between the neighborhoods of several major... View full entry
Research has shown that areas around fast-food restaurants are especially dangerous for pedestrians because drive-throughs require more driveways, which introduce potential points of conflict. Plus, drivers tend to be distracted just before they have ordered their food — and in the moments when they start driving away with it.
A Florida study found that each fast-food restaurant in a low-income block added an average of 0.69 pedestrian crashes every four years.
— Streetsblog
Streetsblog reports that as part of an ambitious comprehensive plan update, Minneapolis has outlawed the creation of new drive-through facilities within the municipality. The forward-looking Minneapolis 2040 plan will also do away with parking requirements and single-family zoning... View full entry
Proposition 105, a measure backed by a group called Building a Better Phoenix, would halt all future light rail expansions, directing already-earmarked tax dollars toward “other transportation improvements”—mostly road construction. Like a number of efforts to kill urban-rail plans around the U.S., the initiative to stop Phoenix’s transit development has ties to Americans for Prosperity, the advocacy group funded by David H. Koch and Charles Koch. — CityLab
CityLab's Laura Bliss delves into the multi-faceted and contentious back-and-forth effort to build new light rail infrastructure in Phoenix, Arizona, where issues of urban equity, dark political money, and changing transportation needs have rankled residents of all stripes. View full entry
Rising high in the skies over New York City, Chicago, Hong Kong, and other great metropolises are tall towers that appear impossibly slender. Fueled mostly by market demand from wealthy clients who desire spectacular views, the design and construction of these superslim, generally residential skyscrapers also depend on engineering advances over recent decades in building materials and damping technologies as well as careful coordination by the design teams. — Civil Engineering Magazine
"Slender" towers are beginning to pop up all over the world, notably, in cities like New York, where real estate is scarce, but the desire to maximize ROI is strong. "The limited space for new buildings in places like New York City generally involves small parcels of land, which means that these... View full entry
A widespread over-supply of parking in metro Boston residential developments is driving up the cost of housing and may encourage people to own cars who otherwise would not, according to a new study by the Metropolitan Area Planning Council. — CommonWealth
What’s the true cost of parking? In 2014, Sarah Goodyear wrote a piece for CityLab titled "How Parking Spaces are Eating Our Cities Alive" that provides a framework for answering the question. In her article, Goodyear discusses how the average parking space takes up about 300 square feet, or... View full entry
For the first time in its history, the City of Los Angeles will have a single individual dedicated to overseeing, managing, and expanding the city's urban forest. Los Angeles mayor Eric Garcetii recently selected Rachel Malarich as the new "city forest officer," a post housed within the... View full entry
It is a surreal urban bubble, where normal life unfolds at an abnormal altitude. To access ground level, residents drive their cars down a ramp. A tall metal fence runs around the perimeter to make sure no one falls or drives off. Peer beyond the fence and you can spot the city’s landmarks below. — The Guardian
In Jakarta, Indonesia exists a suburb, unlike any other. Cosmo Park is unique because it can be found ten stories above ground on top of a shopping mall. At ground level, Jakarta is a city that succumbs to many issues. Many cities around the world suffer from their fair share of obstacles... View full entry