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The last year has seen a dramatic political shift to the right in the Western world (and elsewhere), marked in particular by Brexit and the election of Donald J. Trump. Alongside the former, the Tories secured a firm grip on the UK, with Prime Minister Theresa May stepping in to fill the void left... View full entry
A growing list of urban planners, designers, architects, and scholars are putting their weight behind a petition intended to prevent Dr. Ben Carson from becoming the next Secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). He has no prior experience with housing and holds... View full entry
Even before Donald Trump became president-elect, Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan called for his name to be scrubbed from Istanbul’s Trump Towers. Erdogan pinned his plea to Trump’s Islamophobia, saying that the candidate “has no tolerance for Muslims in America.”
Now that Trump is weeks from assuming the presidency, cities that host his many branded properties have an additional concern to consider: the potential terrorism threat brought by his name.
— Washington Post
More on the President-elect:With Trump's Presidency dawning, the final Jane Jacobs work "Dark Age Ahead" wins new relevancyElaine Chao wants speedier approvals for DOT's infrastructure projectBefore Trump has even taken office, his infrastructure plan faces an uncertain futureCities should be very... View full entry
At a time when pundits and political scientists were celebrating the end of history, pointing to an emerging Democratic majority and extolling the virtues of a flat world of globalization, she ominously predicted a coming age of urban crisis, mass amnesia, and populist backlash in her final work, Dark Age Ahead. Eerily prescient as always, rereading the 2005 book today serves as a survivors’ guide to the Age of Trump. — citylab.com
"Jacobs outlines an increasing distrust of politicians and politics, a burgeoning new urban crisis in cities, worsening environmental degradation, entrenched segregation, and an “enlarging gulf between rich and poor along with attrition of the middle class” as signals and symptoms of a coming... View full entry
It's not at all clear that President-elect Donald Trump's plans to spend massively on infrastructure are going to unfold as he promised.
Trump made rebuilding the nation's aging roads, bridges and airports very much part of his job-creation strategy in the presidential race. But lately lobbyists have begun to fear that there won't be an infrastructure proposal at all, or at least not the grand plan they'd been led to expect.
— AP
More on President-elect Trump:Former Texas Governor Rick Perry nominated as Secretary of U.S. Department of EnergyCities should be very wary of Trump's 'Plan for Urban Renewal'Trump pilfers Clinton's plan for an 'infrastructure bank'Why is Trump seeking private equity for public infrastructure? View full entry
President-elect Donald Trump has added another name to his cabinet: former Texas Governor Rick Perry will head the U.S. Department of Energy. The announcement has drawn mixed responses. The oil and gas industry, on the one hand, welcomed the fossil fuel industry-friendly climate change skeptic... View full entry
Among scholars and many city dwellers, urban renewal is remembered for its vast destruction of minority communities, when entire neighborhoods were razed for housing, highways and civic projects. [...]
Is Mr. Trump knowingly or accidentally embracing historical conflict? The answer depends, in part, on how much we think Mr. Trump, a real estate developer and son of a real estate developer, knows about the history of the conflict over the shape of the American city.
— nytimes.com
Related on Archinect:5 housing experts offer opinions about Ben Carson's direction as HUD headFrank Gehry on Trump: "I'm very worried about him"America's 'inner city' dichotomyPresident-elect Trump offers HUD post to Ben CarsonTrump pilfers Clinton's plan for an 'infrastructure bank' View full entry
A key member of Donald Trump’s transition team said the incoming administration is exploring ways to fund fixing bridges and roads including by establishing an “infrastructure bank,” a concept Hillary Clinton promoted and the Republican’s campaign had previously derided.
[...]
Trump’s campaign had criticized Clinton’s proposed infrastructure bank as being “controlled by politicians and bureaucrats in Washington” and funded by a “$275 billion tax increase on American businesses.”
— bloomberg.com
Find out more about Trump and Clinton's plans to remedy America's crumbling infrastructure here.More on the President-elect:Architects Respond to the AIA’s Statement in Support of President-Elect Donald TrumpCompared to AIA letters issued during Obama's election, CEO Robert... View full entry
The indefatigable Paul Krugman takes a closer look at Trump's proposed infrastructure funding plans in his column for The New York Times, wondering why the President-elect would seek private equity for public projects. Is this a profiteering scheme that sneakily privatizes ownership of... View full entry
Welp, that was fast. On yesterday's episode of Archinect Sessions ("#89: AIAWOL"), while discussing the recent fallout over the AIA's statement pledging support of President-elect Trump, Paul sent out an open call to listeners: send us any other statements made by the AIA in response to a prior... View full entry
Long before he set his sights on Mexico, Donald Trump had his eyes on a different wall. He wanted to build one on the Irish coast of County Clare – a 13ft high structure erected to protect his luxury golf resort, the Trump International Golf Links and Hotel, from increasingly volatile storms and rising sea levels. — the Guardian
While the president-elect announced a climate-change skeptic as the leader of the Environmental Protection Agency transition team, this move to protect his investment suggests Trump recognizes the effects of a changing climate.More on the President-elect:Architects Respond to the AIA’s... View full entry
