You are browsing the archive for urban planning.

Agenda 21: The United Nations Threat To Control Our Lightbulbs, Our Lifestyles and Our Lives

9:36 am in Business & Politics, compact fluorescent lights, heritage buildings, michele bachmann, politics, sustainable development, urban planning by TreeHugger

I disagreed with TreeHugger Brian the other day, about what is driving the Tea Party madness in Washington. He said money; I said ideology. Here's why. In my spare time, I am active in the Heritage Preservation movement; I think old buildings and communities are more than relics from the past, they are templates for the future. For the last year I have been trying to determine the cause of a remarkable rise in the belief that property rights are sacrosanct, even in...Read the full story on TreeHugger

Kansas City Sues Feds For Moving EPA Headquarters to the Burbs

9:58 am in Design & Architecture, kansas, real estate, urban planning by TreeHugger

wheatfield near kansas city photo Wheatfield in Kansas, similar to view from new EPA Headquarters, credit Adam Sparks We previously reported how the EPA Says "Do What I Say, Not What I Do" And Moves To The Burbs outside of Kansas City, a move that Kaid Benfield ranted was " horrible in so many ways that it's hard to know where to start". The City of Kansas City, Kansas didn't think much of it either and is now suing th...Read the full story on TreeHugger

Join Author James Russell for a Discussion of Urban Planning and Climate Change

3:05 pm in bookhugger, books, Design & Architecture, global climate change, urban planning by TreeHugger

Watch live streaming video from treehuggerlive at livestream.com
This month, BookHugger presents Read the full story on TreeHugger

The Agile City: Building Well-Being and Wealth in an Era of Climate Change (Book Review)

10:50 am in book reviews, bookhugger, books, urban life, urban planning by TreeHugger

agile-city-james-russell-review.jpeg Photo credit: James Russell/Island Press There has been a profound change in the green movement over the last five years, the realization that solar panels on the roof and bamboo sheets on the bed are not enough; that where you live matters far more. We've seen a series of books that make this claim, including David Owen's Green Metropolis, Edward Glaeser's Triumph of the City, Ken Greenberg's Read the full story on TreeHugger

Walkscore Rates the Most Walkable Cities In America. Is It A Useful Metric?

11:30 am in atlanta, Design & Architecture, urban design, urban planning, walkscore by TreeHugger

austell road walkscore image Yesterday I wrote about a mom who was convicted of vehicular homicide after her son was killed by a drunk hit-and-run, because she crossed the street from a bus stop without walking almost half a mile to the traffic light. Today Walkscore has released its list of America's most walkable cities and I wondered what the walkscore of poor Raquel Nelson's home is, where this accident happened. It is an aston...Read the full story on TreeHugger

Cities May Soak Up 10x More Carbon Emissions Than Accounted For

1:50 pm in carbon emissions, Science & Technology, urban planning by TreeHugger

greenwich england photo photo: Paul Sturgess/Creative Commons Except in the most concrete of the concrete jungles of cities, our urban centers probably absorb far more carbon emissions than current calculations assume. That's the word from a new study examining the carbon storage potential of cities in the Journal of Applied Ecology. ...Read the full story on TreeHugger

Big Builders to Lead Turkish Environmental Ministries

8:00 am in Business & Politics, cities, dams, forestry, turkey, urban planning by TreeHugger

turkish parliament government ankara photo The Turkish Parliament. Photo: TBMM. Are the foxes watching the hen house in Turkey? That seems to be the feeling among many environmentalists and urban planners, who greeted with skepticism the announcement Wednesday of the new Turkish government cabinet following elections in mid-June. The figures selected to head up top-level forestry and environment ministries are veterans of state agencies much-criticized for their aggressive dam-b...Read the full story on TreeHugger

What Does "The Pursuit of Happiness" Mean For American Communities?

12:04 pm in Design & Architecture, holidays, urban life, urban planning by TreeHugger

declaration of independence image The writers of the Declaration of Independence had a way with words; the promise of Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness has a ring to it in a way that Canada's Peace, Order and Good Government doesn't. Over at the NRDC Switchboard, Kaid Benfield writes a long post about happiness, trying to answer the questions:
So the concept of happiness is embedded in our national DNA. But does "the pursuit" of this "inalienable Right" have meaning for public policy? For community? For the e...Read the full story on TreeHugger

Crowdsourced Ideas Show New Yorkers Are Thinking Sustainably

10:15 am in Design & Architecture, new york city, urban life, urban planning by TreeHugger

nyc-fuzzy-light-trail.jpg Photo: Leo Newball Jr. under a Creative Commons license. In the last few years, New York City has banned smoking just about everywhere, lit the Statue of Liberty with wind power, and put forward a plan to renovate its waterfront, and much o...Read the full story on TreeHugger

The Future of Megacities: How Dense is Dense Enough?

12:16 pm in Business & Politics, cities, Design & Architecture, united kingdom, urban planning by TreeHugger

via internet design architecture Lloyd has looked at the correlation between urban density and driving habits before, but has also concluded that medium density cities are often more sustainable than the uber-dense. This debate seems to be heating up again, with George Monbiot arguing for strict planning laws, compact cities, and high density, while David B...Read the full story on TreeHugger