Sustainable Cities Collective

In the fight against climate change, it is still unclear how, according to SustainableCitiesCollective, "the world’s nations will reduce greenhouse gas emissions and achieve limited temperature rise." A recent ECF study sheds light on the topic.

The Netherlands gains the title of 'Safest Place to Cycle,' which is mainly due to their extensive infrastructure. But how did these high quality cycle paths come to exist?

In Cincinnati, voters have defeated an attempt to block the city's new streetcar, which now will move forward and could be operational as early as 2013. The new streetcar will link downtown and the uptown district around the University.

After landed No. 10 on MainStreet.com's "America's Dying Cities" list earlier this year, Grand Rapids, Mich., shows the world that the city is anything but. Its citywide rendition of Don McLean's classic gets almost 4 million hits on YouTube to date.

Amid the dissolution of Borders bookstores in urban centers, Chuck Wolfe urges policymakers and the private market to assure "no let loss" in the spirit of natural resource protection to assure third places remain available in American cities.

Chuck Wolfe explains how the fusion of laundromats and dining are evidence of the evolving city and the ongoing need for regulatory reform.

When other musicians opt to romanticize L.A. with images of Hollywood and Malibu mansions, pop band Death Cab for Cutie captures the opposite in the music video for their new single, "Home Is A Fire."

Donovan Gillman writes that since most of us can't simply get by without cars, we need "more livable and likable places to park them." His post at Sustainable Cities Collective includes photos of some interesting car parks.

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie defunded the construction of the ARC Tunnel (connecting NJ to NY via increased rail service), claiming that it was fiscally irresponsible. Now, Christie is using state funds to finance the construction of a mega-mall.

A recent tour through housing developments in Hong Kong shows that the large spaces Americans treasure in homes are not necessarily the best method for urbanizing areas, according to this post.

A $550 million plan to retrofit the Empire State Building pays off by attracting a new high-profile tenant, the social networking giant LinkedIn.com.

Eager to see the national train system (the Deutsche Bahn) regain its prestige and reputation for efficiency, the state-owned rail operator has pledged to invest 6 billion euros to acquire 300 of the most advanced high-speed trains in the world.

Two writers from different parts of the world collaborate to expound on the evolution of places and how best to understand the changes underway in the urban world.

The completed Madrid Rio Project will transform a highway into a large urban park, and is just part of the ambitious agenda of Mayor Alberto Ruiz-Gallardon, an agenda that earned him the nickname "the pharaoh."

The U.S. often gets a bad rap for its sprawling suburbs and unplanned development, but Robert Kwolek notes that many European cities and other parts of the world aren't far behind.

At a national conference on brownfields, representatives from the EPA outlined how to safely farm an urban garden on top of a contaminated site.

The EPA is moving its regional headquarters from downtown Kansas City (Kansas) to a suburb 20 miles outside the city, a move which "could nearly triple transportation carbon emissions associated with the facility," according to Kaid Benfield.

Cities across the country are re-utilizing brownfield sites as solar farms.

Marissa Ramirez, a planner, biologist, and former cancer researcher, writes about the connection between the neighborhoods children grow up in and their health later in life.

Sustainable design and historic preservation design have sometimes been at odds. But a group of experts says these two goals can work together to improve building sustainability.