Since its founding in the mid 1990s, Alliance for Downtown New York has long been one of the world's leading business improvement districts. This non-profit organization has presided over the reinvention of New York's historic Financial District as a thriving 24-hour live/work district, while retaining a respectable share of the city's financial services sector. The Alliance built a network of Wi-Fi hotspots that lit up nearly every major public space in the district - not just outdoor locations like Bowling Green and City Hall Park, but also indoor atria like the Winter Garden and 60 Wall Street.
Sustainability
Coalition Promises $4 Billion to Green Affordable Housing
A collection of non-profits working with HUD is promising to spend $4 billion on updating affordable housing across the country to be more sustainable.
Grist
Zero-Waste Going Mainstream?
The New York Times examines a handful of places in the US embracing zero-waste policies, how they're doing it, and what challenges lie ahead.
The New York Times
An Ecotopia in Colombia
A small village founded in Colombia in the 1960s as an experiment in sustainable agriculture is still thriving. Experts like Amory Lovins are paying Gaviotas a visit to learn their secrets.
The New York Times
Chicago & Rio's Green Ambitions
This article reviews the lengths Rio and Chicago went to show the Olympic Committee their green ambitions. Hint: both planted trees.
Fast Company
Sustainability is a Lifestyle, Not an Accessory
Witold Rybczynski bemoans the green movement's emphasis on sustainability measure that treat environmental action as a process of accessorizing rather than changing lifestyles.
The Atlantic
Sustainability Solutions in the City
This piece from the Guardian looks at a handful of projects and ideas that are emphasizing the importance of sustainable metropolitan areas in an age of diminishing resources and environmental devastation.
Guardian
The Two Paths to Sustainability
Achieving sustainability can take one of two paths, according to Richard Carson: centralized or decentralized policy. Choosing one will be crucial.
ArchNewsNow
Manhattan is the Greenest City
A review of GREEN METROPOLIS: Why Living Smaller, Living Closer, and Driving Less Are the Keys to Sustainability by David Owen, expanding on his groundbreaking essay in the New Yorker in 2004 on why New York is the greenest city around.
The New York Times
New EcoVillages: Not Just For Hippies
The Whole Village in Ontario, Canada is an environmentally sustainable co-op made up of architects, doctors and teachers instead of draft dodgers and dropouts.
The Montreal Gazette
Creating 'Eco-Districts'
Green buildings are great, but don't do too much if they're located in grossly un-green places. The city of Portland is trying to address the issue by creating "eco-districts".
Governing
Rethinking the Street Space: Evolving Life in the Streets
For more than 100 years, street design policy was stagnant. But now, planners and policymakers are expanding their ideas about what streets can be. In the second part of their series on streets, Amber Hawkes and Georgia Sheridan examine the history of street design -- and look to the future.
ASLA Creates Sustainability Guide
The American Society of Landscape Architects has released an extensive online guide to resources for sustainable urban development.
ASLA's The Dirt blog
Poticha Appointed to HUD Position
Shelley Poticha, President and CEO of Reconnecting America and past executive director of the Congress for New Urbanism, has been appointed Senior Advisor for Sustainable Housing and Communities at the Department of Housing and Urban Development.
Reconnecting America
Where City Rankings Fail
Worldchanging's Alex Steffen looks at the recent city rankings compiled by the Natural Resources Defense Council and says the method of measurement doesn't really prove how sustainable a place is -- or how it's improving.
WorldChanging
Most Sustainable Cities in the U.S.
Grist brings us this list of the top 15 sustainable cities in the U.S.
Grist
Getting Resilient
A paper published earlier this year by a team of professors argues that cities need to learn to become more resilient as resources become more scarce.
ASLA's The Dirt blog
The 15 Most Sustainable Cities
The NRDC reveals the most sustainable large, medium and small cities in the U.S., after an extensive evaluation based on air quality, energy production and conservation, environmental standards, recycling and many more criteria.
Smarter Cities
Roadmap for a Sustainable Car Industry
John DeCicco, senior fellow for automotive strategies at the Environmental Defense Fund, and author of the Green Book--a rating system for the environmental impact of cars--talks about the regulatory reforms necessary for the car industry.
VerdeXchange News
Cities Call Sustainability a Top Priority
Five out of every six major U.S. cities claims sustainability is one of its top priorities.
Reuters
Contribute
- Walkscore to Get Bus Points
- Finding A Sustainabe Path for Jakarta
- Isn't This How We Got Into This Mess in the First Place?
- Simulating Mount Rushmore
- Talking 'Bout a RailVolution
- The Solution for Homelessness? Homes.
- The History of the Parking Lot
- The Most Polluted Metro Areas in America
- 'No Credits, Just Prerequisites'
- Center for Developmentally Disabled Doesn't Fit Zoning - Any Zoning
Fleeting Design -- Scott Page
Public Options in Transit and Health Care -- Michael Lewyn
Let Me Clear My Throat -- Ian Sacs
Don't Bogart That Joint, My Friend -- Dwight Merriam
Healthy, Wealthy and Wise Transportation Policy -- Todd Litman
D.C. Area Professional Development Courses Offered in Economic Growth and Environmental Sustainability– Last Chance to Register!
Planning Academy at Virginia Tech, VT National Capital Region campus in Alexandria, VA
Nov 05, 2009
Managing Growth With Priority Funding Areas: A Good Idea Whose Time Has Yet to Come
Routledge
Nov 04, 2009
Step Up Your Site Analysis with Planetizen's Advanced Google Earth Webinar
Planetizen
Nov 04, 2009
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