Local Culture

Conflict Between History and Modernity Plays Out in Seoul District

Single-story, tiled-roof houses called hanok used to cover the footprint of Seoul, now a city of skyscrapers and avant-garde architecture. Today many describe the hanok as "endangered,"and conflict has come to a head in the small district of Bukchon.

14 December 2010 - 10:00am

The New York Times

Outside Interests Spell Change for Harlem

An influx of chain stores and new development in Harlem has many residents worried about retaining the historical character of the nation's so-called "African American 'Main-Street.'" Not everybody minds the changes though.

14 December 2010 - 6:00am

The Columbia Daily Spectator

A New Saudi Arabia Rises Out of the Desert

An under-20 population of more than 13 million and an eagerness to move the national economy away from oil production have the Saudi government investing heavily in huge new cities that are designed to encourage a 'Western-style modernity.'

13 December 2010 - 2:00pm

The New York Times

'Local' is the New 'Green'

Global corporations like Frito Lay and Barnes and Noble are attempting to co-opt the word 'local' into their branding.

21 October 2009 - 11:00am

Utne Reader

Preservation vs. Revitalization in Seattle

Planners in Seattle want to add housing to Little Saigon, a neighborhood with a strong Vietnamese culture, without disrupting the district's character or displacing residents.

15 July 2008 - 5:00am

The Seattle Post-Intelligencer

Mike Lydon

On Pride

Thu, 04/17/2008 - 05:36

Cities are sized-up, measured and analyzed in countless ways. The Economist uses statistics to indicate how New York’s financial sector is faring against its London counterpart. Richard Florida measures the extant of the creative class. Allan Jacobs carefully records intersection densities and Jan Gehl simply counts pedestrians. Some, like Peter Calthorpe, go beyond the city line and take stock of the whole region.

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