The Nation

Public space plays an important role in cities. Essential to creating good public spaces, according to this commentary from The Nation, is the art community.

The Obama administration has been touting its dedication of $48.1 billion in stimulus money to roads and transit projects. But it's all going towards new projects, not day-to-day operational needs.

For years, not-for-profit agencies were relied upon to cover social and housing services formerly provided by governments. Now that municipal and state budgets are drying up along with foundation grants, NGOs are losing their funding sources.

The world is facing a water crisis, and existing development and management practices are only making it worse. This interview with water expert Peter Gleick looks at what's being done wrong and how it can be done right.

This piece from The Nation looks at the prospect of transit in America, what a renewed nationwide system could accomplish, and what it would take to achieve politically.

Architect Teddy Cruz examines the south-north flow of "nonconforming urbanism" in the Tijuana-San Diego region, and how changing communities in this dynamic area could shape the way we think about increasing density.

Tijuana is literally built with the development waste of nearby San Diego, California. This video by Laura Hanna shows how.

Underwhelmed by government, communities, organizations (like ACORN) and ad-hoc citizen's groups are coming together to fight back against foreclosures.

Some economists are arguing that the proposed federal bailout of Wall Street will do little for the economy unless it includes provisions to reinvest in infrastructure and refinance mortgages.

People of color are finding it more and more difficult to secure housing in New Orleans, as new and old forms of housing discrimination -- and overt racism -- are conspiring to keep them out.

With heating oil expected to be 36% more expensive, natural gas twice that amount, and LIHEAP funding lower than it was in the 1980s, there are grave warnings that the northeastern U.S. could be facing a "frozen Katrina" this winter.

Friends of the Earth president Brent Blackwelder and journalist James S. Henry believe that the federal bailout of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac needs to come with some very green strings attached.

As part of a series of articles in The Nation on a New "New Deal", Bill McKibben argues that we need a huge investment of labor and money into green initiatives.

Robert Pollin & Heidi Garrett-Peltier writing in The Nation show that the U.S. has spent hundreds of billions of dollars in Iraq that could have been much more productively invested in public goods like sustainable infrastructure.

Protests over the extension of a magnetic levitation train line are evidence of an increasing trend of NIMBYism in China.

Having been particularly targeted by subprime mortgage lenders, neighborhoods with a majority of African American households are bearing the brunt of the housing crisis.

Maintaining and rebuilding America's infrastructure could cost over $1 trillion. What's needed is the political will to create a "Federal Infrastructure Bank".

In transportation, energy, and green technology the U.S. is falling behind, writes Nicholas Von Hoffman.

The American transportation system is not only dated, but it also has a huge impact on the climate. The favored solution -- ethanol -- is no solution at all, writes New York Observer columnist Nicholas von Hoffman.

How environmental activism has changed.