Infrastructure
The Yomiuri Shimbun reports on plans to elevate the ground level in urban areas that were inundated by the Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami, prior to rebuilding. One town will elevate its land by 17 meters (55 feet).
The Daily Yomiuri
Like a lot of people, Placeshakers is kicking off the new year with a list: placemaking wishes for 2013. Read on for seven trending ideas they hope break large.
PlaceShakers
No, the title of this post is not an analogy. Diane Ackerman takes a looks at the very literal ways in which cities around the world are harnessing body heat to warm up residential and office buildings.
The New York Times
The proposal is simple. Instead of investing billions of dollars more on elaborate infrastructure or trust a corrupted police force, the concept is to nudge this complex system at two targeted points in the city, argues Mitchell Sutika Sipus.
Humanitarian Space
Commentator D.J. Waldie laments the stunning health hazards for L.A.'s pedestrians, and proposes five solutions to make the city safer for those on foot.
KCET
While Washington bickers over partisan issues, mayors in the rest of the country are showing strong leadership and innovation. Newsweek has compiled a list of the top cities pushing education reform, public safety, quality of life, and job creation.
The Daily Beast
Blog post
We've known for decades the better ways to do things, for greater urban health, sustainability, resiliency, vibrancy and economic success. So this year, let's resolve to have the will and skill to get past the short-term politics, the rhetoric, the market momentum, and the financial self-interest that has kept our better solutions from being realized.
Blog post
From guerrilla wayfinding to future-tising, these are my top five, perhaps lesser known, highlights of a banner year for Tactical Urbanism.
The opening of the 1,200-mile Beijing to Guangzhou high-speed rail line marked the latest milestone in "one of the world’s largest and most ambitious infrastructure projects." The longest such segment in the world takes only 8 hours to traverse.
The New York Times
The Mississippi River handles $7 billion in trade as one of the world's largest navigable inland waterways. A Midwestern drought has brought the river to water levels so low that they threaten to shut down shipping, reports John Schwartz.
The New York Times
Acela has improved connectivity along the Northeast Corridor, but is that actually a good thing? Aaron M. Renn argues that high-speed rail has actually hurt America by giving the finance industry a stranglehold over fiscal and monetary policies.
New Geography
Comparing wide versus narrow lanes, Kenneth A. Small and Chen Feng Ng examine the relatively unexplored design of building more compact roads to alleviate traffic congestion.
Access
An investigative series by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch exposes the obstacles to preventing pedestrian railroad accidents - now the leading cause of death on the rails. Authorities are unable to tackle the problem and railroads are unwilling.
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
The design for a new bridge that will carry the extension of LA’s Metro Rail Gold Line over the eastbound lanes of the I-210 Freeway is "energizing" the San Gabriel Valley with its melding of art with infrastructure.
A|N Blog
This week Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder signed a series of bills passed during the State Legislature's recent lame-duck session that will have long-term impacts on the revival of Detroit and its suburbs, reports Kathleen Gray.
Detroit Free Press
As the full extent of the instability of Toronto's elevated Gardiner Expressway, and the city's apparent cover-up of the information, becomes clear, the new chief planner has weighed in on what the priorities should be in addressing the problem.
The Toronto Star
In what is either a hopeful sign of the increasing prominence of the pedestrian, or a depressing comment on existing level of pedestrian safety, the installation of a crosswalk in downtown Los Angeles this week was big news.
LA.Streetsblog
Mick Dumke dives deep on Mayor Rahm Emanuel's ambitious plans to "exchange public space and public rights for private cash." Has the city learned anything from the parking meter debacle?
Chicago Reader
Michael Kimmelman tours Fresh Kills landfill, once the world's largest garbage dump, and now a model for landfill reclamation and, unexpectedly, climate change mitigation.
The New York Times
Fearing years of costly disruption from the construction of a key link connecting the region's rail systems, some of downtown L.A.'s largest property owners are suing the Metropolitan Transportation Authority.
Los Angeles Times
