A writer laments the advances made by data collection in cities—once a location where people could maintain or seek anonymity.

“Cities are our paradises of anonymity, a place for both self-erasure and self-reinvention. But soon, cities may fall first in the disappearance, or at least a radical remaking, of privacy,” writes Quentin Hardy to introduce an editorial about the dangers of “Big Data.”
The article goes on to examine several examples of occasions when public data collection crosses into the territory of personal information collection, including technology that scans license plates on the way in an out of parking lots, another that tracks the movement of individuals through shopping malls, and the information that has been gleaned from bike rentals in London (or, for that matter, New York City).
“What we have at this moment is an exceptional awareness of where we are going: It is a little bit as if, circa 1880, we’d been able to say ‘soon we’ll banish night, because our cities will have electric light.’ The only real loss would not be thinking through the implications.”
FULL STORY: How Urban Anonymity Disappears When All Data Is Tracked

Maui's Vacation Rental Debate Turns Ugly
Verbal attacks, misinformation campaigns and fistfights plague a high-stakes debate to convert thousands of vacation rentals into long-term housing.

Planetizen Federal Action Tracker
A weekly monitor of how Trump’s orders and actions are impacting planners and planning in America.

San Francisco Suspends Traffic Calming Amidst Record Deaths
Citing “a challenging fiscal landscape,” the city will cease the program on the heels of 42 traffic deaths, including 24 pedestrians.

Adaptive Reuse Will Create Housing in a Suburban Texas Strip Mall
A developer is reimagining a strip mall property as a mixed-use complex with housing and retail.

Study: Anti-Homelessness Laws Don’t Work
Research shows that punitive measures that criminalized unhoused people don’t help reduce homelessness.

In U.S., Urban Gondolas Face Uphill Battle
Cities in Latin America and Europe have embraced aerial transitways — AKA gondolas — as sustainable, convenient urban transport, especially in tricky geographies. American cities have yet to catch up.
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