North America
The concept of the flâneur was created in the 19th century in response to the encroaching speed and efficiency of the Industrial Age. Can the flâneur now fashion a political response to the Age of the Automobile?
Fast Forward Weekly
Donald Trump has committed to working with the environmental nonprofit Audubon International to improve the environmental practices on the 20 Trump Golf courses around the world.
Environmental Leader
Chris Bruntlett draws on precedents from across North America to illustrate simple ways that our cities can better serve, entertain, and nurture children.
Spacing
Chuck Wolfe's recent reconnaissance of Edinburgh provides a foil for his rallying cry: Going forward, let’s not discount the influence of history’s recurring themes in how we redevelop the urban realm.
myurbanist
Are your local planning tools supporting a thriving and resilient future? Andrew von Maur shares a little inspiration from Las Cruces, New Mexico.
PlaceMakers
Take 260 trucks off the road for every train, avoid costs for maintaining highways maintenance cost, and create multiple other environmental and economic development advantages—states are reinvesting in their rail lines.
Governing
“Robbing Peter to pay Paul” and “thumb in the dike” describe the way the federal government has been funding the cost of fighting the nation’s wildfires. President Obama’s new budget proposal could change the current arrangement.
The Denver Post
Ernest Moniz weighs-in on the exponential, and at times, explosive (literally) growth of moving crude oil by rail (CBR). His main point: pipelines are safer than rail. Science magazine editor Marcia McNutt points to pipelines' environmental benefits.
Capital
Should dying cities like Detroit get their own visa programs to attract skilled foreign workers? What about prosperous cities like New York and London?
Future Cities
Last Wednesday, an estimated 700,000—more than the city's population of 635,000—welcomed the Seahawks home, without major incident. Writing in The Atlantic Cities, Chuck Wolfe describes five lessons for placemaking through words and photographs.
The Atlantic Cities
In the first case of its kind, federal regulators fined three oil companies for allegedly either failing to test, or improperly testing crude from the Bakken Shale in N.D., resulting in rail companies not knowing which type of oil tanker cars to use.
The Wall Street Journal
In the eighth installment of the Urban Juxtapositions series profiled in Planetizen on January 16, Chuck Wolfe asks if we are using the right language when it comes to densifying urban spaces.
myurbanist
The National Transportation Safety Board called on federal regulators on Jan. 23 to approve several measures in light of a rash of oil train derailments and crude oil explosions as did their Canadian counterparts, the Transportation Safety Board.
The Wall Street Journal
People have been driving about 1% less per year for the last 9 years. What can public-private partnerships for transportation alternatives do to stoke this fire?
PlaceShakers
Sears, Macy's, and J.C. Penney are among the national retailers who've announced substantial store closings recently. Retail industry experts believe the closures are just the beginning of an approaching "tsunami" of shrinking and shuttering stores.
CNBC
To meet demand from passengers seeking an alternative to San Diego's small airport, and circumvent the traffic crunch at two nearby border crossings, Tijuana's international airport will provide direct access from the United States.
The New York Times
PBS' Hari Sreenivasan and guests share impressions of the North American Auto Show held in Detroit last week. Trucks and luxury cars were the focus, not electric and super-efficient vehicles. Debate on fuel efficiency standards is predicted in 2017.
PBS NewsHour
U.S. DOT brokered a deal with energy and rail industries whereby both would take immediate steps to prevent the recent explosions involving the more volatile Bakken crude. While voluntary, actual regulations will take more than a year to approve.
The Wall Street Journal
In an ongoing series, Urbanism Without Effort author Chuck Wolfe argues the importance of the overlaps, overlays and convergence points that define city life, and emphasizes the importance of reading and interpreting their everyday expression.
myurbanist
Call it the Lac-Mégantic effect - the July 6 conflagration that leveled the downtown, killing 47 people, has implications for all jurisdictions where oil and freight trains run. Cities must recognize that rail insurance policies are woefully lacking.
The Wall Street Journal
