Social / Demographics

The city of Vancouver is beautiful, but according to this op-ed, it hasn't yet been able to create a truly vibrant city life.

May 27, 2011 - The Vancouver Sun

This video from Public Architecture looks at three outdoor lighting displays and their impact on the public realm in San Francisco.

May 26, 2011 - Public Architecture

Seattle has been named one of the nation's safest p[laces to walk or bike. But some question whether that success will translate into any further improvements in bike and pedestrian infrastructure spending.

May 26, 2011 - Publicola

The border city of Juarez, Mexico, has been a flashpoint in the drug-fueled violence that has plagued many parts of Mexico. Recent figures show that nearly 25% of the homes there have been abandoned.

May 26, 2011 - El Paso Times

A vocal and dedicated contingent of residents have successfully rallied to halt plans to expand a highway in metropolitan Vancouver.

May 25, 2011 - Straight

The Tennessee town of Shelbyville has become a new center for Somalian refugees. A new documentary looks at what the influx of this group has meant to the city and its people.

May 25, 2011 - Miller-McCune

Choreographer Jenni Bregman studied human use and interaction in urban areas to create her latest dance piece, "Intimate City."

May 25, 2011 - The Polis Blog

As aging populations grow, more cities and design organizations are looking at how to make streets safer for older residents.

May 25, 2011 - NPR

So says Maria Choca Urban of the Center for Neighborhood Technology, which recently released a plan for retrieving Cleveland, Ohio from the dustbin.

May 24, 2011 - Cleveland Plain Dealer

Even amid a stalled economy, new data from the FBI reports that big cities, those with a population of at least one million, are seeing huge declines in crime.

May 24, 2011 - The Atlantic

In this series from Glass House Conversations, journalist Greg Lindsay asks what the successful cities of the future will look like, and whether or not they should be built from scratch.

May 22, 2011 - Glass House Conversations

Urban design is increasingly linked with poor health conditions. Grist's Sarah Goodyear explains how cities are literally killing people.

May 21, 2011 - Grist

Keeping America innovative means maintaining its power to lure in immigrants, according to this article. But as it argues, that lure is fading.

May 21, 2011 - The Wall Street Jounal

Preparations for the World Cup and Olympics are displacing hundreds of families in Rio de Janeiro. One neighborhood next to a major stadium has been turned into a ghost town.

May 21, 2011 - Guardian

As the city of Detroit struggles with population loss and dwindling industrial jobs, farms and community gardens offer the city a positive nudge.

May 20, 2011 - The New York Times

This interactive map from the BBC tracks growth and urbanization in global cities from 1955 up through 2015.

May 19, 2011 - BBC

Detroit should look to a neighbor in the north for advice on rebounding from industrial decline, according to this piece from New Geography, which argues that Winnipeg has already paved the way.

May 19, 2011 - New Geography

The dividing lines in the cities of today are not so much about neighborhoods, but rather the relative health of those neighborhoods, according to this piece from The Globe and Mail.

May 19, 2011 - The Globe and Mail

Transportation is increasingly seen as a major concern as London prepares to host the 2012 Summer Olympics. As crowds fill the city, many wonder whether it will be able to handle the load and keep everyone moving.

May 19, 2011 - The Guardian

The Urban Guide for Alternate Use points to a campaign by a group called Varsity of Maneuvers that reuses street poles for pole dancing.

May 19, 2011 - Urban Guide for Alternate Use