United States

Tools for civic engagement -- there's an app for that. The Knight Foundation announces Engagement Commons, a comprehensive catalogue of civic engagement software.

January 17, 2012 - Knight Blog

The EPA's new fuel efficiency standards have auto makers scrambling to produce electric and hybrid vehicles, but the higher prices of these vehicles deter buyers.

January 17, 2012 - The New York Times

An increasing number of cities, often led by entrepreneurial mayors, are thinking and acting like startups. The qualities that make a startup company and a city successful, are "remarkably similar".

January 16, 2012 - Tech Cruch

What is the relationship between car travel and health outcomes in the United States? Ariel Godwin and Anne Price challenge the claim that more time in the car decreases your health by looking at the impacts of education, income, and employment rates.

January 16, 2012 - Anne Price

David Schalliol's photographs of abandoned places around the country are intended to be testaments to various social forces that have broken down urban places in recent years. But, he says, they are optimistic as well.

January 15, 2012 - Huffington Post

...so more than a third went with "Other" in the last Census. Mireya Navarro reports on the rift between ethnic and racial identity experienced by some Latinos and the challenges the Bureau faces in designing a better questionnaire.

January 14, 2012 - The New York Times

A new study concludes that encouraging businesses to prosper and create jobs is the most important function of local government.

January 14, 2012 - 24/7 Wall Street

In his new book, The Conundrum, David Owen pierces the magical thinking that has repackaged high-end luxury goods, such as hybrid cars, as virtuous and the idea that we can consume our way out of trouble.

January 14, 2012 - Txchnologist.com

In an opinion piece for the New York Times, Dowell Myers outlines the key demographic changes in immigration patterns and the bold changes in our approach to both legal and illegal immigration policy that they should precipitate.

January 13, 2012 - The New York Times

From movie sets to pot farms to low-income housing, foreclosed homes have been converted in unepected and resourceful ways. Catherine Rampell reports.

January 11, 2012 - The New York Times

Energy efficiency has become as compelling as "the new granite countertop" for home sales and rentals.

January 10, 2012 - Urban Land

Following highly publicized urban highway removal success stories like Boston's Big Dig and San Francisco's Embarcadero, Anthony Flint asks whether similar successes will be easy to duplicate.

January 10, 2012 - The Atlantic Cities

The Environmental Protection Agency is crowdsourcing a massive photo project to update a 40-year old agency project known as 'Documerica', which includes images of American environmental problems and everyday life.

January 9, 2012 - Network World

Because of the relative motions of Earth and Mars, the pioneering astronauts who touch down on the Red Planet will remain there for a year and a half. For this reason, NASA has already started experimenting with a habitat fit for life on Mars.

January 9, 2012 - Txchnologist

A new technology enables pedestrian behavior and flow to be monitored continuously using mobile phone technology. Its use in US and UK shopping centers has consumer rights activists worried.

January 9, 2012 - The Guardian

The year 2011 may be remembered by some as the year planners began fielding objections about smart growth from Tea Party supporters. Nathan Norris offers his four-step process for responding.

January 9, 2012 - PlaceShakers

Mapmaker David Imus spent 2 years creating the best 3x4-foot paper wall map you'll ever see.

January 8, 2012 - Slate

Richard Florida examines the "Geography of Health" in American and why some cities are healthier than others.

January 8, 2012 - The Atlantic Cities

With perhaps as many as 2 billion parking spaces in the US, planners and architects should "take seriously" the parking lot as an actual, useful public space.

January 7, 2012 - The New York Times

Affordable housing advocates find that green building techniques result in higher-quality construction -- and often with costs comparable to traditional building techniques.

January 7, 2012 - Shelterforce