Alex Pearlstein

<p>Led by bike-friendly Amsterdam and Copenhagen, European cities are ramping up efforts to shift more commuting and short car trips to pedal-power.</p>

<p>Some security experts are using the recent collapse of a Bay Area bridge due to an overturned oil tanker to highlight the dangers of routing hazardous cargo through cities.</p>

<p>As suburbanites who moved to the City of Atlanta to avoid crushing traffic congestion are ironically realizing, over-stressed in-town roads are buckling under the pressure of exponentially increasing usage. But help may not be on the way.</p>

<p>An ambitious $1.5 billion mixed-use project announced recently in Austin, Texas, proposes to anchor a 681-acre development with sound stages and other media-focused infrastructure. Will this project die a slow death like similar efforts before it?</p>

<p>A consultant's report recommends Atlanta codify the protection of artists' spaces in new zoning. Many cities are trying to redress the "Catch-22" of gentrification -- the displacement of artists from neighborhoods they helped turn around.</p>