March2016

If you're looking for an affordable place to live...scratch Singapore off your list.
The Asian city remained the most expensive city globally for the third year in a row, a new survey found, but Hong Kong leapfrogged higher to nip at its heels while Paris got cheaper.
The Economist Intelligence Unit's (EIU) annual survey found that Singapore's dubious honor of leading other cities on prices is facing a squeeze, with Hong Kong climbing seven places to tie for second place with Zurich.

http://www.cnbc.com/2016/03/09/singapore-still-most-expensive-city-but-hong-kong-rises-paris-falls.html

Radicalisation: 1st European colloquium of the LIAISE 2 project on 26-27 May in Bordeaux

When it generates violent forms of extremism and terrorist acts in our countries and cities, radicalisation is a major challenge to our societies. The fact that this violence is homegrown questions the shortcomings of our societies and threatens to divide us when we need precisely to be united in the face of violence. Communication on the problem of violence is particularly touchy. How to talk about this issue? How to communicate on notions that are debatable? How to speak to all citizens?

http://efus.eu/en/topics/risks-forms-of-crime/radicalisation/efus/10866/

Smart Urban Futures - Building liveable, walkable, sustainable communities

Leaders and visionaries from municipalities, politics, businesses and research bodies will discuss their preferred futures for smart urban transformation in the age of decarbonisation and disruption.
Communities of the future will have older populations and be more energy conscious, with residents struggling to balance their lifestyle and health. Cities and towns will compete with each other to provide the best lifestyle, in order to attract residents, visitors and businesses.

http://www.mav.asn.au/events/Pages/smart-urban-futures-2016-22032016.aspx

SOLUTIONS Final Conference "Transport in action: boosting the take-up of sustainable urban mobility"

The SOLUTIONS project will hold its final conference in Berlin on 14-15 April 2016. This two-day conference will showcase the activities performed by cities working together on sustainable mobility as part of the SOLUTIONS project.

http://www.polisnetwork.eu/publicnews/1060/45/SOLUTIONS-Final-Conference-quot-Transport-in-action-boosting-the-take-up-of-sustainable-urban-mobility-quot-14-15-April-2016-in-Berlin

There’s a reason terrorists target transportation systems

The terrorist attacks in Brussels prompted New York officials to issue rapid-fire statements assuring the public that they're doing everything they can to prevent that sort of attack from happening here.
But the state's transit chiefs, following the attacks, said there’s a reason why the terrorists in Belgium chose an airport and a subway station as targets.
“Transportation facilities very tragically are often targets for terrorism,” Polly Trottenberg, New York City’s transportation commissioner, said on Tuesday. “They’re where a lot of people are congregating. They tend to be open. They make targets.”

http://www.capitalnewyork.com/article/albany/2016/03/8594510/transit-chiefs-theres-reason-terrorists-target-transportation-systems

Slower Speed Limits Give Cities a New Attitude About Biking, Walking, Breathing

As more U.S. cities embrace the Vision Zero approach to curtailing traffic and ensuring pedestrian safety, there’s plenty of compelling data in favor of slow roads coming out of Edinburgh, Scotland. The numbers show how lower speed limits can change drivers’ attitudes about bicyclists — and even let city-dwellers breathe a bit easier thanks to air quality improvement.
The easy-to-love capital city is rolling out a plan to cap the speed limit at 20 mph across 80 percent of its roads, including the entirety of its dense downtown. Key arterial roads will retain their speeds of 30 and 40 mph.

https://nextcity.org/daily/entry/slow-speed-limits-cities-edinburgh-20mph

How fragile are our cities?

The world is urbanizing at a breakneck pace. But not all regions are moving at the same speed. Most population growth today and tomorrow will occur in the sprawling cities and slums of Africa and Asia. Just three countries — China, India and Nigeria — will account for 40% of global growth over the next decade. Meanwhile, many cities in North America and Western Europe are actually shrinking.

https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2016/02/how-fragile-are-our-cities

Reducing energy consumption across Europe: the role of the people

With the European 2020 targets approaching fast, there is an increased pressure on Member States to cut their greenhouse gas emissions and increase share of renewables as well as energy efficiency by 20% compared to the 1990 baseline. These EU climate and energy targets have now increased for 2030 and the European Commission envisions Europe as a low-carbon economy by 2050, which means more climate-friendly and less energy-consuming citizens.

http://www.smartcities-infosystem.eu/Newsroom/news/reducing-energy-consumption-across-europe-role-people

UCLG represents the voice of local governments in UN Water

UCLG has initiated a new partnership with UN Water, the United Nations inter-agency coordination mechanism for all freshwater related issues. UN Water recognizes that advancing their international agenda is a collective responsibility which calls for coordinated action involving other concerned partners and stakeholders, including organizations from public and private sectors and civil society.

http://www.uclg.org/en/media/news/uclg-represents-voice-local-governments-un-water-partnership

The green eco-friendly tower blocks of the future that produce more energy than they use

In the future, we could all work and living in buildings with their very own ecosystems, designed to generate more energy than they use. Belgian architect Vincent Callebaut has designed eco-friendly tower blocks measuring a staggering 420ft (128m), complete with dairy farms and gardens that generate energy in a variety of ways. The designer has now released spectacular images giving a glimpse into what could be this new era of eco-friendly buildings could look like.

http://thegreencity.com/the-green-eco-friendly-tower-blocks-of-the-future-that-produce-more-energy-than-they-use/

The city is a giant R&D lab

Toronto must overcome decades of car-centric planning in order to become a city of the 21st century, says the former director of architecture and urban design.
In the amalgamated city of Toronto, nearly two-thirds of people live in areas that, as Ken Greenberg puts it, “were designed around the automobile.”
“Everything is connected by car. You’re not meant to walk around,” he said. “It’s a different lifestyle.”
But as more Canadians – particularly young ones – flock to major cities, that’s changing.

http://www.metronews.ca/news/toronto/2016/02/03/architect-and-planner-ken-greenberg-talks-toronto.html

New Rotterdam LEZ halves dirty cars in a month

A new environmental zone in force since early this year in Rotterdam has halved the number of severely polluting cars entering the city in just one month.
Every day up to 700 000 vehicles enter Rotterdam, of which 1.18 per cent (some 13 000 cars) were older models whose emissions were considered to be extremely harmful.

http://www.eltis.org/discover/news/new-rotterdam-lez-halves-dirty-cars-month-netherlands

Why Helsinki's On-Demand Bus Service Failed

Four years ago, Helsinki launched an innovative bus service as part of a long-term plan to make cars irrelevant.
It was called Kutsuplus—Finnish for “call plus.” And it was one of the world’s first attempts to reinvent carpooling for the algorithm age.
The service matched passengers who were headed roughly in the same direction with a minibus driver, allowing them to share a ride that cost more than a regular city bus but less than a taxi. It was a bit like an Uber for buses—or more accurately, like UberPool—except that Kutsuplus was running for nearly two years by the time Uber got into the ride-sharing side of its business.

http://www.citylab.com/commute/2016/03/helsinki-on-demand-bus-service-kutsuplus/472545/

Quality of life in cities

EU Commission’s survey sheds light on people's satisfaction of their city
Early 2015, EU Commission published its fifth survey on the “Perception of Quality of Life in European Cities”. The report shows how satisfied people are with various aspects of urban life like employment, migrants, public transports or pollution.
The survey results show that generally Europeans are very satisfied with regard to the cities where they live. It also reveals what areas deserve especial attention in some cities, such as health services, unemployment and education.

http://ec.europa.eu/regional_policy/en/newsroom/news/2016/01/29-01-2016-quality-of-life-in-european-cities-survey-sheds-light-on-people-s-satisfaction-of-their-city

Why are public spaces important for the New Urban Agenda?

UCLG and UN Habitat highlight the importance of public spaces during the Habitat III Africa Regional Meeting
Public space has become an important subject for many towns and cities around the world, including African cities. Public spaces can help urban centers meet the targets set by the Sustainable Development Goals, for example Goal 11 “making cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable”.

http://www.uclg.org/en/media/news/why-are-public-spaces-important-new-urban-agenda

How can cities be improved for older people?

As lifespans get longer, we are seeing the demographic balance in many of our cities transform, with a significant rise in ageing populations. But are cities well designed for older age – and what are the challenges and opportunities of urban life for older generations?
Ageing London, a report published by the Mayor’s Design Advisory Group on Friday [pdf], provides recommendations on how to support a more age-friendly UK capital. The report advocates the development of innovative new models of housing for older Londoners and the establishment of a “lifetime high streets” programme to support older residents in starting new businesses and to create new intergenerational community spaces.

http://www.theguardian.com/cities/2016/feb/19/how-cities-improved-older-elderly-people-ageing-populations-share-experiences

Our City - the film

This is Brussels, the capital of Europe, a city of concrete cages wrapped in glass, planned by businessmen and politicians, set in motion by construction workers, and animated by office people. But there, in the narrow spaces just beyond the reach of bureaucracy, lies the Brussels that still breathes. You can hear its multicultural heart beating and see the traces of all the other cities, the ones each person carries within him/herself. All of us together add up to create the complex body and dissonant identity of Our City.

http://www.ourcityfilm.com/the-film/

Socially-Blind Urban Planning

The contrast between prosperity and poverty is most dramatic in the harshness of inclement weather. In San Diego this past weekend, while the storms resulting from El Nino lashed at the city, I drove through East Village, a neighborhood that contains one of the largest concentrations of homeless in the region. It is also the epicenter of Downtown’s new construction boom.

http://www.rooflines.org/4387/socially-blind_urban_planning/

Philippines’ new Clark Green City promises sustainable living

Joining the growing list of countries boasting eco-cities, the Philippines is set to build Clark Green City which features a 50-year master plan that will help decongest Metro Manila, drive the economy and guide the country towards sustainable development.
Metro Manila, the national capital region of the Philippines, is one of the densest cities in the world, known for its chaotic streets and colourful traffic gridlock – but this may all eventually change once the country’s first sustainable city is realised.

http://thegreencity.com/philippines-new-clark-green-city-promises-sustainable-living/

No Parking Here: What Self-Driving Cars Will Do To Urban Space

If you drive out to visit Disney's Epcot center in Orlando, Florida, you will arrive at one of the biggest parking lots in America. With room for 12,000 cars, it sprawls out over 7 million square feet—about the size of 122 football fields. If you look at the lot on Google Maps, you realize that it's nearly the size of Epcot center itself. Disney built one Epcot to hold the visitors. Then it built another to hold the cars.
Disney isn't alone in its expansive approach to parking. Parking is, after all, what cars do most of the time: The average automobile spends 95 percent of its time sitting in place. People buy cars because they need to move around, but the amount of time they actually do move around is tiny. So the cars are parked, and in multiple spaces: A car owner needs a spot near home, but also spots near other places he or she might go—the office, a shopping mall, Epcot.

http://www.motherjones.com/environment/2016/01/future-parking-self-driving-cars

What if City-Loving Millennials Are Just a Myth?

A prominent demographer says that country has officially reached “peak Millennial.” But what does that mean for cities?
We may be nearing the end of that generation’s love affair with urban centers.
Last year, a little more than 4 million Americans reached age 25, according to data compiled by Dowell Myers, an urban planning and demographics professor at University of Southern California’s planning school. That number matters: around age 25 is when young people start to get more serious about their careers, their housing, and their future.

http://urbanedge.blogs.rice.edu/2016/02/22/its-official-weve-reached-peak-millennial/

UCLG will take part in a new global alliance for urban crisis

The Global Alliance for Urban Crises will be officially launched during the World Humanitarian Summit taking place on 23-24 May 2016 in Istanbul, Turkey. The Alliance aims to bring together UN agencies, urban professionals, the development community and the private sector in a common platform for advocacy, lobbying and action to respond to the growing importance of urban humanitarian assistance.

http://www.uclg.org/en/media/news/uclg-will-take-part-new-global-alliance-urban-crisis

Cargo-bike pilot to start in Stuttgart

The German national research organisation, the Fraunhofer Society, is to help launch a cargo-bike pilot project in Stuttgart to help the city reduce car traffic and improve air quality.
According to the Stuttgarter Zeitung, the city has recently been using electric vehicles to deliver goods and mail.
However, the delivery vehicles are blocking roads and not abiding by access-restriction regulations in the pedestrian zones.

http://www.eltis.org/discover/news/cargo-bike-pilot-start-stuttgart-germany

Four years dedicated to developing violence prevention policies in Latin America

The European Forum for Urban Security (Efus) took part during four years (2011-2015) in the European programme EUROsociAL as executive partner of the “citizen security” axis in Costa Rica, Salvador, Guatemala and Panama. Apart from the specific actions implemented in each of these countries, Efus also contributed to developing the “citizen security” aspect of the programme throughout the region together with its partners, the International Juvenile Justice Observatory (IJJO) and Expertise France, an agency of the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

http://efus.eu/en/policies/international/latin-america/efus/10656/

Singapore: The Pelé of urban design

Who is the best soccer player of all time? A Google search will offer this name: Edson Arantes do Nascimento, popularly known as Pelé. Kicking off in 1958 as a 17 year old World Cup winner, Pele bookmarked his brilliant career a dozen years later with another World Cup triumph for Brazil.
I like to think of Singapore as the Pelé of urban design. The city regularly appears in the top ranks of globally livable, connected and competitive cities. Pelé once famously said, "Success is no accident. It is hard work, perseverance, learning, studying, sacrifice, and, most of all, love of what you are doing or learning to do”. There is no doubt that Singapore’s accomplishments have been made possible by the hard work, perseverance and far-sightedness of its policy makers.

http://blogs.worldbank.org/sustainablecities/singapore-pel-urban-design

Learn more about Sustainable Urban Logistics Plans - guidelines now available!

The Sustainable Urban Logistics Plans Portfolio, developed in the framework of the IEE ENCLOSE Project, is now available online for download.
It presents the guidelines for developing Sustainable Urban Mobility Plans and the experiences of the 9 ENCLOSE towns on the real application to local contexts.
ENCLOSE, ENergy efficiency in City LOgistics Services for small and mid-sized European Historic Towns, is pilot project unded under the The Intelligent Energy– Europe (IEE) program. The IEE programme is run by the Executive Agency for Competitiveness and Innovation (EACI) on behalf of the European Commission and it supports EU energy efficiency and renewable energy policies, with a view to reaching the EU 2020 targets (20% cut in greenhouse gas emissions, 20% improvement in energy efficiency and 20% of renewables in EU energy consumption).

The portfolio is available here: http://www.memexitaly.it/en/smart-cities-news-en/on-line-sulp-portofolios-enclose-project/

Immigrants Establishing Roots in New Gateway Cities

In an effort to boost their economies, cities in the Midwest and Rust Belt have launched initiatives in recent years to attract immigrants. Are they working?
Coastal cities such as Los Angeles, Miami and New York have long been viewed as the gateways for immigrants starting new lives in America.
In recent years, however, a different set of cities has laid out the welcome mat. Many of them are older Midwestern cities that have rarely been thought of as immigrant meccas. Places like Indianapolis and Columbus and Dayton, Ohio, have pursued a wide range of immigrant-friendly strategies, in part to prop up vulnerable economies and stem population losses. Other Rust Belt jurisdictions are joining them. “The Midwest is becoming the new gateway,” says Guadalupe Velasquez, who coordinates the New American Initiative for the city of Columbus.

http://www.governing.com/topics/urban/gov-immigrant-friendly-cities.html

What are the Urban Challenges of European City Makers?

On the 4th and 5th of February City Makers from across 80 cities in the Netherlands and Europe exchanged know-how and experiences during a two-day conference at Pakhuis de Zwijger. 40 cities introduced their urban challenges and bottom-up solutions during the opening of this New Europe City Makers Pre-Summit.
Niesco Dubbelboer, director of Agora Europa, kicked off the New Europe City Makers Pre-Summit. City Makers from all over Europe were challenged to search for answers on how to establish constructive cooperation between governments (top-down) and City Makers (bottom-up) to intensify urban social innovation. Charlot Schans, project leader of New Europe, emphasised the focus of the two-day conference: citizens’ actions. Her introduction of the New Europe platform is loud and clear: “We see that there is a City Makers movement arising in Europe and together we create a New Europe. We see initiatives that change the discourse around the refugees crisis to engaging the refugees in employment. We discuss the same issues as politicians, so why not work together?”

https://citiesintransition.eu/cityreport/what-are-the-urban-challenges-of-european-city-makers

New tool to support sustainable urban mobility planning

A new tool that helps urban mobility professionals to analyse different combinations of sustainable urban mobility measures is being launched this spring.
The Urban Transport Roadmap policy tool, commissioned by the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Mobility and Transport, is designed to help cities deliver on the goals of their Sustainable Urban Mobility Plans (SUMPs)
The tool is being revealed at the 3rd European Conference on SUMPs in Bremen (Germany) on 13 April 2016.

http://www.eltis.org/discover/news/new-tool-support-sustainable-urban-mobility-planning

Norway Will Spend Almost $1 Billion on New Bike Highways

Norway has just announced a new tool in its fight against transit emissions: a new network of bike highways.
As part of a plan announced last week, the country will spend a massive 8 billion Norwegian Kroner ($923 million) creating 10 broad, two-lane, cross-country bike tracks in and near Norway’s nine largest cities, allowing longer-distance cyclists to travel with a speed and safety hitherto impossible. A key component of plans to slash Norway’s transit emissions by half, the bike highway scheme still faces some resistance. Not only is cycling in Norway relatively uncommon by Scandinavian standards, but the new highways will be constructed in a mountainous country that is cold and dark for much of the year.

http://www.citylab.com/cityfixer/2016/03/norway-bike-highways-billion-dollars/472059/

A Brief Guide to the Benefits of Urban Green Spaces

In collaboration with the United Bank of Carbon, and the Sustainable Cities Group at the University of Leeds, LEAF researchers have produced a report summarising the latest research on the impact of green spaces in urban areas.
In 2014, around 54% of the world’s population were living in towns and cities, and this number is projected to increase to nearly 70% by the middle of the century. Almost two thirds of the urban area that will exist by the year 2030 is yet to be built, so it is vital that we take the opportunity to create and maintain healthy and sustainable urban environments.

http://thegreencity.com/essential_grid/a-brief-guide-to-the-benefits-of-urban-green-spaces-uboc-the-sustainable-cities-group-and-leaf-research-2016/

Small-Town America Is Facing Big-City Problems

A new farm-to-table restaurant selling locally sourced pork and seasonally appropriate vegetables moves into a rehabbed insane asylum. A famous director renovates an 80-year-old theater in the heart of downtown. Coffee shops, breweries and more restaurants pop up and begin serving all their drinks in mason jars. Popularity soars and the rents rise.
Sound familiar? It’s not Pittsburgh or Brooklyn or Detroit. The affordable housing crunch and fire-breathing NIMBYism often associated with America’s rapidly gentrifying cities has reached our resort towns — from the Rocky Mountains to Northern Michigan. Small towns, they’re just like us!

https://nextcity.org/features/view/traverse-city-small-cities-growth-planning

UK cities react against the government attack on their freedom to divest

Several UK cities, including Energy Cities’ member Milton Keynes, have spoken up against controversial plans from the national government to put restrictions on their freedom to divest from fossil fuels. Once again local leadership is being hampered by obstacles from the national level. A situation which reminds us of the not-so-distant case of the city of Vaxjo’s ambitious sustainable energy legislation being challenged by the Swedish competition authority.

http://www.energy-cities.eu/UK-cities-react-against-the

First City Plans to Subsidize Uber Rides

A Florida city is testing whether it can save millions of dollars in road-building and other public transportation expenses by subsidizing the cost of rides with Uber.
Altamonte Springs, an Orlando suburb, on March 21 will become the nation’s first city to pay a portion of the fare for all trips with Uber within its limits, according to Christine Mitchell, Uber’s general manager in Central Florida.

http://fortune.com/2016/03/03/uber-subsidy-public-transportation/

New Governance key to the New Urban Agenda

Exchanges between local government practitioners and Policy Experts for Habitat III Policy Unit 4
UCLG hosted the 2nd Expert Group Meeting of the Habitat III Policy Unit 4 on Urban Governance, Capacity and Institutional Development, which is co-led by the world organization, in close coordination with the Global Taskforce (GTF), and the LSE Cities at the London School of Economics. The event was celebrated in Barcelona on 10-12 February 2016.
The session counted on the participation of 16 out of 20 experts from Policy Unit 4, in addition to the co-leaders and the Habitat III Secretariat.
The Policy Unit experts were appointed by the Habitat III Secretary General in 2015, on the grounds of demonstrable competence and geographical and gender balance, in order to identify, within the issues discussed by each Policy Unit, the challenges, policy priorities and action-oriented recommendations related to the implementation of the New Urban Agenda, to be adopted at the Habitat III Conference in October in Quito.

http://www.uclg.org/en/media/news/new-governance-key-new-urban-agenda

Could Urban Farms Be the Preschools of the Future?

Under the distant gaze of a city skyline, cows and chickens wander through rows of sprouting vegetables; clear glass greenhouses dot the periphery. It sounds like an ordinary urban farm, but on this particular site, the wardens are toddlers.
The farm, Nursery Fields Forever, is the vision of aut- -aut, a group of four architects hailing from Italy and the Netherlands. Their proposal for a preschool on an urban farm took first prize at this year’s AWR International Ideas Competition; the challenge centered around designing a nursery school model for London.

http://www.citylab.com/navigator/2016/03/could-urban-farms-be-the-preschools-of-the-future/472548/

Urban Planning Decisions Lock Cities In for Generations

Over half the world’s population now lives in cities—and the global trend towards greater urbanization shows no signs of letting up. Whether pulled by job opportunities or pushed by unfavorable conditions in rural areas, 75 million more people per year are joining the ranks of cities across the globe.1
While urbanization holds promise for accelerating progress to a world without poverty, urban population growth also carries risks in the form of sprawl, pollution, and environmental degradation. At the 3rd annual Urbanization and Poverty Reduction Research Conference held at the World Bank in February, researchers and experts from around the globe gathered to share the latest research on how to ensure that urbanization delivers sustainable poverty reduction.
“Cities can be engines of innovation, growth, and prosperity,” said Research Director Asli Demirguc-Kunt. “But rapid and unplanned urban growth can threaten sustainable development.” She pointed to the disproportionate role of cities in climate change as larger cities consume two-thirds of the world’s energy and create over 70 percent of carbon dioxide emissions.

http://www.worldbank.org/en/news/feature/2016/02/23/urban-planning-decisions-lock-cities-in-for-generations

MyWay project on intermodality concluded, the app remains

The final workshop of MyWay project took place in Barcelona on 18 February 2016. MyWay App remains alive for cities and regions that would like to adopt it.
MyWay final workshop included a number of invited presentations illustrating the context for development of multi-modal journey planning and information services, including the reference deployment framework, i.e. the European ITS Directive priority action (a), some relevant experiences undertaken in Europe, the point of view of public and private mobility service providers, the visions and expectations from the navigation and in-car services industry. The project team presented its policy recommendations related to data, real-time travel information, intermodal solutions, involving the end-user, as well as various entities in the app’s lifecycle, providing quality functionalities, and stimulating behaviour change. The lessons learnt in the three MyWay Living Labs – Berlin, Catalonia and Trikala, as well as lessons learnt from the involvement of users were discussed in the interactive afternoon session. Presentations will soon be available on MyWay website.

http://app.myway-project.eu/

Resilient Communities: What does it take to curb violence in cities?

Almost five years ago in a discussion with urban experts from several Latin American and African countries, an important question was asked: how do we curb increasing levels of crime and violence in some of the fastest urbanizing countries in the world?
To explore this query, we embarked on a cross-country analysis of cities in West, Central and East Africa, seeking to not only better our understanding of urban fragility, crime, and violence, but also identify critical entry points to curb the challenges we would find. In the report Urban Fragility and Violence in Africa: A Cross-country Analysis, we explored one of the most recently relevant but less explored dimensions of fragility and violence in Africa: urbanization.

http://blogs.worldbank.org/sustainablecities/resilient-communities-what-does-it-take-curb-violence-cities

Paris campus features beautiful undulating green roofs

In marne-la-vallée, a new town 20 kilometers outside of paris, a research and civil engineering campus has opened, designed by french architect jean-philippe pargade. the 40,000 square meter scheme includes laboratories, offices, and lecture rooms, alongside various sports facilities and an on-site restaurant.
The design is defined by the so-called ‘landscape wave’, an undulating concrete roof canopy topped with a vast area of plantation. the vaulted structure uses techniques often found in bridge building, and fittingly houses a vast concrete testing lab. the accessible green roof not only provides the campus with external areas for recreation, but also reinforces the surrounding structures, uniting the entirety of the scheme.

http://thegreencity.com/paris-campus-features-beautiful-undulating-green-roofs/

Is Resilience the New Sustainability?

There is no doubt that climate change, population growth, increasing urbanisation and globalisation are creating significant challenges for our built environment and the people who live in them.
Extreme weather events, rising sea levels, traffic congestion, pollution and urban sprawl are leading to disruptions, stress and at times, catastrophic events that cripple the functioning of our cities.
Green building is doing much to improve the liveability of the urban environment, but as is increasingly evident, transforming our cities will need more than just being ‘green.’

https://sourceable.net/is-resilience-the-new-sustainability/#

When Regulating Self-Driving Cars, Who’s at the Wheel?

In order for driverless cars to conquer the road, someone has to write the rules for their use. Right now, it’s not clear who that someone will be.
The storm that rolled through Ann Arbor, Mich., in late November brought nine inches of snow and an experimental opportunity too good to pass up. A team of Ford engineers working to develop self-driving vehicles decided it would be a good time to put their modified Ford Fusion sedans to the test.
Snow, like rain, can be especially tricky for automated vehicles. Precipitation makes it harder for driverless cars to know where they are. Their cameras can’t see lines on snow-covered pavement or in the reflections of puddles. Falling precipitation interferes with radar. Piles of snow make finding the curbs and road edges harder, even for the cars’ laser-powered mapping devices. On top of that, snow is something of a novelty for self-driving cars. Most of them have been confined to sunny locales in states like California, Nevada and Texas, where rain and snow are rarer.

http://www.governing.com/topics/transportation-infrastructure/gov-driverless-car-regulations.html

Bringing low-cost lighting to the slums

More than 25 families living in a slum in Chikkaballapur will soon be able to step out of their homes fearlessly after sundown, thanks to Liter of Lights.
The global open source movement aims to provide ecologically sustainable and cost-free lighting for simple dwellings with thin roofs. But the Bengaluru chapter of the project has gone a step further to solve streetlight problems in slums.

http://www.bangaloremirror.com/bangalore/others/Bringing-low-cost-lighting-to-the-slums/articleshow/51182429.cms

How to Make Expensive Cities Affordable for Everyone Again

Last week, we wrote about a new report from the California Legislative Analyst’s Office that found that poorer neighborhoods that have added more market-rate housing in the Bay Area since 2000 have been less likely to experience displacement. The idea is counterintuitive but consistent with what many economists theorize: Build more housing, and the cost of it goes down. Restrict housing, and the cost of it rises. If you’re a struggling renter, you’re better off if there’s more housing for everyone.
Many readers responded by saying “of course! supply and demand!” as if we’d just uncovered the obvious. Many others responded “of course! supply and demand!” — by which they meant, facetiously, that market dynamics clearly don’t work this way in neighborhoods like the Mission in San Francisco, where poor residents feel pushed out by tech workers moving in.

http://smartgrowth.org/how-to-make-expensive-cities-affordable-for-everyone-again/

Sanctuary Cities Are Here to Stay

Nearly seven months ago, the U.S. Department of Justice implemented a small procedural shift in the way it releases federal inmates who are tagged for deportation. Now, when those inmates have warrants out in any state or locality, federal immigration authorities have the first right to detain them and immediately begin deportation proceedings, even before the state or local matter is adjudicated.
It’s a very specific, very technical shift, but it does result in some material changes to the relationship between federal authorities and local ones. Previously, state and local authorities were always first in line—any warrant they issued trumped any immigration detainer, and they could always claim custody of an inmate being released from federal prison to adjudicate their local case. Then, at the end of that adjudication, local authorities could decide whether or not to detain that person for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

http://www.citylab.com/politics/2016/03/sanctuary-cities-doj-policy-immigration-prison-loretta-lynch-john-culberson/471741/

London, city of pleasure

Our capital, for better or worse, has become the pre-eminent global city, and from high culture to bars, spas and clubs, our pleasure industry is a driver of that prosperity. In this extract from his new book, Slow Burn City, Rowan Moore looks at London as a wonderland for all tastes, if not all pockets.

http://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/mar/06/london-pleasure-slow-burn-city-rowan-moore-extract

Warsaw to build ‘floating’ bike path

The city of Warsaw is planning the construction of a suspended footbridge and cycle path along a major bridge in the city centre.
The new infrastructure, for which the Polish capital recently launched a tender, will run along the five-span steel Lazienkowski Bridge.
The bridge, which crosses the Vistula River, was damaged by a fire in February 2015 and had to be rebuilt. It was re-opened in October 2015.

http://www.eltis.org/discover/news/warsaw-build-floating-bike-path-poland

How to develop the city in a cooperative way

Cooperative area development is growing, together with the need to grasp the significance of this movement and the desire to professionalise it. This is why last year, Pakhuis de Zwijger explored new ways of urban development, with a community of closely involved City Makers. Valuable lessons were learned.
The exploration, in collaboration with Arnold Joost (Deloitte Real Estate Advisory) and Stichting NDSM-werf, involved bringing together scientists, City Makers, developers, artists, officials and other stakeholders. During three events they discussed possible experiments, with their collective knowledge and skills on cooperative area development.

https://citiesintransition.eu/cityreport/from-niche-to-mainstream

Is more inclusive urbanization essential to the 2030 Agenda?

Efforts to better accommodate rural migrants moving to cities could play an important part in resolving conflicts in the 2030 Agenda and ensuring no-one is left behind
The 2030 Agenda promises Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) that are "integrated and indivisible" and "leave no-one behind". Yet goals listed have historically been pursued in ways that bring them into conflict with each other.
In a newly released paper in Environment & Urbanization, Daniel Schensul, Gayatri Singh and I argue that inclusive urbanisation is central to bringing these goals into alignment and preventing people from being 'left behind'.

http://www.urbangateway.org/news/more-inclusive-urbanization-essential-2030-agenda

New research ranks world’s most ‘fragile cities’

Here’s a list that no city wants to be on. New research ranks municipalities according to their inability — or unwillingness — to provide residents with essential services.
Robert Muggah writes for the World Economic Forum that the data is designed to help mayors, urban planners, businesses and community groups assess the capabilities and shortcomings of cities.
The pace of urbanization, income disparity and youth employment levels are among the factors that can impact a city’s ranking, the article says. Among the key findings: while at-risk cities are clustered in the developing world, they are not limited to it. There are twice as many fragile cities outside war zones than in them, the data show. And while big cities such as Baghdad, Dar es Salaam, Johannesburg, Karachi, Lagos and Shanghai are among the most fragile cities, dozens more small- and mid-sized cities also are vulnerable.

http://citiscope.org/citisignals/2016/new-research-ranks-worlds-most-fragile-cities

Making urban freight more sustainable

Freight distribution is a vital part of life in modern cities and plays a relevant role within the whole urban mobility system. Among the different components of urban mobility, urban freight logistics is traditionally considered as the least sustainable because of its evident negative impacts (generating noise and pollutant emissions, increasing congestion and posing a threat to the safety of road users). This is why it is necessary to encourage the reflection upon these issues, the sharing of experiences and best practices between cities and the raising of awareness among decision makers in order to trigger alternative, and more sustainable, approaches to urban freight planning.

http://www.civitas.eu/content/making-urban-freight-more-sustainable-new-civitas-policy-note-now-available

Cities' Encampment Sweeps Risk Criminalizing Homelessness

Despite federal pressure to find a new approach to dealing with the homeless, San Francisco has joined the long list of cities that have forced them out of public spaces.
Officials in San Francisco last week sought to sweep out one of the city's more conspicuous tent cities, declaring the area a health hazard in need of a cleanup.
Dozens of homeless people have been camped out on sidewalks beneath a freeway near downtown. The city's decision came after residents and business owners complained for weeks that the homeless encampment made them feel unsafe.
The incident highlights the difficulties that city officials face when they try to keep people from sleeping in public spaces. Forcing homeless people to move along is a time-honored urban tactic, but advocates for the homeless -- and federal officials -- contend that it's a shortsighted policy.

http://www.governing.com/topics/health-human-services/gov-san-francisco-homeless-encampment.html

Local governments Step It Up for gender equality on international women’s day

This year’s theme for International Women’s Day, celebrated on March 8, is “Planet 50-50 by 2030: Step It Up for Gender Equality”. The day will be an opportunity for everyone, including local governments, to reflect on how to achieve SDG5 of the 2030 Agenda.
Local governments’ commitment to SDG5, “achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls”, forms part of our long tradition of working internationally for gender equality. UCLG’s Standing Committee on Gender Equality, which brings together locally elected women from around the globe, recently published “From SDG5 to Habitat III: the role of local governments in promoting gender equality for sustainability” to highlight the role that gender equality at local level will play in the achievement of the major international development and sustainability agendas.

http://www.uclg.org/en/media/news/local-governments-call-action-accelerate-gender-parity

P-REACT Trial in Bologna and Final Event on 31 March 2016

Petty Crime incidents such as theft, criminal damage and anti-social behaviour adversely impact the local socioeconomic environment. The P-REACT project trials its surveillance platform to prevent petty crime in public transport in Bologna on 31st of March. The final final project event will be held the same day.

http://www.polisnetwork.eu/publicnews/1040/45/Save-the-date-P-REACT-Trial-in-Bologna-and-Final-Event-on-31-March-2016

How To Beat Extreme Heat

Four years ago, Louisville, Kentucky, awoke to an alarming urban trend. This forward-thinking southern city — recently ranked as America’s most livable by the US Conference of Mayors — had landed at the top of a decidedly less welcome list: researchers at Georgia Tech’s Urban Climate Lab reported that Louisville had the most rapidly growing urban heat island in the United States.
Simply put, compared to its outlying rural areas, Louisville’s temperature was soaring. Driven by a variety of factors — few street trees, stagnant air masses, and miles of hot, impervious asphalt and rooftops — Louisville’s heat island was increasing by an average of 1.67°F per decade. That’s almost twice the rate of Phoenix, the next fastest growing urban heat island, and nearly seven times that of New York City.

http://smartgrowth.org/how-to-beat-extreme-heat/

The Complex Ecosystems of Cities, Where Plants Meet Politics

A biologist might study, let’s say, a particular species of rabbit, spending years in the field observing a population of them. A botanist might do the same with a specific grass or tree. But ecologists? They study life, too, but in whole systems at once. An ecologist might study the rabbit, the grass, and add in the local wolf population too. That’s because she’s less interested in the behaviors and traits of one species and more interested in how they interact.
Then the ecologist might build a food web model that reflects things like how a drop in the rabbit population affects wolves, and vice versa. The ecologist could also layer in a drought, a fire, the introduction of a new species of plant, or the long-term impact of climate change. All of those forces will interact with each other to form a dynamic ecosystem. Everything depends on everything else.

http://www.wired.com/2016/02/the-complex-ecosystems-of-cities-where-plants-meet-politics/

Will privatisation of UK cities rip out their hearts?

From Liverpool to Exeter, city centres are being sold off to big companies. The streets are clean, the shops are nice – but critics fear regeneration comes at a heavy price
With Liverpool’s proud history of militant politics and industrial action, few residents would have predicted that it would become a poster city for the growing corporatisation of Britain’s urban spaces.
It is now possible for a visitor leaving the city’s central station to walk across the main shopping district, almost to the banks of the Mersey, on private land owned by one company. Described as a shopping, residential and leisure development, Liverpool One incorporates 34 streets, all owned by the Duke of Westminster’s Grosvenor estate. A huge swath of a British city centre has been effectively put into private hands. And the same phenomenon is being repeated in cities as diverse as Birmingham, Exeter, Portsmouth and Bristol.

http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2016/feb/20/privatisation-public-spaces-rip-out-heart-britains-cities

Indian Cities Assess Potential for District Energy

ICLEI South Asia, in collaboration with United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), has initiated a project to help Indian cities accelerate their transition to low-carbon and climate-resilient development through modern District Energy Systems (DES). Entitled “Renewable Energy Efficiency in Buildings & Cities: Assessing Potential for District Energy Systems (DES) in Indian Cities”, the project aims to provide technical assistance and capacity building activities to local governments and stakeholders in India to develop a replicable modern district energy approach, particularly for district cooling, that can be further scaled up across the country.

http://www.iclei.org/details/article/indian-cities-assess-potential-for-district-energy.html

Few US neighborhoods affordable, walkable with good schools

Few neighborhoods can match the perks of Adams Morgan in Washington, D.C. — a reality that reflects a broader problem for the U.S. housing market.
Residents of Adams Morgan enjoy a bevy of bars, restaurants, exercise studios and shopping, just steps from their row houses and condo buildings. Home values are reasonable relative to neighborhood incomes. And in general, the area schools rate as better than average nationally.
Across the country, just 14 percent of neighborhoods manage to be at once affordably priced, walkable and near decent schools. And many of those neighborhoods exist in only two cities: Washington and Seattle, according to a new analysis released Wednesday by the real estate brokerage Redfin.
The findings suggest a substantial mismatch between the neighborhoods where people say they want to live and the homes actually available to them.

http://bigstory.ap.org/article/63cdef9f28dd410eb92eefe6b105af11/few-us-neighborhoods-affordable-walkable-good-schools

Rip out traffic lights to improve safety – new report (UK)

The UK’s Institute of Economic Affairs claims that the increase in traffic regulations is damaging the British economy and is having a detrimental effect on road safety and the environment.
In a new report, the IEA says that the number of traffic lights in England has increased by 25 per cent since 2000, while the number of speed humps have risen to 60 000 since their introduction in the early 1980s.

http://www.eltis.org/discover/news/rip-out-traffic-lights-improve-safety-new-report-uk

Annoying Things That Ruin Community Meetings

For nearly three centuries, all around this great nation, neighbors have crowded together in school auditoriums, church basements, and community centers to discuss the important issues affecting their communities: an uptick in crime or a proposed large-scale development, for instance.
“The community meeting, whether it’s about a stop sign, a school, a hospital, a shelter, or a candidate forum, is really the entry point into democracy,” says the Boston organizer and meeting facilitator Malia Lazu.
She’s right. The old-fashioned town meeting might be the most democratic thing we do as a society, with its free flow of ideas, indiscriminate of class, race, and sex.

http://www.citylab.com/navigator/2016/02/community-meeting-etiquette/463434/

The Race for Space: Can smart parking solutions cut traffic?

In cities, up to 30 per cent of traffic is caused by drivers searching for a parking space. Two different approaches provide an outlook on how technology can help to decrease this number, writes Merle Schrör. In Berlin, a detection system for on-street parking spaces is currently being tested in a research project but, thanks to a Düsseldorf-based start-up, off-street parking also comes into the equation.
Like in many big cities, Berlin’s population will grow. Currently, Berlin has 3.56 million inhabitants; by 2030 it will probably have a population of around 4 million. This is not without consequences. Over the next few years, Berlin will not only have to build significantly more homes but also transport infrastructure. In competition between cities, quality of life and quality of location are particularly important and are determined not only by issues like housing and amenities but crucial by the quality of public streets and squares. In this context, it is important to deal with the scarce and finite commodity of “street space” carefully and in a way that ensures quality.

http://thinkingcities.com/the-race-for-space-can-smart-parking-solutions-cut-traffic/

London Gets £13m to Boost Electric Vehicles

London is one of the four UK cities that will become international pioneers of green vehicle technology, after getting £13 million (€17m) to boost the number of plug-in cars on their roads.
The Mayor of London and the Chair of London Councils’ Transport and Environment Committee have welcomed £13m of new funding to encourage the greater use of electric and ultra-low emission vehicles. By 2020 Londoners are expected to own as many as 70,000 ultra-low emission vehicles, and it is planned that the new funding will be particularly targeted at providing more electric charging points in residential areas of the city.

http://www.citiesofthefuture.eu/london-gets-13m-to-boost-electric-vehicles/

Refugee crisis - Lack of funding for cities

CEMR secretary general raises the alarm about the lack of funding for towns and cities
“Without concerted efforts on the part of the EU and Member States on how to finance the necessary actions to be undertaken, local and regional governments will be unable to address the refugee crisis.” This is the key message that CEMR Secretary General, Frédéric Vallier, wishes to convey ahead of the European Council meeting in February.
“The refugee crisis has already pushed the EU Multi-Annual Financial Framework for the 2014-2020 period to its limits,” says Frédéric Vallier. “On the basis of current trends, the number of refugees expected to arrive in Europe will continue to increase. In consequence, EU’s budget will need an additional 30 billion euros to tackle this crisis.”

http://www.ccre.org/en/actualites/view/3222

$1 billion ‘ghost city’ is planned for testing IoT, driverless cars

Pegasus Global Holdings, a telecom and defense equipment vendor, is reportedly spending $1 billion to develop a medium-size city in rural New Mexico. The urban site, which would have no residents but streets, big-box stores, homes and more, would provide a safe space for companies looking to test Internet of Things technology that’s not ready for public streets yet. Some critics point out that the real test of new tech is how it interacts with humans, something the test city will not be able to offer.

http://www.networkworld.com/article/3033918/internet-of-things/new-mexico-ghost-city-cite-testing-iot-driverless-cars-drones.html

We need to make our cities inclusive, sustainable and safe

Denis Coderre is the Mayor of the City of Montreal and President of the North American section (NORAM) of the United Cities and Local Governments (UCLG).
Goal 11: Making cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable
Cities matter, now more than ever. They’re the engines that drive our economy. They’re hubs of innovation and creativity. They’re where we connect with each other—and with the world. In other words, it’s our cities that move Canada forward. Yet just as our cities work hard to attract the best and the brightest, care for their citizens and protect the environment, they must also address the challenges that come with a growing population. In many cities around the world, this means dealing with a limited supply of affordable housing, outdated infrastructure and crippling gridlock. And it means making our neighborhoods and communities more sustainable through reduced water consumption, diverted waste from landfills, and support to the green economy. To ensure these important urban issues are recognized within the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda, local and regional governments established the Global Taskforce for Local and Regional Governments Towards Post-2015 and Habitat III.

http://www.uclg.org/en/media/news/we-need-make-our-cities-inclusive-sustainable-and-safe

France to pave 1,000km of road with solar panels

Ségolène Royal, France’s minister of ecology and energy, has said that the government intends to pave 1,000km of road with photovoltaic panels in the next five years, supplying power to millions of people.
The minister told a conference of transport authorities last week that the tenders for the “Positive Energy” initiative had already been issued and the tests on the panels would begin in the spring.

http://www.globalconstructionreview.com/trends/france-pa7ve-1000km-ro7ad-so7lar-panel7s/

Houston's health crisis: by 2040, one in five residents will be diabetic

Regularly dubbed ‘America’s fattest city’, Houstonites’ dietary choices are only one element of its spiralling diabetes problem. Can anything be done to reverse this deadly – and very costly – disease in a city addicted to sugar and cars?

http://www.theguardian.com/cities/2016/feb/11/houston-health-crisis-diabetes-sugar-cars-diabetic

Towards gender-sensitive and gender-equitable cities

In recent months, Metropolis Women International Network has been working on developing a position paper entitled "Big cities and women: the importance of gender mainstreaming in local policies". Drawn up jointly with the antennas and partner organizations, this text seeks to reflect what kind of cities women want: safe, inclusive, just and equitable cities.
The document states that: It is only by making gender a key factor in the development and implementation of public policy that we can hope to advance gender equality and human rights across our cities.
The document ends with some proposals to answer the question: How can we promote gender mainstreaming in local public policies to achieve gender equality in our cities?

http://www.metropolis.org/news/2016/01/27/2615

Can City Living Fuel Chronic Disease?

Deep in the Amazon basin, Checherta, Peru, has a population density of just one person per kilometer. The village has 21 houses of two rooms each. Each is an open hut of wood and reeds, supported by poles, not walls. As many as six families live in each.
Yet Checherta’s modest means actually offer its inhabitants one benefit that medical scientists say city-dwellers lack: protective bacteria. This week, a New York University research team released a study that compared the microbiome of people in this tiny village to populations in three larger cities and towns in Peru and Brazil. (Checherta is near the border between the two countries.) The result was clear: Urbanization creates massive change in the microorganisms we carry with us — and this can trigger a downward change in health status.

https://nextcity.org/daily/entry/can-city-living-cause-chronic-disease

The market cap of cities

What are cities worth? More than big private companies, as it turns out: The value of housing in the nation’s 50 largest metropolitan areas ($22 trillion) is more than double the value of the stock of the nation’s 50 largest corporations ($8.8 trillion).
Market capitalization is a financial analysis term used to describe the current estimated total value of a private company based on its share price. It’s a good rough measure of what a company is worth, at least in the eyes of the market and investors. The market capitalization—or “market cap,” as it is commonly called—is computed as the current share price of a corporation multiplied by the total number of shares of stock outstanding. In theory, if you were to purchase every share of the company’s stock at today’s market price, you would own the entire company.

http://cityobservatory.org/the-market-cap-of-cities/

Urban planning is India's biggest failure, minister says

Before India can realize its vision of 100 gleaming “smart” cities, it needs to tackle a more prosaic goal: waste treatment.
Speaking last week at the Global Partnership Summit on Smart Cities in Delhi, Union Minister for the environment Prakash Javadekar noted that 86 percent of India’s untreated sewage flows directly into rivers. According to the Economic Times, Javadekar called urban planning in India “our single most failure after independence” in 1947.
These failures must be corrected if India is to implement its 100 Smart Cities initiative led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Javadekar said. He cited dormant sewage treatment plants built by contractors who rely on third parties to run them as a major problem. New rules are in the works that would require contractors to operate such facilities after they build them, the Times says.

http://citiscope.org//citisignals/2016/urban-planning-indias-biggest-failure-minister-says

‘Crème de la crème’ on sustainable urban mobility

The Viajeo Plus project has created a tool to ‘travel the world’ and discover some of the best innovative and sustainable urban mobility solutions implemented in Europe, Asia and South America.
The tool – called Virtual Solutions Book – is available online. It includes a summary of over thirsty case studies and a reference to the report where you will find more detailed information about them.

http://viajeoplus.eu/best-solutions/

Amsterdam’s new Strategic Plan for Road Safety

The City of Amsterdam is preparing a new Strategic Plan for Road Safety. The Plan should help to reduce the number of road accidents taking into account that new safety issues in Amsterdam are mostly linked to the fight for limited space.

http://www.polisnetwork.eu/publicnews/1008/45/Member-in-the-Spotlight-Amsterdam-s-new-Strategic-Plan-for-Road-Safety

Making China's Urban Fringes More Livable

It’s been almost 40 years since China’s leaders sat down to seriously plan the country’s cities.
Back in 1978 at the Central Urban Work Conference, officials were more concerned with how to fund these potential hubs of economic growth than live in them.
The resulting car-centric, concrete sprawl, based on a Soviet template, has created huge wealth while turning life for city dwellers into an endurance test.
Last month, central government officials met again after 37 years and pledged to tackle air pollution, traffic gridlock, and a lack of civic resources. In short, to make Chinese cities more livable.

http://www.citylab.com/design/2016/02/china-making-its-urban-fringes-more-livable/459375/

Vancouver eyes urban farming renaissance

Vancouver city councillors are being asked to help cultivate a renaissance in urban farming.
A city report slated to go before mayor and council next week could lay the groundwork for a two-growing season attempt to legitimize urban farms in the city.
"Despite Vancouver's history as a city that included food growing such as orchards, the idea of farming is now often associated with tractors and fields in rural areas," read the report to councillors. "However, urban farming is experiencing a renaissance across North America, as food growing is being reintroduced to cities after it was mostly excluded through industrialization."

http://www.vancouversun.com/life/vancouver+eyes+urban+farming+renaissance/11726090/story.html

A Zero-Waste Strategy for Ljubljana

Ljubljana is the first city in Central and South-eastern Europe to hold the title of European Green Capital. The Covenant signatory was rewarded for its multiple efforts in the field of sustainability, environment, energy and climate over the past years, such as the widespread creation and restoration of urban green spaces. Ljubljana is the first European capital to have defined a Zero Waste Strategy. In the last decade alone, the Slovenian capital increased ten-fold the amount of waste that is collected through separation and sorting. In its SEAP, Ljubljana set itself a CO2-reduction target of 21% by 2020. As the European Green Capital for 2016, Ljubljana will dedicate each month of this year to a different environmental theme. While in January the focus was on smart waste management, this month it is on local self-sufficiency.

http://www.eumayors.eu/news_en.html?id_news=710

A Plan to Avoid More Riots in Baltimore

A public health professor makes the case that upcoming trials connected to Freddie Gray’s death ought to be treated as a potential mental health crisis.
Since the riots that broke out there last spring, Baltimore’s reputation has been defined, in many corners, by its impoverished communities and the roles police have played in dealing with the people who live in them. So it was with a great deal of relief that the mistrial declared in December in the case of Baltimore police officer William Porter, who’d been charged for his role in Freddie Gray’s death, did not end in the kind of rioting seen during the “Baltimore Uprising.”

http://www.citylab.com/crime/2016/02/how-baltimore-can-avoid-riots-freddie-gray-trial-verdicts/463311/

How to Make Public Bike-Sharing More Popular

In most American cities, public transit hasn’t been popular. To give one example, the city of greater Houston where I live, has a population of approximately 6.5 million. But because of factors like suburban sprawl, a cultural obsession with vehicles, lack of infrastructure, and limited coverage, less than 5 percent of the city’s population uses public transit. Public transit simply can’t compete with the benefits Americans expect and can get from their private vehicles.

http://urbanedge.blogs.rice.edu/2016/02/08/how-to-make-public-bike-sharing-more-popular/

Urban displacement: What is your city or county doing about it?

How many Bay Area cities have rent control laws? Which cities cover renters with tenant protections? How can inclusionary housing policies be structured? Which cities are charging developers impact fees? These questions and more can be answered with an updated, easy-to-use interactive map of the region assembled by UC Berkeley’s Urban Displacement Project.
The project team’s latest offering provides policymakers, analysts, advocates, tenants and homeowners with a comprehensive overview of which policies are — or are not — on the books in all 101 cities and nine counties in the region.

http://news.berkeley.edu/2016/02/17/urban-displacement-what-is-your-city-or-county-doing-about-it/

Urban Youth Take Action to Implement the 2030 Agenda

Hundreds of young people gathered at United Nations Headquarters in New York City for the 5th Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) Youth Forum on February 1-2. The goal of this year’s Forum was to empower the youth to take action in implementing the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Government representatives and civil society activists gathered for intense discussions and sessions to determine a global strategy for youth for the next 15 years.

http://unhabitat.org/urban-youth-take-action-to-implement-the-2030-agenda/

How can cities be improved for older people?

http://www.theguardian.com/cities/2016/feb/19/how-cities-improved-older-elderly-people-ageing-populations-share-experiences

‘Dream Cities,’ by Wade Graham

Thomas More’s “Utopia,” which appeared 500 years ago, in 1516, may have changed the world. But few of its readers, I suspect, have read the whole thing. Impatient to get to “the good part” — More’s fanciful description of his mythical island republic — they understandably skip over its garrulous prelude, a dialogue in an Antwerp garden with the sailor who reputedly discovered Utopia. They shouldn’t, for in many ways this is the most brilliant part of the book.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/07/books/review/dream-cities-by-wade-graham.html

Austrians urged to quit cars for Lent

Austrian sustainable mobility organisation VCÖ has joined with the country’s Catholic and Protestant churches to launch a campaign to get people travelling less by car in the weeks running up to Easter.
The Autofasten campaign, which kicked-off yesterday, is asking families to walk, cycle and travel on public transport during Lent, which is between 11 February and 26 March.

http://www.eltis.org/discover/news/austrians-urged-quit-cars-lent

LAST MONTH'S NEWS