cities

15Jun

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

ENVIRONMENT

To Help Combat The Urban Heat Island Effect Satellites Zoom In On Cities’ Hottest Neighborhoods

Spend time in a city in summer and you can feel the urban heat rising from the pavement and radiating from buildings. Cities are generally hotter than surrounding rural areas, but even within cities, some residential neighborhoods get dangerously warmer than others just a few miles away. Within these “micro-urban heat islands,” communities can experience heat wave conditions well before officials declare a heat emergency. I use Earth-observing satellites and population data to map these hot spots, often on projects with NASA. Satellites like the Landsat program have become crucial for pinpointing urban risks so cities can prepare for and respond to extreme heat, a top weather-related killer. Among the many things we’ve been able to track with increasingly detailed satellite data is that...

A Tale Of Two Cities Is One Of Charles Dickens’s Most Popular And Dramatic Stories

11Jun

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BOOKS

A Tale Of Two Cities Is One Of Charles Dickens’s Most Popular And Dramatic Stories

Set against the backdrop of the French Revolution, A Tale of Two Cities is one of Charles Dickens’s most popular and dramatic stories. It begins on a muddy English road in an atmosphere charged with mystery and it ends in the Paris of the Revolution with one of the most famous acts of self-sacrifice in literature. In between lies one of Dickens’s most exciting books—a historical novel that, generation after generation, has given readers access to the profound human dramas that lie behind cataclysmic social and political events. Famous for its vivid characters, including the courageous French nobleman Charles Darnay, the vengeful revolutionary Madame Defarge, and cynical Englishman Sydney Carton, who redeems his ill-spent life in a climactic moment at the guillotine (“It is a far, far b...

The Keys To Smart Cities That Work For Everyone – Infrastructure Law’s Digital Equity Goals

3Apr

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TECHNOLOGY

The Keys To Smart Cities That Work For Everyone – Infrastructure Law’s Digital Equity Goals

Gregory Porumbescu, Rutgers University - Newark The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act signed into law by President Joe Biden on Nov. 15, 2021, differs from past infrastructure investments not only in its size but also its emphasis on addressing long-standing and persistent racial injustice. This major investment comes at a time when smart-city initiatives, which aim to use technology to make cities more responsive to their residents’ needs, are growing more common around the world. Smart cities are made possible by high-speed internet connections. They rely on big data, algorithms and the internet of things to better serve their increasingly diverse communities. For example, smart cities might use data collected from wireless sensors to predict the number of buses that need to be i...

Legions Of Remote Workers May Be Inspired To Flee America’s Big Cities The Same As Digital Nomads

4Apr

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LIFESTYLE

Legions Of Remote Workers May Be Inspired To Flee America’s Big Cities The Same As Digital Nomads

If one thing is clear about remote work, it’s this: Many people prefer it and don’t want their bosses to take it away. The pandemic has spurred many workers to contemplate their futures – and whether they ever want to return to office life. Edward Hopper, 'Morning Sun' (1952) via hermien_amsterdam/flickr, CC BY-NC-SA When the pandemic forced office employees into lockdown and cut them off from spending in-person time with their colleagues, they almost immediately realized that they favor remote work over their traditional office routines and norms. As remote workers of all ages contemplate their futures – and as some offices and schools start to reopen – many Americans are asking hard questions about whether they wish to return to their old lives, and what they’re willing to sacrifice or...

‘Food Apartheid’ In US Cities Created By Urban Planning And Housing Policies

4Apr

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IN OTHER NEWS

‘Food Apartheid’ In US Cities Created By Urban Planning And Housing Policies

Hunger is not evenly spread across the U.S., nor within its cities. Even in the the richest parts of urban America there are pockets of deep food insecurity, and more often than not it is Black and Latino communities that are hit hardest. As an urban planning academic who teaches a course on food justice, I’m aware that this disparity is in large part through design. For over a century, urban planning has been used as a toolkit for maintaining white supremacy that has divided U.S. cities along racial lines. And this has contributed to the development of so-called “food deserts” – areas of limited access to reasonably priced, healthy, culturally relevant foods – and “food swamps” – places with a preponderance of stores selling “fast” and “junk” food. Both terms are controversial and have...

25Jan

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

BUSINESS, COVID-19

COVID-19 Won’t Kill Cities – Why?

For those of you who live in cities, ask yourself: What it is about your urban lifestyle that makes it worth it despite the pollution, the noise and the traffic? Perhaps it’s the hundreds of unique restaurants that you like to dine at. Or the density that fosters a vibrant night life and cosmopolitan cultural scene. Maybe it’s the parks, the museums, the tall buildings, the mass transit. What if much of that went away? Would you still want to live there? That possibility is worrying many as the pandemic chips away at the foundations of much of what makes cities special. Restaurants, small businesses and even big brand-name retail chains are closing in record numbers. Mass transit systems, like New York City’s, are warning of severe cuts in service if they don’t get aid soon as state and ...

Community land trusts could help heal segregated cities

11Sep

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POLITICS

Community land trusts could help heal segregated cities

American cities represent part of the nation’s long and grim history of discrimination and oppression against Black people. They can also be part of the recovery from all that harm. Some cities’ work can be symbolically important, such as removing public monuments that honor oppression. But as professors of urban sustainability and community development at Arizona State University, we see that cities can do much more to address inequality, starting with an area that was key to past discrimination: how land is used. Zoning rules, including requirements that prohibit duplexes or anything other than single-family homes on residential lots, have helped maintain class and racial segregation. Lending practices like redlining that discriminate mostly against people of color in specific urban ne...

29Aug

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IN OTHER NEWS

These are the world’s safest cities to live in right now

Asia Pacific cities continue to dominate the list, but the region also includes some of the lowest-scoring metropolises. There's a new surprise member of the world's safest cities club. Washington D.C. has entered the top 10 in the Safe Cities index for the first time, while Hong Kong is a noticeable no-show after plummeting down the rankings. Tokyo took the No. 1 spot in the Economist Intelligence Unit's ranking for the third time running, while Singapore and Osaka maintained their respective footholds in second and third place. Hong Kong dropped to 20th place from 9th in the 2017 edition of the biennial report. Asia-Pacific cities dominated the top 10, with Sydney, Seoul, and Melbourne bringing the region's total to six spots. Amsterdam, Copenhagen and Toront...

12Jan

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Journalism

California cities try offer help for minority, low-income marijuana entrepreneurs

Reese Benton’s life has been shaped by the war on drugs. Her mother used crack and died of an overdose when Benton was 16. Her father sold drugs and is currently in prison, on year 20 of a 25-year sentence. “I was a statistic. I was not supposed to make it,” said Benton, 41, who is from San Francisco. But she did. Today, she is a successful hairdresser, styling some of the wealthiest people in the Bay Area. She is also an entrepreneur: Last year, she opened a delivery service for medical marijuana. And now that California legalized the drug for all adults over 21, Benton, who is black, is getting assistance from the city of San Francisco through a program designed to help people whose lives were affected by a crackdown on drugs that disproportionately affected minorities get into the l...