Director, Sustainable Communities, NRDC; adjunct professor, George Washington University School of Law; co-founder, LEED for Neighborhood Development rating system; co-founder, Smart Growth America coalition; author of several books on smart growth and sprawl.
Attorney, recovering litigator, cyclist, blogger, dreamer. Watch for Kaid’s forthcoming book, People Habitat: 25 Ways to Think about Greener Cities.
Follow Kaid on Twitter: @Kaid_at_NRDC.
Posted May 24, 2013 by Kaid Benfield in Living Sustainably
I could not be more honored and excited to announce that Shelley Poticha is coming to NRDC to direct and build our new urban solutions program. Shelley has spent the last four years at the Department of Housing and...continued→
Posted May 20, 2013 by Kaid Benfield in Green Enterprise, Living Sustainably
It’s no secret, unfortunately, that many American downtowns and neighborhoods were disinvested, some severely, over the past several decades. The consequences were devastating, as homes and storefronts were abandoned and once-thriving communities became devoid of opportunity and safety for...continued→
Posted May 13, 2013 by Kaid Benfield in Living Sustainably
For the past several years, the Boston Foundation has been collecting data on key indicators of the health of the city’s economic, social, and natural environment. The Boston Indicators Project surveys ten key categories relevant to quality of life:...continued→
Posted May 10, 2013 by Kaid Benfield in Living Sustainably, Moving Beyond Oil
I don’t think filmmaker Alessandro Della Bella intended to make a video about transit in Zurich, but trains, trams, streetcars and the people who ride them are the clear stars in this hyper-fun time-lapse video. Frenetic Zurich is one...continued→
Posted May 8, 2013 by Kaid Benfield in Green Enterprise, Living Sustainably
Today’s article is another excerpt from my forthcoming book, People Habitat: 25 Ways to Think about Greener, Healthier Cities, which will be coming out later this year. I shared an excerpt from the introduction on March 27. In the...continued→
Posted May 6, 2013 by Kaid Benfield in Green Enterprise, Living Sustainably
Today’s post is written by my frequent collaborator and contributor to this site, Lee Epstein Lee is an attorney and land use planner working for sustainability in the mid-Atlantic region. His last appearance here was on April 3 (“The...continued→
Posted May 3, 2013 by Kaid Benfield in Green Enterprise, Health and the Environment, Living Sustainably
I took a tour of Miami Beach this morning. No, not in person (though I wish), but via the wonders of Google Earth. And I didn’t see South Beach, the grand hotels, or the ocean, for that matter. So...continued→
Posted May 1, 2013 by Kaid Benfield in Green Enterprise, Living Sustainably
I hesitate to write yet another article about bringing “smart growth” – the combination of ideas born in the 1990s to counter suburban sprawl – into the 21st century. I’ve long argued that, at a minimum, it’s time to...continued→
Posted April 29, 2013 by Kaid Benfield in Green Enterprise, Living Sustainably
It’s ridiculously easy to think about the benefits of historic preservation in immensely walkable Providence, Rhode Island. I’m not sure I’ve seen a better collection of downtown historic architecture this side of New Orleans. Elsewhere there are fine smaller...continued→
Posted April 26, 2013 by Kaid Benfield in Curbing Pollution, Green Enterprise, Living Sustainably
Most working port areas of most cities - including just about all in the US - are way outmoded and polluting, and in deperate need of transformation for people and the environment. In Rio de Janeiro, the city's working waterfront is being...continued→
Posted April 24, 2013 by Kaid Benfield in Green Enterprise, Living Sustainably
As I write, places like Clarksville, Missouri and Grand Rapids, Michigan are under water, having been hit by severe rains and consequent flooding over the last week. “The worst flood in recorded history” was the phrase used by one...continued→
Posted April 22, 2013 by Kaid Benfield in Green Enterprise, Living Sustainably, Moving Beyond Oil
The Wikipedia entry for Stockholm’s Metro system says that it has 100 stations in use along 106 kilometers (about 65 miles) of track. I seem to recall that Stockholm was one of the cities used to illustrate the concept...continued→
Posted April 19, 2013 by Kaid Benfield in Environmental Justice, Health and the Environment, Living Sustainably
Earlier this week at the annual conference of the American Planning Association, I attended a very interesting session on GIS mapping of combined data sets. It was billed as a session on “mashups,” which I suppose the presenters thought...continued→
Posted April 17, 2013 by Kaid Benfield in Living Sustainably, Saving Wildlife and Wild Places
As I wrote two years ago, a successful rural landscape – working farms and forests, and natural areas that last – is utterly dependent on successful town (and smaller city) centers that attract investment, residents and businesses that might...continued→
Posted April 11, 2013 by Kaid Benfield in Living Sustainably
For several years now, many of us have been predicting - or even celebrating - the end of the era of unfettered sprawl. Central cities have been making a comeback; car ownership is down among young adults; in some places, exurban...continued→
Switchboard is the staff blog of the Natural Resources Defense Council, the nation’s most effective environmental group. For more about our work, including in-depth policy documents, action alerts and ways you can contribute, visit NRDC.org.
