Posted by Kaid Benfield in Green Enterprise , Living Sustainably , The Media and the Environment , U.S. Law and Policy
As I write this, I am attending the annual conference of the American Planning Association, where I was invited to speak. We are in New Orleans, one of the world’s most welcoming and culturally rich cities, the horrors of Katrina...
Posted by Kaid Benfield in Curbing Pollution , Living Sustainably , The Media and the Environment
I've written before about how rural utopias usually aren't as environmentally benign as they seem, while urban places - compact, walkable cities, suburbs, and towns - encourage lifestyles that are very low-impact on a per-capita basis. It's one of the...
Posted by Kaid Benfield in Curbing Pollution , Green Enterprise , Living Sustainably , The Media and the Environment
As some of you probably know, Smarter Cities is an initiative that ranks US cities on a number of key sustainability criteria as well as on overall sustainability. The system has been developed, managed and staffed independently of NRDC, but...
Posted by Kaid Benfield in The Media and the Environment
555 KUBIK | facade projection | from urbanscreen on Vimeo. No deep message in this post, just entertainment with an interesting deconstructive edge. UrbanScreen has this to say about the video: "The conception of this project consistently derives from...
Posted by Kaid Benfield in Health and the Environment , Living Sustainably , The Media and the Environment
Prevention magazine has published a list of the cities that its editors believe are the best in the land for walking. There are no surprises in the top ten, unless you count Honolulu as one: San Francisco New...
Posted by Kaid Benfield in Living Sustainably , Solving Global Warming , The Media and the Environment
Michael Abbaté is director of urban planning and design for Gresham, Oregon, a suburb on Portland's MAX light rail line. His new book is Gardening Eden: How Creation Care Will Change Your Faith, Your Life and Our World, published by...
Posted by Kaid Benfield in Living Sustainably , Solving Global Warming , The Media and the Environment
Michael Abbaté is director of urban planning and design for Gresham, Oregon, a suburb on Portland's MAX light rail line that is attempting to create a smarter, greener and more sustainable community for its residents and visitors. He is a...
Posted by Kaid Benfield in Living Sustainably , The Media and the Environment
I was introduced to Brian Ulrich's haunting photos of dead malls and big-box stores by a slide show in the current issue of Time. As Bryan Walsh's story "Recycling the Suburbs" (one of "10 ideas for changing the world...
Posted by Kaid Benfield in Living Sustainably , Moving Beyond Oil , Solving Global Warming , The Media and the Environment
A number of times now, I've been drawn to Charlotte (somewhat against my North Carolina-bred instincts, given what the Queen City has been) for blog posts about the city's rejuvenation through transit-oriented development. It is a real success story,...
Posted by Kaid Benfield in Living Sustainably , The Media and the Environment
I was going to award another satirical turkey to a deserving entity, as I did last year. But then I thought better of it: this is a more optimistic season, and I have decided to go positive and acknowledge...
Posted by Kaid Benfield in The Media and the Environment
My colleague Gaby Chaverria has pointed me, and now I point you, to "50 Strange Buildings of the World," brought to us by the folks at Village of Joy ("Amazing, Interesting, Wonderful, Weird, Odd and Funny things about our...
Posted by Kaid Benfield in Environmental Justice , Living Sustainably , The Media and the Environment
Last time, I wrote about the wonderful Project Row Houses in Houston. Today I get to write about its progeny, the Watts House Project in south Los Angeles. PRH founder Rick Lowe attempted to replicate his Houston project in...
Posted by Kaid Benfield in Environmental Justice , Living Sustainably , The Media and the Environment
A heretofore unique success story of how art has catalyzed community development and identity is about to be unique no more, and that is a wonderful thing. But first let me tell you, in words and pictures, about the...
Posted by Kaid Benfield in The Media and the Environment
Anyone who has visited knows what a great city London is, in many ways a collection of highly urban villages, but with obvious concentrations of economic activity and architecture. I'm not going to go into policy analysis in this...
Posted by Kaid Benfield in Living Sustainably , The Media and the Environment
Robert Rauschenberg was my favorite artist, certainly my favorite of those that have been well known. I paid a small – well, actually, not so small – fortune for a signed screenprint of his LA Uncovered #7, image above, which...
