• A social justice case for walking and cycling

    This graph, from Jeff Speck's book Walkable City Rules , tells at a glance why investing in walkable and bike-friendly streets disproportionately helps lower-income workers. Bike lanes are sometimes criticized for benefiting young professionals rather than the poor. This argument is wrong...Read more

  • The benefits of urban trees

    Trees are miracles of nature—and one of the least expensive, most effective investments that can be made in a neighborhood. According to The Nature Conservancy, urban—particularly street—trees have environment, health, and economic value. Not mentioned is the benefit of traffic calming in urban...Read more

  • The default style of pointless variety

    This is an Internet image that I recently came across, appearing on various websites, describing a common urban architectural style of our time. The point of this meme is that developers are driving this style, and it's boring. What's sad is that all of these buildings were designed by architects...Read more

  • The beauty of small towns

    Galena, Illinois, is often pictured when urbanists want to show the ideal American main street. It was also listed as number 35 in a recent Architectural Digest report on 50 Most Beautiful Small Towns in America . While this list is subjective, it does highlight the treasure of America’s small...Read more