• When the parking bubble bursts

    In the last half of the 20th Century, we added massive quantities of parking to American downtowns, usually by tearing down buildings. This image by urban designer Victor Dover shows parking infrastructure, in pink, in downtown Atlanta. Many cities still have a similar amount of downtown parking...Read more

  • Terminated view, the old and the new

    State Street in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, designed as part of the City Beautiful movement in the early 20th Century, was refurbished a few years back through a program called City Beautiful 2.0. The building at the end of the street is the Pennsylvania State Capitol. "I used to admire this street...Read more

  • 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