• Community plan builds on success of food kitchen

    A team of new urbanists design for a neighborhood in the crosshairs of gentrification, adding healthy food and affordable housing.
    Building on a successful nonprofit food kitchen, the Highland neighborhood in Gastonia, North Carolina, is planning to grow in a healthy and walkable way as gentrification pressure mounts. Located northwest of downtown, Highland is home to 5,000 mostly African-American residents. A team of new...Read more

  • The life-saving benefits of street trees

    A US Forest Service study indicates that street trees save lives and provide direct health benefits that far outweigh the costs of planting and maintenance.
    The planting of street trees may be more beneficial than previously thought. Street trees have long been connected to many positive outcomes —from reducing urban heat islands, to improving traffic safety, to cutting air pollution and raising property values—but researchers at the Portland Forestry...Read more

  • Five urban lessons from the COVID pandemic

    As we learn to live with COVID-19, it’s time to draw important lessons for city-making. We can do so at CNU 30 in Oklahoma City, and at the 58th IMCL in Paris.
    Toward the end of 2021, the Omicron variant roared onto the scene as a most unwelcome holiday guest—just as many of us thought the world was returning to something like normal. We may have forgotten about COVID, or wanted to, but it seems COVID didn’t forget about us. Thankfully, we are in a much...Read more

  • Sunbelt leads pedestrian deaths

    Dangerous by Design 2021 highlights the connection between roadway design and the tragic toll on people walking.
    Findings from the sixth biennial Dangerous by Design report have been released, and the sprawling metropolitan areas of the Sunbelt are leading the way in pedestrian deaths. The 2021 report draws attention to the connection between roadway design and pedestrian injuries and death nationwide. “Many...Read more