• Pattern retrofit for resilience: An introduction

    Pattern retrofit is a necessary step to reforming dysfunctional metropolises impacted by global capital. This is part 1 of a series.
    Have you heard of the McRefugees? These are individuals in Hong Kong, whose housing options have become so costly that they are sleeping in 24-hour McDonald’s. The number of McRefugees in Hong Kong has expanded several fold in the past year. This parabolic change is a clue that something at a scale...Read more

  • An international lens on sprawl

    As cities around the world are enveloped in sprawl, its health and sustainability problems are going global.
    Note: This is Part 2 of a two-part series that was written for Doug Kelbaugh's upcoming book THE URBAN FIX: Resilient Cities in the War against Climate Change, Heat Islands and Overpopulation, due out in April of 2019. Here's the link to Part 1 . According to MIT’s Center for Advanced Urbanism, “...Read more

  • Reconfronting sprawl: Still paved with good intentions and asphalt

    After taking a back seat to urban revival for a decade or more, American suburbs are once again in the driver's seat of growth. Can they be built sustainably?
    Note: This is Part 1 of a two-part series that was written for Doug Kelbaugh's upcoming book THE URBAN FIX: Resilient Cities in the War against Climate Change, Heat Islands and Overpopulation, due out in April of 2019. No one better reveals the problems of sprawl than David Owen in his precocious,...Read more

  • The water will come

    Rising sea levels will create massive displacement in coming generations—here's a number of ways that people and communities will transition from low-lying to higher locations and conditions.
    Sea level rise is considered a distant problem by millions today; either distant in years, distant in miles, or both, but they are greatly mistaken. I’ve just finished the book The Water Will Come , much of which is set in Miami Beach, where I live. For Wanda and I, the problem is here, and now. I...Read more