• What is a Smart City?

    When it comes to achieving a "Smart City," the qualities that make up the very lifeblood of urban living take priority over technocratic solutions.
    At a recent conference three words — smart, safe, sustainable — were used to define a "Smart City." However, the follow-up explanation for the words encouraged high-capital investment in technocratic solutions, yet did not mention quality of life, urban form, community, or placemaking — the very...Read more

  • Three cities

    Three kinds of urban places curve toward transit and walkability.
    A city that is walkable is also served by transit. Cities like New York, Philadelphia, and DC, are walkable with extensive and convenient transit. Cities like Portland, Denver, and Los Angeles were built around transit, first the streetcar and now light rail. They are somewhat less dense and a...Read more

  • Where millennials live

    The often quoted cliche that millennials are moving downtown is not quite accurate. The greatest share of young adults is choosing urban neighborhoods outside of downtown. Just over a third of millennials identified in this 2014 nationwide survey live in such neighborhoods—preferably the walkable...Read more

  • Compact development cuts water runoff

    Compact development is the best for protecting watersheds because it reduces per capita runoff, according to this graph from the Crabtree Group. Most stormwater narratives state that density is bad because the increased runoff is only considered on a per-acre basis instead of both per-acre and per-...Read more