Departments

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urban planning

  • SOURCE: Bloomberg CityLab
    4/27/2023

    Who's Really to Blame for America's Lousy Transit Systems?

    Historian Nicholas Dagen Bloom says that American politicians, especially at the municipal level, made a series of choices that diverted resources from mass transit to auto transportation. Neither racism nor the market nor secret conspiracies by industry made these choices inevitable.

  • SOURCE: Slate
    3/30/2023

    How Paris Kicked out the Cars

    Planners and politicians used post-WWII prosperity to remake Paris for cars, making it one of the most car-saturated big cities. Recent changes led by Socialist mayor Anne Hidalgo have show what can happen when priority is given to air quality and public space (though not every Parisian agrees). 

  • SOURCE: Bloomberg CityLab
    8/17/2022

    Documentary Shows the Choices that Led to Deadly Streets

    Blaming distraction—by drivers, pedestrians or cyclists—for climbing road fatalities is a cop-out, says Jennifer Boyd. Americans need to be willing to question the basic design of roads and the priority they give to moving cars fast if they are serious about reducing road deaths. 

  • SOURCE: The Atlantic
    5/18/2021

    How Parking Destroys Cities

    by Michael Manville

    A long line of historians and urbanists from Lewis Mumford to Jane Jacobs have warned about the negative impacts of building cities around cars. Why have urban planners ignored these warnings? And will things change? 

  • 8/30/2020

    The Proud City: Patrick Abercrombie's Unfulfilled Plan for Rebuilding London

    by Simon Jenkins

    In 1942, the British government endorsed a plan that turned the Blitz into an opportunity for massive centrally-planned rebuilding of London. This was a break from the previous anarchic pattern of development, and, for better or worse, today's eclectic metropolis owes its form to the failure of the plan. 

  • SOURCE: Nursing Clio
    8/18/2020

    Architecting a “New Normal”? Past Pandemics and the Medicine of Urban Planning

    by Jennifer Hart, Nate Plageman and Tony Yeboah

    In our research efforts – and in those of many other urban scholars examining African contexts – we’ve repeatedly seen how medical experts and modernist urban planners exploited outbreaks of disease to legitimize their emerging systems of technical expertise and advance white supremacy, global capitalism, and imperial order.

  • SOURCE: The American Conservative
    3-25-15

    Building an Underclass

    by Benjamin Schwarz

    How urban planners helped demolish Britain’s working families

  • SOURCE: NYT
    8-1-13

    Road through Roman history creates colossal headache

    ROME — Via dei Fori Imperiali, a multilane artery running through the heart of Rome, is typically a frenzy of swerving Vespas, zipping Smart cars and honking Fiat taxis.But Mayor Ignazio Marino is seeking to transform the avenue to something calmer, where Gucci loafers and sensible sneakers would rule.Mr. Marino’s plan to ban private traffic on the roadway, which bisects a vast archaeological site, from the central Piazza Venezia to the Colosseum, has prompted grousing and histrionic debate over a project that conservators say would solidify the world’s largest urban archaeological area.This being Rome, the first high-impact initiative of his seven-week-old administration, which goes into effect on Saturday, has provoked its share of unfavorable comparisons with the overweening ambitions of emperors past. “The mayor’s job is not to pass into history, but to work for his citizens,” said Luciano Canfora, a professor of classics at the University of Bari. “We already had Nero, that’s more than enough.”...