Cities & Planning

Filling in around the edges of a recent 99% Invisible episode.

Project Footprint was founded in 2018 with a mission of reducing the greenhouse gas emissions of emergency responses.

# Several high profile officials are pushing for the next update to the central Puget Sound's Regional Transportation Plan to be more transformative than it might otherwise have been. The plan sways which projects get grants.

If you’ve been paying attention to our Power Broker series, then you know that bad infrastructure can cause harm. That makes it all the more important to recognize the thought and care that goes into the objects we use and see everyday. Nothing embodies that spirit of recognition more than the history of manhole covers

# Amtrak is updating its Seattle rail yard to handle an expanded modern fleet of trains via a newly announced $300 million in funding from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.

Vertical solar panels are proving to be a new solution for northern regions, yielding 20 per cent more energy than traditional panels.

Farming once thrived in the Black Mesa region, before overgrazing and climate change wreaked havoc with the land. Today, the Navajo are restoring their watersheds — and boosting their food sovereignty — with earthen berms and small dams made of woven brush, sticks, and rocks.

This piece is an entry in our Eighth Annual Graduate Student Blogging Contest, “Connections.” by Zhiyi Wang “Everyone gets lost in Phnom Penh,” commented a Cambodian friend when we were…

This piece is an entry in our Eighth Annual Graduate Student Blogging Contest, “Connections.” by Joshua Rosen In 1974, when Richard Wise was hired as a community organizer in Boston’s Ja…

Our house has 8 kilowatts of solar generation and 27 kilowatt-hours of battery storage, and is on a time-of-day electricity plan where pow...

# The new pedestrian connection, park, and gathering space all in one was envisioned as a key component of Seattle's new waterfront since work started on the project over a decade ago.

If you’re a seasoned international rail traveler you will no doubt have become used to the various sounds of electric locomotives and multiple units as they start up. If you know anything abo…

Do Solar Panels ever get a second chance?

In the Swiss Alps, I Explore an Automobile-Free Paradise // When you think about it, there are very few inhabited places in the world that haven't been touched by automobile traffic. The empire of internal combustion and asphalt has stretched its tendrils into virtually every hamlet and outpost, no matter how

In the San Francisco Bay Area, the regional transportation planning body, the Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC), has launched a major effort to improve the coordination between the region’s 27 transit agencies.  One element of this, just unveiled, is a regional standard for transit network maps.  The goal is to have all of the region’s maps […]

Plenty is rewriting the rules of agriculture with indoor vertical farms that grow fresh, flavorful, pesticide free greens – all while using just a fraction of the water and land compared to conventional farms.

Major steps towards better, sustainable and affordable food production free of environmental challenges have been taken, with the "world's first farm to grow indoor, vertically farmed berries at scale" opening in Richmond, VA. It's backed by an international team of scientists that see this new…

From the street, this conflict is invisible; for city governments, it’s inescapable.

Solar farms are now doubling as havens for wildlife, offering a ray of hope in the fight against biodiversity loss.

Here you'll find resources and literature exploring emergent Solarpunk thought. You can browse titles and book covers, read summaries, and find links for more information.

This piece is an entry in our Eighth Annual Graduate Student Blogging Contest, “Connections.” by Matthew Adair For many Americans, summer is a season of travel. The ritual of leaving ho…

# At least half of Seattle's apartments are priced using algorithms like RealPage, which is facing a federal lawsuit for illegal price fixing. The Seattle City Council should ban such algorithms, Katie Wilson argues.

The Wales Transport Strategy published in 2021 put modal shift at the heart of our policies. For the first time, we’ve set a target on incr...

Barcelona is using the regenerative braking of its subways to power trains, stations, and neighborhood EV chargers. Could New York do it too?

What it’ll take to triple renewable energy, according to the International Energy Agency.

We are setting up a research community in Portugal to try and figure out how to live more sustainable

One Army is a movement tackling global problems. One Army runs Precious Plastic, Project Kamp, Fixing Fashion and Phonebloks.

Is Microtransit a Shuck, or an Essential Service? // Some years back, I was walking along the Viale di Trastevere, the main drag of one of my favourite neighborhoods in Rome. Because of my interest in transportation, I'm always on the look-out for anything new and unusual to me, so when