This summer has been unbearably hot in New York. June was basically August, July is bright, buggy, and blistering and I’m already sweating thinking about what August has in store. You either …
'Winning the race': How China plans to meet its 2030 renewables target by the end of this month
While Australia debates the merits of going nuclear and frustration grows over the slower-than-needed switch to solar and wind power, China's renewables rollout is breaking all the records.
Manual of Collective Mapping. Critical cartographic resources for territorial processes of collaborative creation (2016)
This book is the result of the joint work and collaborative process that started more than five years ago when we were just organizing the first mapping workshops. Through these workshops we have designed a collective practice nurtured with multiple
We are a loose band of mapmakers, researchers, and designers intent on widely promoting the cartographic arts and facilitating an expansion of the art, methods, and thematic scope of cartography, through collaborative projects and disruptive publishing.
“What if you could create a physical place in every community where people can gather and turn to one another in the event of a crisis?” To the Lifehouse! — THE ALTERNATIVE
We picked up on Adam Greenfield’s Lifehouse book a few months ago. We were exulting at the hints Adam was dropping, about his visions for a Lifehouse - very similar to what we have been calling cosmolocal CANs. These are full-spectrum community centres—both a source of resilience and provision
Where Have All the Washington State Ferries Walk-on Passengers Gone? - The Urbanist
A perfect storm of factors is creating a drag on walk-on ridership on Washington State Ferries. Reasons include service reductions, fast ferries poaching riders, and the trend toward working from home.
The Express Co-Evolution of Books and Trains
// As a child, I dreaded long drives in the family car. I was a bookish kid, but when I tried to read in the backseat of one of a long line of Volkswagens, I was gradually overtaken by a mounting nausea that would
Digital Summer School: The Architecture of The Negro Travelers’ Green Book
During the summer of 2016, architectural historians Anne E. Bruder, Susan Hellman, and Catherine W. Zipf came together over their shared interest in documenting the history of The Negro Travelers’ …
What’s the value of planting trees? Conservation groups say a new formula can tell them.
Donors are increasingly asking conservation groups to produce data on the value of their environmental work. A group’s new method helps them show their impact.
LEADING THE LARGEST FERRY SYSTEM: BETH STOWELL ON MARITIME INNOVATION AT WSF, EPISODE 208 - Women Offshore
In this episode of the Women Offshore Podcast, Christine sits down with Beth Stowell, the Director of Marine Operations at Washington State Ferry System (WSF) – the largest ferry system in the US. Under Beth’s visionary leadership, WSF is undergoing a transformational culture change that is setting a new standard in the maritime industry. Starting […]
Should We Paint the Bus with Route Information? — Human Transit
On most bus systems I’ve seen, information about the route is on a changeable sign, not painted or printed on the bus itself. Many bus operations have constrained facilities and need to be able to quickly deploy whatever bus is handy to meet a need, so bus operations folks resist marketing ideas that involve making […]
A Summer-Holiday Listicle, Straphanger-Style
// People often ask me: Grescoe, what do you have against automobiles, anyway? I sometimes tell them it all goes back to when, downwardly mobile after university, I worked as a delivery driver. Forty hours a week, I watched the world from behind glass, getting angry at
Op-Ed: Sound Transit Needs Its Own Permitting Authority - The Urbanist
The Washington State Legislature should exempt Sound Transit from local permitting processes to avoid snags and make it easier to build light rail in public streets. This would expedite transit projects that voters have approved.
Op-Ed: WSDOT Must Keep SR 520 Trail Tunnel in Roanoke Lid - The Urbanist
WSDOT is scrapping the planned SR 520 bike and pedestrian tunnel, forcing people who travel outside cars into dangerous territory. It's not too late to push back and contact policymakers.
Single Family Zones Are Biggest Culprits in Displacement of Black Seattleites - The Urbanist
Seattle's single family areas have seen their Black population plummet by 9,126 since 1990. Meanwhile, "urban village" neighborhood have added more than 8,000 Black residents in that span. Why then is low-density zoning expected to blunt displacement?
Leave It To Beavers, a modern approach to habitat restoration
The word "scientist" often conjures images of people wearing long white coats working in labs, but ecologists like Jen Vanderhoof often find themselves