In a $5.5 billion sweetheart deal, Amazon has inserted itself between local businesses and local governments. BY David Dayen, In These Times, July 2018 The paper the forms are printed on at City Hall. The desk your child sits at in math class. The books in your local library. Amazon has begun to profit from all of these products, extending its business …
Children are an “indicator species” of a healthy downtown
By David Roberts@drvoxdavid@vox.com Jun 21, 2017Young families typically leave cities for the suburbs. Here’s how to keep them downtown. Urbanist Brent Toderian explains how Vancouver held onto its families. Elementary school and playground in downtown Vancouver. (Brent Toderian) In North America, we take it for granted: When couples have kids, they move out of the city to the suburbs. The trend has only …
Tech sector may be able to help with revamped street design too, aims for “thought leadership on what these new innovations are, and how they might fit into what cities are trying to do”
BY EILLIE ANZILOTTI Fast Company 01.10.18 Imagining The Adaptable, Sensor-Filled Street Of The Future To get there, we need technologists to think more like urban planners, and for urban planners to think more like technologists–and for the two sectors to work together. Conversations about our future cities and streets hinge around smart, interconnected technologies: Think sensors that monitor the progress of autonomous vehicles, stoplights that …
Federal grant programs specifically for connected transportation and AV projects
Funding/financing Among the areas covered by the grants are connected vehicle technology (including systems for vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) and vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I) communications); dynamic signaling systems to reduce congestion; signage and design features that facilitate autonomous or semi-autonomous vehicle technologies; cybersecurity elements to protect safety-critical systems, and many more. These programs include: Infrastructure for Rebuilding America (INFRA): INFRA is a $1.56 billion …
Climate Advocates Sue In Federal Court Claiming Government Has A Duty Not To Kill Its Citizens
7 Nov 2017 by Steve Hanley on Clean Technica Last week, the annual National Climate Report stated that all the increase in average global temperatures since 1950 is attributable to human activity. This week, a lawsuit has been filed in federal court in Philadelphia claiming the federal government has a duty to protect its citizens from injury or death due to climate change. The plaintiffs …
A manifesto for community development (or design thinking and process)
In time Jones turned away from the search for systematic design methods. He realized that academic attempts to systematize design led, in practice, to the separation of reason from intuition and failed to embody experience in the design process. Jones called for the re-introduction of personal judgement, imagination, and aesthetic sensibility into the design process. He came to believe in ‘reversing …
Santa Monica creates first city well-being index in the US
LA Times, 28 April 2015, Santa Monica found some surprises in creating well-being index Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times Martha Groves Santa Monica breaking ground as it releases findings on residents’ well-being. Latching on to an idea that is catching fire with nations worldwide — including Bhutan, Britain, Chile and Canada — Santa Monica officials say their seaside enclave has …
This Blockchain-Based Energy Platform Is Building A Peer-To-Peer Grid
WePower is creating a new cryptocurrency to help facilitate a more democratic system of funding and buying renewable energy. Fast Company, Oct 2017. “The end goal is to produce a true peer to peer energy platform, where people would sell renewable energy and also be able to get energy back from the grid.” [Photo: Sebastian Kanczok] BY BEN SCHILLER Residential solar customers are …
Loss of democracy in the US
On Common Dreams, 20 Oct 2017 Republicans lawmakers in U.S. Congress pose for a group photo. Assertions made by the contemporary GOP, writes Atcheson, “are bald-faced lies, knowingly told, and meant to hide the fact that they are paid servants of the oligarchy. And that’s the real story here.” (Photo: U.S. House) It’s not news to most people that the …
How Benchmarking Data Can Help Cities Meet Climate Goals
By Amy Egerter, RMI September 12, 2017 Cities have set aggressive greenhouse gas reduction targets over the past few years. One of the most aggressive is Fort Collins, Colorado, which is targeting up to an 80 percent reduction by 2030, with interim benchmarks along the way. As deadlines draw nearer and the climate risks to urban centers grow, city leaders are …