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Monthly archive for August, 2010
Urban Parks Invade Texas: Main Street Garden Opens [Gallery]
Tuesday, August 31st, 2010
Click here to view gallery We’ve discussed the many benefits of urban parks quite a bit — including, for one, their potential to combat obesity, as well as a list of the best new urban parks in the country. Dallas’s Read more ›
The Morning Dig: U.S. Cities Begin to Embrace the Streetcar
Tuesday, August 31st, 2010
• The success of Portland’s streetcar system is leading other U.S. cities to try to get federal grants to start streetcars of their own. (USA Today) • Because of an “egalitarian-minded” rental system which doesn’t allow some rents to be Read more ›
Conservative Mag Tells Conservatives Why They Should Care About Public Transit
Monday, August 30th, 2010
We here at Infrastructurist are firm believers in standing behind smart ideas, no matter what group or party they happen to come from. In this case, they’re coming from the American Conservative. The bastion of modern conservatism has launched an Read more ›
The Morning Dig: How Pakistan’s Flooding Affects Its Infrastructure
Monday, August 30th, 2010
• The epic floods inflicting Pakistan are tearing up huge swathes of its infrastructure. (NYT) • The Nigerian capital city of Lagos is cracking down on dangerous motorcycle taxis. (AFP) • Long shunned by the West, Libya is attracting increasing Read more ›
The Week in High Speed Rail: HSR in Fresno?
Friday, August 27th, 2010
• A new report from the Center for Urban infrastructure, details the benefits of building a mass inter-city high-speed rail system for Southern California — and offers some surprising insights. (Fast Company) • Is the the Federal Railroad Administration really Read more ›
Attention iPad Users: Get Your Infrastructurist Fix on FlipBoard
Friday, August 27th, 2010
Got an iPad? Well then you may have heard about FlipBoard, the latest app that organizes the content from your Facebook, Twitter, RSS, and other feeds into a gorgeous, easily navigable online magazine. If you’re already a user, Infrastructurist looks Read more ›
The Morning Dig: How the Stimulus Is Helping America
Friday, August 27th, 2010
• Michael Grunwald has a great piece looking at President Obama’s Recovery Act and how it’s transforming America. (Time) • The boundaries of Ground Zero in Lower Manhattan are being debated because of the mosque debate. (AP) • The competitor Read more ›
The Latest in Sudanese Urban Planning: Cities Shaped Like Animals
Thursday, August 26th, 2010
This week, the government of Southern Sudan, a region that has been involved in decades of civil war that ended in 2005, gave everyone quite a shock when it revealed a $10.1 billion plan to build new urban centers in Read more ›
The Morning Dig: Urban Farming Takes Root in New York City
Thursday, August 26th, 2010
• The Reuters video above profiles the Brooklyn Grange, which grows organic vegetables on rooftops. • Egypt is facing power cuts, while anger grows among Egyptians against their government. (AP) • The “model city” of Singapore is exhibiting some signs Read more ›
Libertarians Are Wrong About Infrastructure, News at 11
Wednesday, August 25th, 2010
Libertarianism, in its purest form, could arguably be called an enemy of infrastructure. If the government is disabled and left a shallow, broke, impotent shell, then exactly who will build the roads, bridges, and public works that allow our society, Read more ›
The Morning Dig: New Orleans Prepares for the Next Katrina
Wednesday, August 25th, 2010
• In the five years after Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans has spent $15 billion on infrastructure to help protect the city, including pumps, levees, flood walls and gates. (NYT) • A plane crash in northeast China has killed 42 people Read more ›
An Infrastructure Perfect Storm: New York Trains Shut Down En Masse
Tuesday, August 24th, 2010
It’s the kind of perfect storm that anyone who lives in (or has lived in) a city can relate to: The Long Island Rail Road, New Jersey Transit, and Amtrak all broke down (or, at least, were severely delayed) this Read more ›
The Morning Dig: The Battle Over New York’s Skyline
Tuesday, August 24th, 2010
• The owners of the Empire State Building are protesting the height of a proposed skyscraper competitor which would significantly alter the Manhattan skyline. (AP) (NYT) • Service on the Long Island Rail Road was severely disrupted yesterday after a Read more ›
Would You Spend Nine Days in a Traffic Jam? These Drivers Did
Monday, August 23rd, 2010
This is not a joke (in fact, we wish it was): A recent traffic jam on the main road to Beijing kept Chinese drivers in gridlocked traffic — for nine days straight. According to China’s Global Times: Traffic authorities were Read more ›
The Morning Dig: What’s Happening With the Rebuilding at Ground Zero
Monday, August 23rd, 2010
• In the midst of controversy over the Islamic center in Lower Manhattan, an article looks at the status of rebuilding at the World Trade Center site. (AFP) • The infrastructure upgrade for India’s hosting of the Commonwealth Games has Read more ›
The Week in High Speed Rail: Angry Homeowners Unite
Friday, August 20th, 2010
• In the U.K., homes built along a new HSR line are already being called “impossible to sell” — which thrills homeowners to no end. (SkyNews) • CNN takes an optimistic view on the question “Will high-speed rail ever be Read more ›
The Morning Dig: The Most Extravagant Yacht Ever Made?
Friday, August 20th, 2010
• In the video above, the Wall Street Journal was granted exclusive access to the $300 million dollar yacht of Russian billionaire Andrey Melnichencko. • Female drivers are safer at the wheel than men, according to a new study. (NYT) Read more ›
The Morning Dig: How Extreme Heat Affects Cities
Thursday, August 19th, 2010
The Daily Show With Jon Stewart Mon – Thurs 11p / 10c Edward Kohn www.thedailyshow.com Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Tea Party • Jon Stewart has a good interview (above) with Edward Kohn, author of a book about the Read more ›
How You Think You Save Energy Is Not How You Save Energy, Study Shows
Wednesday, August 18th, 2010
Bring on the behavioral economists! It turns out that the ways we think we’re saving energy are totally different from the ways we can actually save energy. Or so say the results of a new study out of Columbia University, Read more ›
The Morning Dig: Why Dirty Energy Continues to Thrive
Wednesday, August 18th, 2010
• U.S. utilities are building dozens of new dirty coal-fired power plants without much regard for the environment consequences of all that added carbon dioxide. (AP) • One of my favorite economists, Tyler Cowen, who co-writes the Marginal Revolution blog, Read more ›
