cities

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Green Cities: Inspiration from Europe

By Timothy Beatley / On July 2nd, 2012
It is fitting that I am here in Vitoria-Gasteiz, the capital of the Basque country of Spain, on the occasion of the launch of our new edited book Green Cities of Europe. This beautiful city represents much of what I have come to admire about European cities and why I have spent so much of my life over the last twenty years visiting and studying them. It is a city that is now getting a degree of important and deserved recognition around Europe (and beyond).
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Two Unmentionable Words

By James S. Russell / On July 19th, 2011
I was in Salt Lake City some time ago and was advised sotto voce that it would be unwise to voice a certain term. In Kansas it’s just not done either, a local explained. Bruce Katz, who heads the Metropolitan Policy Program at the Brookings Institute no less, suggested less offensive words. These unutterable words? Climate change. In large swaths of the country, bullying by climate-change skeptics has made these words unsuitable for use in civil discourse. “They just start arguments,” people have told me. “People can’t get past those terms.
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High Line Opens New Stretch of Spiky Flowers, Amblers, Voyeurs: Interview

By James S. Russell / On June 7th, 2011
The High Line, a hairline of greenery running 22 blocks atop a nearly forgotten railroad viaduct, has improbably become a global phenomenon. Threading its way between factories tangled with water tanks and fire escapes, the dilapidated viaduct was turned into a park in 2009 and now attracts human traffic jams. A neighbor has put on coy fire-escape performances.
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The Eco-Efficient City

By Peter Newman / On February 17th, 2009
Cities and regions will move from linear to circular or closed-looped systems, where substantial amounts of their energy and material needs are provided from waste streams. Eco-efficient cities will reduce their ecological footprint by reducing wastes and reducing resource requirements.
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The Renewable Energy City

By Peter Newman / On January 13th, 2009
The seven key innovations of resilient cities are set as city models, which will be detailed over the next several weeks here at "Eco-Compass." While no one city has shown innovation in all seven areas, some are quite advanced in one or two. The challenge for urban planners will be to apply all of these city characteristics together, to generate a sense of hope through a combination of new technology, city design and community-based innovation, which together will create the Resilient City. The first is city model is the Renewable Energy City. 1.

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