Every day, The Overhead Wire collects news about cities and sends the links to their email list. At the end of the week they take some of the most popular stories and post them to Greater Greater Washington, a group blog similar to Streets.mn that focuses on urban issues in the D.C. region. They are national and international links, sometimes entertaining or absurd but often useful.
A philosopher’s perspective on sustainable urban mobility: For over half a century, cities in the United States have developed around automobiles. But given the operational and environmental costs of cars, do planners have an ethical imperative to consider the greater good of society? This piece discusses the ethical dimensions of car dependency through the lens of moral philosophy on the television series “The Good Place.” (Mustafa Haque | Planetizen)
First Nations become Canada’s largest developer: The Squamish Nation will build 6,000 housing units for their community on 10.5 acres just outside of downtown Vancouver, British Columbia. The parcel came to the Nation after court battles allowed them to regain title on a small portion of land that was expropriated from them by the Canadian Pacific Railway. The project is one of several First Nations developments that makes them the largest developers in all of Canada. (Linda Baker | Fast Company)
Is hosting the Olympics a financial boon?: What do cities get back from hosting these prominent events in even-numbered years? Barcelona touted its new image and improved infrastructure from the 1992 games, but cities since then have seen spending rise beyond what they can afford. (Michael Kimmelman | New York Times Magazine)
Urban delivery hubs have environmental possibilities: Allowing long-haul truckers to drop their cargo on the edges of urban areas reduces unpaid idling time and slow in-town trips. Amazon and Target have used the system for a few decades — potentially reducing the need for highway lanes and allowing electric vehicles to complete final-mile deliveries — but the practice requires large volumes that only these big players can muster. (Dan Calabrese | Transport Topics)
Ownership burden of cars and homes: While often touted as paths to financial independence, owning a car or home can be impossible for people with low incomes. What policy prescriptions can create a society where owning a home and a car aren’t necessary for a good quality of life? (Greg Shill | Infra/Structures)
This week on the Talking Headways podcast we’re joined by Adriana Rizzo of Californians for Electric Rail. We chat about freight and warehousing growth in California’s Inland Empire, why hydrogen trains are getting more attention than they should, and the benefits of train electrification and a new exemption push for overhead wires through the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA).
Quote of the Week
“To be fair, architects don’t bear all the blame for the unremitting ugliness of the Great Fright North; they share responsibility with the misguided planners, politicians [and] venal developers who, by default, have become the nation’s city-builders. Thanks largely to this unholy cabal, communities across Canada have been turned into an endless blur of nearly identical subdivisions and concrete, steel and glass towers, most of them clumsy, unadorned and wholly indifferent to their context as well as those who inhabit them.”
— Christopher Hume in The Hub on why Canada’s cities have become boring and bland
Photo at top by Chris Linnett on Unsplash