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.
New perspective on visual impairment: A student art installation and research project at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, demonstrates how visually impaired people experience sidewalks and intersections. People can look through a viewfinder at an intersection and flip through dials to experience different conditions such as macular degeneration or cataracts. The students hope to show how blind people navigate space; in the process, they hope to create empathy and understanding for those who design urban infrastructure. (Maggie Spear | Brown University News)
Highway displacement in Houston: Using historic maps and data, the Baker Institute at Rice University has examined who was displaced as Houston’s highway system was constructed between 1946 and 1974, a process that destroyed or moved 11,000 structures. Researchers found that 41% of folks displaced by highway expansion were Black. The research serves as a model for other cities and regions to follow as they think about rebuilding or replacing their highways. (Edward M. Emmett et al. | Baker Institute of Public Policy)
Impacts of homeless sweeps: After a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision, more cities in the United States are doing sweeps of homeless encampments in order to keep people from staying in any one place for long periods of time. A lot of personal belongings are destroyed or thrown away during these sweeps. Pro Publica reviewed the items that were lost and how those losses set back the progress of unhoused people. (Ruth Talbot et al. | Pro Publica)
A rainway vs. an atmospheric river: Vancouver, British Columbia, had just completed a new rainway, an engineered creek that would collect and filter water instead of releasing it into the storm drain. Just after completion, the new green infrastructure faced its biggest test as an atmospheric river dumped more water on the city than previously seen. The rainway performed its job, and no water was seen spilling into the overflow. The next test will be if the city sees a drought. (Christopher Cheung | The Tyee)
Rise of self-storage in Philly: As rising interest rates and the housing shortage made it harder for families to move into bigger homes, the self-storage industry boomed. Although the need has subsided a bit since the pandemic, Philadelphia’s self-storage industry continues to grow. Because customers don’t want to travel too far, more storage spaces are built near where people live. Philly will soon have 7.3 million square feet of storage space. (Jake Blumgart and Ryan W. Briggs | Philadelphia Inquirer)
This week on the Talking Headways podcast, architect Vishaan Chakrabarti joins us to talk about his book, “The Architecture of Urbanity: Designing for Nature, Culture, and Joy“
Quote of the Week
“Any change to the street — whether adding something or removing something — would likely cost the same as installing something. And it’s not just taking out some bollards for the bike lanes. It’s the signage, pavement marking and operational changes to the intersections. So it needs to be well planned and designed to understand the scope of the change.”
— Margaret Parkhill of Arcadis, a sustainable design firm, discussing in Global News Canada the costs of the government’s wishes to remove bike lanes in Toronto
Photo at top by Maxine yang on Unsplash