Architect and urban & computational designer Abhinav Bhardwaj made this great set of slides comparing urban design in the US and Europe, peppered with pithy observations like:
ComEd, in partnership with the Metropolitan Mayors Caucus (Caucus), recognized nine communities that graduated from the 2026 EV Readiness Program during an award ceremony this week in Northbrook, Illinois. The program supports municipalities as they prepare for the continued growth of electric vehicles (EVs) through improved local policies, permitting, and ... [continued]
The post ComEd,…
Salt Lake City — The 90-day ordinance adoption period for the Utah Renewable Communities (URC) program concluded on Tuesday, June 2 after the city of Midvale unanimously voted to adopt the program, bringing the total number of participating communities to 16. The first-of-its-kind program that has sparked national attention will bring affordable, ... [continued]
The post 16 Utah Cities Choose to…
Long before modern cities built upward, Rome learned how to stack human lives.
BY THE OPTIMIST DAILY EDITORIAL TEAM Street trees reduce urban heat. That much is established. What’s less settled is whether they’re enough on their own, or whether the way a city plants matters as much as how much it plants. New field research from Melbourne, Munich, and Hong Kong, led by Mohammad A. Rahman at […]
The post The urban cooling gap: why planting design matters as much as canopy…
Archaeologists found an ancient city where inequality actually went down as it grew richer.
Who’s to say what cities are best for families? It’s a personal decision, sure, but certain key metrics definitely come into play. And this year, WalletHub used 45 of them — such as housing cost, recreation opportunities, economics, and quality of schools and healthcare — to find best U.S. cities for families in 2026. The […]
Alex Schmidt and Katie Goldin explore why subways are secretly incredibly fascinating. Visit http://sifpod.fun/ for research sources, handy links, and this week's bonus episode.
LINKS FOR KATIE GOLDIN:
**RESOURCES USED TO…
BY THE OPTIMIST DAILY EDITORIAL TEAM Since May 1, Amsterdam’s billboards and tram shelters no longer carry ads for burgers, petrol cars, or cheap flights. The Dutch capital is now the first in the world to ban public advertising for both meat and fossil fuel products. Where chicken nuggets and SUVs once competed for wall […]
The post Amsterdam strips meat and fossil fuel ads from its public…
Out this week from Belt Publishing: Boston in 50 Maps by Andy Woodruff. From the publisher: Covering four distinct categories (“The Making of Boston,” “The Lay of the Land,” “Getting Around,” and “People and Culture”… More
Google Earth image of the Manrique neighbourhood of Medellin in Colombia.
"Attention is an intentional, unapologetic discriminator. It asks what is relevant right now, and gears us up to notice only that."
BY THE OPTIMIST DAILY EDITORIAL TEAM In many cities, entering a park is a deliberate act. You adjust your route, find a gate, and cross from public pavement into a space that operates by its own rules, even if those rules are minimal. Hanoi is dismantling that dynamic. Across four major parks, including Cầu Giấy, […]
The post What Hanoi learned by tearing down its park fences and opening up to…
Meanwhile, Kraków was ranked joint sixth among large EU cities.
Wastewater treatment plants, like this one in Minnesota, are sources of urban methane emissions, which are on the rise around the world. Credit: Chad Davis/Flickr, CC BY 2.0
Satellite imagery can tell us plenty about the planet on which we live, from the impact of wildfires to the loss of polar ice. As this technology grows more advanced, the range of data that it can provide also expands. And that’s one of the reasons that a satellite situated high above the planet’s surface […]
The post Don’t Look Now, But Mexico City is Sinking appeared first on InsideHook.
In the south of Berlin, beyond the tourist orbit of Mitte and Kreuzberg, a quiet residential district curves around a long pond. From above, its shape reveals itself: a monumental horseshoe, enclosing green space like an architectural embrace. This is the Hufeisensiedlung/“Horseshoe Estate” - one of the most ambitious social housing experiments of the 20th century.
Built between 1925 and 1933…
For residential buildings, decarbonization upgrades have primarily gone to homeowners. (Michael P. Farrell / Albany Times Union via Getty Images)
Decarbonization is necessary to preserve life as we know it on the…
Scientists and community members install a weather station at Ark Church in Baltimore. Credit: Travis Winstead Jr.
Copenhagen ranked first among 251 cities in the Happy City Index 2026, scoring 6,954 points across 64 indicators covering citizens, governance, environment, economy, health, and mobility. Helsinki came in second (6,919) and Geneva third (6,882). If you're looking for the American cities in the rankings: San Francisco landed at #45, New York at #207, and Dallas at #248 — four spots from the…
"Loneliness is difficult to confess; difficult too to categorise. Like depression, a state with which it often intersects, it can run deep in the fabric of a person."
Chris Arnade describes a recent ride on Chicago's blue line: a shirtless man scrubbing himself with flour tortillas that fell apart on contact, two passengers smoking joints, a woman surrounded by bags reeking of sewage. No one flinched. Arnade, who has spent years walking and documenting American cities, says he's seen versions of this scene in every city he's visited — Duluth, Indianapolis, El…
A new study maps subway misery beneath three major cities.
On a sunny afternoon, the McDonald’s at the edge of Tübingen buzzes with customers. Teenagers loiter over fries, a family shares burgers, cardboard cups and boxes pile up on plastic trays. Nothing here suggests rebellion. And yet, this fast-food outpost sits at the center of one of Germany’s most consequential...
The post The German City That Defied McDonald’s and Dumped ‘To-Go’ Waste appeared…
Ferries in Europe emit more CO2 than 6.6 million cars and are responsible for more air pollution than all the cars in major cities like Barcelona, Dublin or Naples. CO2 emissions from ferries in Europe’s ports equivalent to 6.6 million cars Dublin (IE) is the most polluted ferry port in 2025, ... [continued]
The post Ferry Pollution Worse than Cars in Many European Port Cities appeared first on…
Laurence Kemball-Cook’s technology captures the energy of footfall, offering a new approach to urban, off-grid power
The post The British company taking many steps to produce power appeared first on Positive News.
Voters only have so much patience for high taxes and abysmal public services.
The post Abolish ICE? Dems Can’t Even Plow Snow appeared first on The American Conservative.
With two new light rail lines opening in Toronto recently, the Toronto Transit Commission has had to update the maps of its subway, light rail and streetcar network, which appear in its stations and vehicles.… More