One “boring” aspect of how we built cities going forward is also a very old one, concrete. A material that’s been around since the Romans, humanity has produced an astonishing volume of it and is still doing so at a no less astonishing rate.
It’s still early in the year, but here’s my first coup de coeur (crush) of 2022. Discovered through this article at The Verge, the Equitable Commute Project in NYC was created to help disadvantaged communities who face especially long commutes, which creates barriers to employment and harm overall well-being. They provide fleet discounts and innovative finance, outreach and education, and perhaps the most forward-looking part of the whole program: workforce development to “prepare New Yorkers who face barriers to employment for jobs in the micro-mobility industry, which is expected to grow to a $300-500 billion market by 2030.” And it’s not only happening in New York!
Food waste is a problem a growing number of consumers are aware of, but it’s not only about waste at home, but there are also multiple steps in the food chain and waste occurs at every one of them. This piece at Shareable looks at three challenges of the food chain and three apps addressing some aspects of it.
Part one in a series providing an overlook of the accomplishments and ideals of the various chapters of Civic Commons. Their definition of sustainability might be a bit ‘minimal’ but it’s a great vision for cities nonetheless.
Following all the challenges and experiments cities have gone through over the last two years, the team at NewCities launched a survey to understand how their community of urban practitioners “perceived the greatest challenges ahead and how to prioritize action.” They focused more specifically on five areas of concern; housing, climate, wellbeing, mobility, and equity.” In this overview article, they present some of the results and conclusions. Unsurprisingly, one of the main insights of the survey is that all the challenges and potential solutions are interconnected.
