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Cityblog features daily posts from the Smarter Cities team and NRDC's Switchboard Blog.

Key to Climate Preparedness: Building Social Capital & Strong Towns

Is climate preparedness and resilience mostly if not entirely a question of costly investments in physical infrastructure? Safe to assume if we keep in mind bits of pithy wisdom like Churchill’s: “We shape our buildings, thereafter they shape us.” Efficiently... Deron Lovaas

February 7, 2013

Greening America's capital cities

  The federal Environmental Protection Agency sponsors an innovative planning program designed to help bring more green infrastructure and green building practices to our country’s state capitals, making them simultaneously more environmentally resilient and more beautiful.  Implemented with EPA’s cohorts in the... Kaid Benfield

January 30, 2013

Take Public Transit to L.A.'s Baldwin Hills Parklands This Weekend

Angelenos, are you looking for something new and interesting to do over the long weekend? Well, I, for one, am very excited about a brand new shuttle service that is bound to increase public access to one of south... Damon Nagami

January 18, 2013

The disturbing and sometimes tragic challenge of walking in America

  In much of America, walking – that most basic and human method of movement, and the one most important to our health – is all but impossible.  Maybe not literally impossible, but inconvenient at best, and tragically dangerous way... Kaid Benfield

January 16, 2013

An affordable housing enclave that fits in, strengthens a neighborhood, and protects the environment

  A group of civic and architectural partners in Little Rock has developed a great concept for improving a declining neighborhood, incrementally increasing density, and applying advanced measures for stormwater control at the same time.  All this in a single-family,... Kaid Benfield

January 14, 2013

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These news posts are brought to us, thanks to Planetizen, a public-interest information exchange provided by Urban Insight.

Preserve or Perish: What Happens When Our Community Hubs Become Obsolete?

The post office and the church are just two of the many building types which once occupied central places in our communities, but have become obsolete due to cultural, economic, and demographic shifts. To what lengths should we go to preserve them?

April 3, 2013

What Killed L.A.'s Streetcars?

Local lore, and Hollywood movies, have it that a conspiracy by car companies led to the dismantling of L.A.'s sprawling streetcar system to induce dependence on newly built freeways. Eric Molinsky tells the real, but no less dramatic, story.

April 3, 2013

Could Colored Pavement Cool Our Cities?

More than a third of the land in our cities is covered by black asphalt, an exemplary heat trapping surface and major contributor to the urban heat island effect. Researchers at Lawrence Berkeley Lab are studying "cool pavement" alternatives.

April 3, 2013

Feds Sketch Their Vision for D.C. to Boston High-Speed Rail

A new report released by the Federal Railroad Administration outlines more than a dozen alternatives for upgrading passenger rail service throughout the Northeast Corridor, including what high-speed rail between D.C. and Boston could look like.

April 3, 2013

Cracking Beneath the Surface: America's Invisibly Eroding Roadways

In need of an underground overhaul, the Capital Beltway exemplifies the deteriorating conditions of 1/3 of the nation's roadways.

April 3, 2013

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