urban technologies
« Previous EntriesThe coming blurred boundaries between work and home
Monday, February 8th, 2010Over the past year I’ve spent a lot of time analyzing the intersection of workplace trends and urban living trends. It’s becoming probable that the urban knowledge economy will require many workers to supply their own private workspace. Employers — or the city milieu itself — will be responsible for supplying the space for collaboration. […]
Urban scenarios under high oil prices
Tuesday, October 20th, 2009How much will life in the cities change if gasoline costs significantly more than it does today?
Will the city be able to offer the housing, transportation options or amenities that its residents may prefer if fuel becomes a more expensive item relative to the family budget?
These are some questions I’ve been pondering lately and would […]
Intriguing idea: Charter Cities
Saturday, October 10th, 2009Why is it that in hundreds of cities around the world, average citizens can own and use cel phones every day, but don’t have electricity or running water in their homes? They have a new, 21st century technology, but not a late-19th century one.
From this premise, Stanford University Economist Paul Romer develops an explanation, and […]
Metro mania
Tuesday, August 18th, 2009Tens of thousands of people stood in line for hours yesterday to experience the new rapid transit line in Vancouver. Such excitement has not greeted new transit options before, which got me thinking about the relationship between metro lines, a city, and its residents.
Unlike two previous routes, which primarily link suburban residential areas to downtown, […]
Automotive advertising and newspaper struggles
Tuesday, August 4th, 2009Many city newspapers in North America are struggling. A few months back in a post I suggested it was because they were not covering local topics, instead picking up on non-analytical wire copy and propaganda media releases rather than reporting actual events.
The Global Urbanist has another theory, suggesting in a recent e-mail that newspaper declines […]
Lesson from India on affordable housing
Saturday, May 23rd, 2009In dynamic, popular urban cores there is a constant dilemma about housing affordability. Because more people want to live in an area than there are homes, rents and sale prices can be high.
One solution is to demand a certain number of rental units or non-market units for sale when developers build out a new area […]
Social media and community engagement
Friday, May 15th, 2009Many popular culture analysts noted the decline of community in the later decades of the 20th century. People seemed to “tune out” and become uninterested in world events, local politics and issues that affected their daily lives. Some blamed television, others the double-income family combined with longer commutes that left little time to connect with […]
Car-free communities in the 21st century
Wednesday, May 13th, 2009 Older neighbourhoods in European and some North American cities often work well as pedestrian and cycling zones because they emerged before the automobile existed. Any new community, by law, typically has to allow for automobiles both in roadway allowances and parking regulations.
But what would happen in the 21st-century if you built a community that deliberately […]
Special civic advocates for walking? cycling?
Sunday, May 10th, 2009Cities need to offer residents and businesses a variety of transportation options to maximize livability. Only facilitating automobile travel makes for a polluted, congested, and concrete-freeway-based environment. Only facilitating bikes or walking in 21st century life and you hamper citizens’ ability to go any distance or carry very much while doing it. As recently […]
Diversity of transport essential for livability
Saturday, May 2nd, 2009This weekend I attended Gordon Price’s “Jane’s Walk” through Vancouver’s West End — a densely populated neighbourhood situated between downtown, English Bay beach, and Stanley Park. Price told the neighbourhood’s story, connecting it to more universal ideas including those of Jane Jacobs about how city’s work, and mixing in wisdom from his years on city […]
« Previous Entries