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ESSAY
CROSSTALK
A Fractal Solution to Regional Complexity and Governance
Could we construct a new image of what the political boundaries of an urban landscape could take shape as? Instead of the hierarchical approach that is commonplace, with cities governed by layers of neighborhood, urban, regional, and state-provincial levels through different electoral or appointed bodies, I propose to approach the problem geometrically, by using the principles of scaling and iteration...
ESSAY
CROSSTALK
Placing Equity at the Center of the Urban Greening Agenda
Equity and Sustainability: a history of ideological convergence vs. practiced indifference The idea that equity is an important and indispensable part of sustainable development has been there from the early days. The intellectual basic for and actions taken towards sustainability are thought to be fundamentally fair and just—a world in which all have access and means to the resources needed...
REVIEWS
REACTIONS
City as Nature Festival, Osaka, Japan
Co-sponsored by The Nature of Cities and FRIEC, the inaugural City as Nature Festival took place from 11-22 October 2019 in Osaka, Japan. Featuring interactive, place-based art, workshops, concerts, walks, talks, and storytelling events, the festival aimed at cultivating our awareness of urban environmental landscapes. The works and activities within the City as Nature Festival represent not only multiple disciplines...
RECENT ESSAYS...
And, Now What? Exploring what happens after a 16,000-kilometer walk across two continents
Those last few days in June, we could see Barcelona’s shape in the distance. The three chimneys from the old power plant. The slanted roof of the Forum. The towers from the Olympic village. The long stretch of beach reaching to the glass sail that is the W hotel. The blue of the Mediterranean that always stirs a “Come to...
Paseos Verdes: The Story of a Morning Walk and a Partnership for Greater Community and Watershed Health
Since its beginning fifteen years ago, the landscape conservation program called Tree for All (TFA) has found a home for more than 10 million native plants in the 750 square mile Tualatin River Watershed of Northwestern Oregon. Over 700 projects have been completed along 140 river miles across 30,000 acres. TFA owes its success to more than 30 partners who...
Highlights from The Nature of Cities in 2019
Today’s post celebrates some of the highlights from TNOC writing in 2019. These contributions—originating around the world—were one or more of widely read, offering novel points of view, and/or somehow disruptive in a useful way. All 1000+ TNOC essays and roundtables are worthwhile reads, of course, but what follows will give you a taste of 2019’s key and diverse content. The Nature of Cities...
Tree Planting in Green Urban Infrastructure
Lea esto en español. The functions of today’s green are defined mainly by the needs that were conceived in the hygienist movement linked to the industrial city of the nineteenth century. Environmental pollution was the driving force behind public open spaces at that time, and at that time, the need for socialization and recreation was recognized. Today’s green space is...
RECENT ROUNDTABLES...
National Park City: What if your city were a National Park City, analogous to what London created? What it would be like? What would it take to accomplish?
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SCIENCE &
TOOLS
Planning Under Uncertainty: Regime Shifts, Resilience, and Innovation in Urban Ecosystems
Cities face unprecedented challenges. Global environmental change is placing increasing pressure on ecosystem functions and their ability to support human activities. The exponential growth of human activities is a key driver of such change, so much...
PEOPLE &
COMMUNITITES
Nature in Chicago: Surprisingly Wild, Surprisingly Human
A review of City Creatures: Animal Encounters in the Chicago Wilderness, edited by Gavin Van Horn and Dave Aftandilian. 2015. ISBN: 978-0-226-19289-5. University of Chicago Press. 377 pages. Buy the book. Normally, in these book reviews, I do my best to present a fair, unbiased account of what a book does well, as well as what it doesn’t do so well....
PLACE &
DESIGN
Lessons from Tinseltown: Nature’s Role in Alleviating Homelessness
We all know that nature in the urban environment can make our lives as city dwellers infinitely better, but can it create quality of life even for the displaced among us? Winter is here in the city of Detroit, Michigan. It’s cold, and people all over this northern city are scurrying to find a warm place to spend the season....
ART &
AWARENESS
Souvlaki Coyote and other Tales of Urban Wildlife
Much of the fabulous writing on The Nature of Cities blog site to date has focused on integrating the built and natural environment, erasing, or at least softening the lines that separate the natural and the manmade. I would like to shift focus a bit and explore the intersection between people and wildlife and suggest that we would also be...