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ESSAY
CROSSTALK
20 August 2017
Ostrom in the City: Design Principles for the Urban Commons
Elinor Ostrom’s groundbreaking research established that it is possible to collaboratively manage common pool resources, or commons, for economic and environmental sustainability. She identified the conditions or principles which increase the likelihood of long-term, collective governance of shared resources. Although these principles have been widely studied and applied to a range of common pool resources, including natural and digital commons,...
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ESSAY
CROSSTALK
16 August 2017
Turning Rio Upside Down! The Baixo Rio Neighborhood Project
Leia uma versão em português aqui. About fifteen years ago I fell in love with watersheds. Then, my passion extended to the forests and ecosystems that sustain them. Then, I discovered the urban waters and biodiversity, and consequently urban ecology, when I started researching on urban blue-green infrastructure and how people related to their environment. From then on, the complex...
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GLOBAL
ROUNDTABLE
16 August 2017
Imagine an “ecological certification” for urban design. What are such a certification’s key elements?
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REVIEWS
PODCAST
21 August 2017
Green as a Color, a Philosophy, and a Marketing Strategy
A review of: Paradoxes of Green, by Gareth Doherty. 2016. 216 pages. ISBN: 9780520285026. University of California Press. Buy the book. Greening cities has become an internationalized norm in urban sustainability initiatives. Increasing open spaces and urban vegetation are widely seen as positive improvements for the quality of life of city residents, and contributing to the improvement of urban environmental performance. Doherty’s explorations...
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RECENT ESSAYS...
13 August 2017
For the Sake of the Common Good? “Gentrifying Conservationism” and “Green Evictions”
The “common good”—what an ambitious expression! As far as environmental protection is concerned, governments want us to believe that it is always performed precisely for the sake of the “common good”, or “public interest”. However, things are not that simple. From a socially critical viewpoint, environmental protection remains a dangerously vague expression, as long as the questions regarding which environment...
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9 August 2017
Black Cockatoo Rising: The Struggle to Save the Bushland in the City
Protecting remnant swathes of nature is not easy, and may often require concerted, vigorous community efforts. There are many threats: the most common of which seem to be highways and development, which are often backed by considerable financial resources and lots of momentum. So one takes notice when something unusual happens and a community effectively and doggedly organizes itself to...
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6 August 2017
Shutting Down Poletti—An Urban Environmental Victory
In 2013, the New York Power Authority razed the Charles Poletti Power Plant in Astoria, NY. In doing so, Power Authority removed what local elected official Michael Gianaris had characterized as a “symbol[] of pollution that haunted [the] neighborhood”. The characterization was an apt one. The Poletti Plant had for years been the single-biggest polluter in New York City. In...
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2 August 2017
Wall Watching in Iran
We walked approximately 1,500 kilometers in Iran, and something was noticeably missing: Graffiti. Scribbled names or tags, spray painted symbols, and thought-provoking political commentary were absent in cities, towns and villages from Sarakhs on the Turkmenistan border to Astara on the Azerbaijan border to the sprawling capital of Tehran to the desert gems of Esfahan, Shiraz and Yazd. Instead, nature-based...
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RECENT ROUNDTABLES...
Jun,2017
Are cities ecosystems—analogous to natural ones—of nature, infrastructure and people? Does thinking about cities in this way help us think about urban design?
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May,2017
To whom does a city’s nature belong? Is it a common pool resource, or a public good? And who decides?
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MORE ESSAYS IN...
SCIENCE &
TOOLS
6 April 2014
Collective Impact: A New Model for Regional Open Space Planning
Tim Beatley (2000: 224) cites Portland, Oregon as one example of progressive regional, bioregional, and metropolitan-scale greenspace planning in the country. Portland is also known for its land use planning and sustainability practices. Indeed, the city...
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PEOPLE &
COMMUNITITES
25 February 2016
Photo Essay: Life and Water at Rachenahalli Lake
Rachenahalli is one of the few living lakes of Bangalore, in the north of the city. It is connected to water bodies upstream and downstream, particularly Jakkur Lake in the northeast. Both of these lakes have been rejuvenated, at substantial cost, by the Bangalore Development Authority over the last decade. A sewage treatment plant with a capacity to treat 10 million...
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PLACE &
DESIGN
14 February 2016
The Ecologies of Senses and Environmental Justice in Managua
We experience the city through our senses. When we walk along city sidewalks or in parks, we can feel the city—we hear sounds, feel the materiality of the pavement or grass, and smell the car exhaust or freshly cut grass. These ‘sensual’ experiences of urban space are referred to as sensory engagements. Sensory engagements are those interactions with places, people,...
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ART &
AWARENESS
12 June 2017
Great Cities Grow from Great Spaces and Listening to their Citizens
A review of: Eyes on the Street: The Life of Jane Jacobs, by Robert Kaniglel. 2016. Knopf. 512 pages. Buy the book. Garden Legacy, by Mary Louise Mossy Christovich and Roulhac Bunkley Toledano, with a foreword by S. Frederick Starr. 2016. The Historic New Orleans Collection. 268 pages. Buy the book. Ecocities Illustrated: the easily built visionary future of Richard Register, by Richard Register....
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