{"id":1905,"date":"2012-12-30T17:14:23","date_gmt":"2012-12-30T22:14:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thenatureofcities.com\/?p=1905"},"modified":"2015-06-01T14:42:53","modified_gmt":"2015-06-01T18:42:53","slug":"highlights-from-the-nature-of-cities-in-2012","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thenatureofcities.com\/TNOC\/2012\/12\/30\/highlights-from-the-nature-of-cities-in-2012\/","title":{"rendered":"Highlights from The Nature of Cities in 2012"},"content":{"rendered":"

Cities are ecological spaces. \u00a0But only relatively recently has this new vision of ecologically sophisticated<\/em> cities<\/em><\/span> gained momentum. \u00a0Today, in increasing numbers, scientists, designers, and practitioners create useful knowledge about the nature of cities through study and research that can inspire public debate and decision makers. \u00a0Thinkers imagine how to conceptualize urban nature; ecologists study its patterns and processes; sociologists demonstrate its importance to and for people; stewards devise ways to manage it; public health researchers reveal the relationships between healthy ecosystems and population health; designers and architects integrate human, green and blue with grey; and elected officials and city managers formulate and implement green policy.<\/p>\n

And, importantly, more citizens are becoming more engaged in the conversation about urban nature \u2013 a conversation that directly relates to today\u2019s critical debates about the livability, sustainability and resilience of human settlements. across the globe.<\/p>\n

But let\u2019s also be candid: there is a long way to go. \u00a0Thought-leading dialogue in urban nature needs to be broadened and democratized. \u00a0While there are a few dozen fantastic examples of cities leading the way on urban nature, there are about one million sub-national government entities in the world. \u00a0Only a fraction of these have the interest, not to mention the tools and resources, to integrate nature and green thinking into their urban planning.<\/p>\n

We want this blog to be at least one small part of the expanded and enriched conversation about urban ecosystems that our increasingly urbanized world requires. \u00a0The Nature of Cities collective blog on cities as ecological spaces launched in June 2012, nearly six months ago. \u00a0Since then we’ve had over 27,000 views from over 800 cities and 80 countries. \u00a0And we have grown to 40 contributors from around the world. \u00a0A million thanks for your support and interest.<\/p>\n

To celebrate the new year here are excerpts from some popular posts at The Nature of Cities in 2012.<\/p>\n

Vacant Land in Cities Could Provide Important Social and Ecological Benefits<\/a><\/h1>\n

by Timon McPhearson
\nNew York City<\/h1>\n

Walk through any major city and you\u2019ll see vacant land. \u00a0These are the weed lots, garbage strewn undeveloped spaces, and high crime areas that most urban residents consider blights on the neighborhood. \u00a0In some cases, neighbors have organized to transform these spaces into community amenities such as shared garden spaces, but all too often these lots persist as unrecognized opportunities for urban improvement. \u00a0In densely populated cities with sometimes few opportunities for new park or green space development, small vacant lots could provide green relief, especially in low-income areas with reduced access to urban parkland.<\/p>\n

And yet, few cities are taking advantage of these underutilized spaces to improve urban biodiversity and provide additional ecosystem services. \u00a0What\u2019s even more surprising is the vast amount of urban land that is categorized as vacant. \u00a0Take New York City for example: in this urban metropolis there are 29,782 parcels designated by the city tax code as vacant within the city boundaries,\u00a0not counting<\/em>\u00a0vacant land in the surrounding suburbs and exurbs. \u00a0This totals more than 7,300 acres of land that could be providing important social and ecological benefits for urban residents. \u00a0Read more…<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

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There are 29,782 publicly owned (red) and privately owned (orange) vacant lots in New York City. When combined they represent a sizable opportunity for urban improvement. NYC Parks are shown in green for reference. Image credit: Peleg Kremer.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Exploring the Nature Pyramid<\/a><\/h1>\n

by Tim Beatley
\nCharlottesville, Virginia<\/h1>\n

I have long been a believer in\u00a0E.O. Wilson’s idea of\u00a0biophilia<\/em><\/a>; that we are hard-wired from evolution to need and want contact with nature. To have a healthy life, emotionally and physically, requires this contact. \u00a0The empirical evidence of this is overwhelming: exposure to nature lowers our blood pressure, lowers stress and alters mood in positive ways, enhances cognitive functioning, and in many ways makes us happy. \u00a0Exposure to nature is one of the key foundations of a meaningful life.<\/p>\n

How much exposure to nature and outdoor natural environments is necessary, though, to ensure healthy child development and a healthy adult life? \u00a0We don't know for sure but it might be that we need to start examining what is necessary. \u00a0Are there such things as minimum daily requirements of nature? \u00a0And what do we make of the different ways we experience nature and the different types of nature that we experience? Is there a good way to begin to think about this?<\/tt><\/p>\n

Here at the\u00a0University of Virginia<\/a>\u00a0(Charlottesville, VA USA<\/tt>), my colleague\u00a0Tanya Denckla-Cobb<\/a>\u00a0has had a marvelous and indeed brilliant idea. \u00a0Why not employ a metaphor and tool similar to the nutrition pyramid that has for many years been touted by health professionals and nutritionists as a useful guide for the types and quantity of food we need to eat to be healthy. \u00a0Call it, as Tanya does, the\u00a0Nature Pyramid<\/em>, and we have something at once novel and attention-getting, but potentially very useful in helping to shape discussion about biophilic design and planning. Read more...<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/tt><\/p>\n

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The Nature Pyramid. Graphic by Tim Beatley.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Neighborhoods and Urban Fractals \u2013 The Building Blocks of Sustainable Cities<\/a><\/h1>\n

by Paul Downton
\nAdelaide<\/h1>\n

Urbanisation is spreading across the face of the planet at an unprecedented rate. \u00a0Most of it is opportunistic;\u00a0ad hoc<\/em>\u00a0development and shanty towns rather than master plans. \u00a0Virtually none of it, planned or otherwise, incorporates the elements of natural capital that are needed to create sustainable cities. \u00a0Every time a new piece of urban fabric is created, or an existing piece is patched up and reworked, it may add to the value of the real estate but subtracts from the ecological health of the urban area. As each conurbation grows it diminishes the biological wealth of its region. \u00a0Globally, the entire urban system trends towards becoming increasingly dysfunctional.<\/p>\n

But what if it were different? \u00a0What if, every time we added to the weave of this great human construct, we constructed pieces of urbanism that not only provided good shelter for people but also increased biodiversity and enhanced the value of natural capital?<\/p>\n

For some time I have been intrigued by the idea that one might be able to identify patterns in urban systems that could provide a systematic model for developing cities that can always and simultaneously incorporate the essential characteristics of ecologically sustainable urbanism \u2013 and that this might be applicable across the spectrum from eco-village to metropolis.\u00a0Read more…<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

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Urban systems are largely unplanned with only incidental (though crucial) relationships to the bioregions on which they are ultimately dependent. [credit: Creative Commons license http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/File:1_rocinha_favela_panorama_2010.jpg]<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Putting Nature Back Into the Natural Beauty of Rio de Janeiro<\/a><\/h1>\n

by Pierre Andr\u00e9-Martin
\nRio de Janeiro<\/h1>\n

It is an irony that despite the magnificent natural beauty of Rio de Janeiro, the city itself is largely devoid of functioning nature. \u00a0It is now time for Rio to not only to host global events such as the World Cup and Olympics, but to host its primary nature, not outside the city, but in the middle of its streets, plazas and buildings. \u00a0This blog discusses a case study \u2013 the greening of the Carioca River watershed that emerges from Tijuca National Park \u2013 as an example of what we could accomplish for the good of all Cariocas (which is what residents of Rio are called).<\/p>\n

The presence of nature is decreasing in the daily life of Rio due to the expansion of the impervious area at many scales, from street to district scale, architectural models of arid constructions and street tree plantings that are getting old. \u00a0Slowly the nature is being \u201cexpelled\u201d, transforming the city in an hot and arid landscape. Read more…<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

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Cities of Nature<\/a><\/h1>\n

by Eric Sanderson
\nNew York City<\/h1>\n

Many entries in this collective blog about the nature of cities will focus your attention on the nature that remains in cities, defined in terms of those patches of semi-natural habitat, the green bits, which are found in all cities, and which can be encouraged or discouraged by human action.\u00a0 Consider for example\u00a0Celicia Herzog\u2019s recent post delighting in the green landscapes in and around Rio de Janiero<\/a>, connecting fragments of the famously-biodiverse Atlantic Forest in which Rio is emplaced.\u00a0 Or consider\u00a0Mike Houck\u2019s paean to the nature nearby<\/a>, and within, Portland, Oregon, where his organization seeks to make Pacific Northwest cities both livable and loveable for people and other critters.\u00a0 Lovely pieces both, well worth your time.<\/p>\n

I want to write about something related, but different, something which I think is both more encompassing and less well understood:\u00a0 that is, the total nature of cities.\u00a0 I want us to conceive of cities in their entirety as ecological places (more precisely, as ecological landscapes), where buildings, streets, boardwalks, sidewalks and parking lots, ball fields, basketball courts, fountains, and power plants, as well as the green bits, participate in a complex and evolving mosaic, where natural things happen.\u00a0 By\u00a0nature\u00a0<\/em>I mean the interactions of soil and rock, air and water, energy and life, that characterize our verdant planet, and by\u00a0natural<\/em>, I mean the qualities of everyone and everything that participates in the great congress of life on Earth, including you and me.\u00a0 Those interactions and those qualities do not disappear when we build a city.\u00a0 Rather they take on new,\u00a0idiosyncratic forms<\/a><\/cite>, which contrast in many, ordinary and extraordinary ways, with\u00a0the ecological mosaics that formerly filled the place<\/a>\u00a0where the city now stands. Read more…<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

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It helps when thinking about the nature of cities to remember the nature that was there before the city, as in the Wildlife Conservation Society\u2019s Mannahatta and Welikia<\/a>\u00a0Projects.
Credit: Markley Boyer \/ The Mannahatta Project \/ Wildlife Conservation Society; Yann-Arthus Bertrand \/ CORBIS. Originally published in Eric Sanderson\u2019s Mannahatta: A Natural History of New York City (Abrams, 2009)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Let Us Champion \u201cBiodiversinesque\u201d Landscape Design for the 21st Century<\/a><\/h1>\n

by Maria Ignatieva
\nUppsala, Sweden<\/h1>\n

I started my research as a landscape architect and urban ecologist in St. Petersburg, Russia. My home town is one of the biggest European cities and it is famous for numerous historical landscapes. \u00a0In that time (1990\u2019s) investigation of urban biotopes was a novelty. Passion for the history of landscape architecture resulted in my concentration on biodiversity of historical parks and gardens.<\/p>\n

With a dramatic turn in my life I had a chance to research UK, US and then New Zealand urban flora and vegetation. \u00a0One of the first striking surprises in the city of Christchurch, New Zealand, where I moved in 1997, was the similarity of urban floras. \u00a0I could easily identify almost 90% of plant material! Urban landscapes, traditions and way of life in New Zealand were so similar to \u201cmotherland\u201d England and to general Anglo-American culture. \u00a0In this particular moment I felt myself a \u201cglobal\u201d person and started my research on unification of urban global landscapes and searching for alternative sustainable landscape design solutions. \u00a0I saw as my goal to use knowledge of landscape ecology processes and match them with landscape design practice. \u00a0Why the rest of the world so easily accepted British picturesque and gardenesque thinking even when this is not sustainable at all. How we landscape architects and environmentalists can convince ordinary citizens, as well as politicians and even our own professionals, to accept a new way of thinking \u2014 biodiversinesque \u2014 which gives a way and space to nature in our cities and not only \u201ctidy\u201d gardens with colourful flowers and lawns? Read more…<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

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Typical \u201cglobal\u201d flowerbed with Petunia, Shanghai, China. Photo by Maria Ignatieva.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Discovering Urban Biodiversity<\/a><\/h1>\n

by Matt Palmer
\nNew York City<\/h1>\n

The world is losing its biological diversity \u2013 or biodiversity \u2013 at an alarming rate. \u00a0The primary force driving this is\u00a0habitat degradation<\/a>. \u00a0When the places where animals, plants, fungi, and the myriad other organisms live are converted to other uses, conditions change and the prior residents often move on or die. \u00a0The two major causes of this habitat degradation, or the extreme of wholesale habitat loss, are agriculture and urbanization. And it is certainly true that converting forests or wetlands to corn fields or apartment buildings changes the land cover, vegetation, soils, hydrology, and other environmental factors in drastic ways. We all expect that many of the kinds of organisms found in those \u201cnatural\u201d environments will be missing from the \u201cmanmade\u201d environments. \u00a0And it stands to reason that, as more of the world is converted to \u201cmanmade\u201d habitats, the space left for wild organisms diminishes and many are lost from the earth. [I\u2019m using quotation marks around the words \u201cnatural\u201d and \u201cmanmade\u201d since these are rather gross oversimplifications of the range of human impacts \u2013 but that\u2019s a topic for another day.]\n

While this narrative is true in the broad sense \u2013 there is abundant evidence of biodiversity loss resulting from human modification of the environment \u2013 it is too simple. It\u2019s not just a case of cities (or farms, but this a blog about cities) replacing other kinds of ecosystems\u00a0\u2013 there are some important nuances to this process. \u00a0Many elements of nature \u2013 the rocks, soils, sunlight and water, but also many organisms \u2013 persist even as a city grows up around them. The kinds of species and their abundances will change after urbanization, but some wild life will remain from the previous community. \u00a0Urban environments also encourage other kinds of organisms by providing habitats that were not present before. \u00a0And urban environments are sometimes recolonized by species that were originally lost. Read more…<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

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The author leading a field trip in an urban wetland. Photo by Hara Woltz.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Cities and Biodiversity: A Call for Up-Scaled Action<\/a><\/h1>\n

by Russell Galt
\nCape Town<\/h1>\n

For all of us working in the field of \u201ccities and biodiversity\u201d, it is well worth reflecting on our achievements. \u00a0We can take personal satisfaction knowing that we contribute to a meaningful cause with tangible results. Every scientific paper, policy-brief and newsletter, every side event, meeting and presentation, every phone call, email and letter, even the brow-raising intensive travel regimes, collectively have contributed to a proliferation of projects, programmes, initiatives, tools and resources. \u00a0Collectively they are driving a positive movement \u2013 that is, the movement to bring nature back into urban areas, sensitize citizens to its importance, reduce ecological footprints, and secure ecosystem services.<\/p>\n

\u2026or are we failing?<\/p>\n

Although many local governments are making commendable progress in managing biodiversity, the vast majority are visibly struggling with a lack of expertise, funds and capacity. \u00a0To bring this lagging peloton up to speed will require an up-scaling of technical support, an expansion of learning networks and a strengthening of performance incentives.\u00a0Read more…<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

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Photo credits: Russell Galt.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n<\/div>\n

Architecture, Ecology and the Nature-Culture Continuum<\/a><\/h1>\n

by Brian McGrath
\nNewark, New Jersey<\/h1>\n

The Venetians built a remarkable city made up of close-knit island neighborhoods within a briny lagoon, centered on fresh ground water cisterns in the middle of sand filled public plazas called campi. \u00a0There are few cities where one feels so in touch with nature, in the stone of the buildings, the light bouncing off the remarkable reflective water of the lagoon and canals. \u00a0This is the special nature that envelops one\u2019s body moving through that great city.<\/p>\n

New Yorkers built a grid of reflective towers, which offer residents the pagan delight of \u201cManhattanhenge,\u201d when the sun sets directly at the perspective endpoints of its 155 parallel cross-town streets. \u00a0On ordinary days, light bounces mysteriously from high towers blocks away into narrow airshafts of old-law tenements. Its grid slopes to two arms of the Hudson\/Raritan estuary, and a bike riding tenement dweller knows how to escape the seasonal extreme heat or cold precisely according to a local knowledge of the glass-canyon microclimates.<\/p>\n

Nature loving Bangkokians believe all things are alive, and offer food, flower garlands and incense to the ghosts that inhabit their city. \u00a0As part of their animist roots, nature is an invisible force only partly felt through sensations of hope, dread or fear. Buddhist practice places nature in a realm beyond form and sense, but manifest in temples designed as models of the cosmos.<\/p>\n

What all three of these cities face is the uncharted future of dramatic shifts in climate. \u00a0Traveling between Venice, Bangkok and New York in 2011, I have seen the plight Venetians face with the high water of each high tide, a devastating flood in Bangkok that crippled a global industrial supply chain, and a \u2018what if\u2019 collective breath holding in New York as Hurricane Irene approached. \u00a0Clearly urbanists and naturalists need to immediately address the dual challenges of rapid urbanization and climate change from a diverse range of cultural practices globally. \u00a0In order to meet these pressing challenges we need to get beyond the ways we mentally separate nature and culture. Read more…<\/em><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

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The Gwynns Falls Watershed, stretching from the City of Baltimore to the outer fringes of Baltimore County where every household in the region is part of a watershed continuum. Courtesy of urban-interface.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Souvlaki Coyote and Other Tales of Urban Wildlife<\/a><\/h1>\n

by Bob Sallinger
\nPortland, Oregon<\/h1>\n

Much of the fabulous writing on\u00a0The Nature of Cities<\/a>\u00a0blog 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. \u00a0I would like to shift focus a bit and explore the intersection between people and wildlife and suggest that we would also be wise to consider how we integrate animals into our urban stories, poems, art, culture and collective narrative. \u00a0We need to bring the same level of creativity and imagination that we are currently investing in transforming our physical landscape into repopulating our mental landscape with the diversity of life that surrounds us.<\/p>\n

In short, we need to do a better job telling animal stories\u00a0\u2014<\/em>\u00a0urban animal stories.<\/p>\n

I am not talking here necessarily of ecology, biology and natural history, although ecological literacy is of critical importance. \u00a0I am taking at least one step further back into the realm of mythology, legend and folklore, about how we tell and retell our own story in a way that truly recognizes wild beings as fellow travelers on our urban landscapes.<\/p>\n

For many years I ran\u00a0Portland Audubon Society\u2019s wildlife hospital<\/a>. \u00a0There we treated upwards of 3,000 injured wild animals and responded to more than 15,000 wildlife related phone calls each year. \u00a0The vast majority of both calls and animals emanated from the urban and suburban landscape. Read more…<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

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Souvlaki Coyote on the prowl in downtown Portland, Oregon. Photos by Bob Sallinger.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

From International Committment to Local Action: The Singapore Experience<\/a><\/h1>\n

by Lena Chan
\nSingapore<\/h1>\n

The\u00a0Convention on Biological Diversity<\/a>\u00a0(CBD) currently has 193 Parties. \u00a0It is indeed a challenge for each of the Parties, as a nation, to implement their commitments to an international convention like the CBD. \u00a0How can each Party know how successful it has been in fulfilling its obligations to the CBD? \u00a0In April 2002 at 6th<\/sup>\u00a0Meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP6<\/a>) to the CBD, the Parties committed themselves to achieve a target of reducing significantly the rate of biodiversity loss at the global, regional and national level by 2010.<\/p>\n

If we cannot measure quantitatively what biodiversity we have how can we manage and protect it? \u00a0If we do not evaluate our biodiversity conservation efforts, how do we know that they are achieving what they were set to do? \u00a0These were the questions that Singapore pondered over and we would like to share what we have done to help us meet our international commitments through local action. Read more…<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

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Aerial view of part of Singapore. Photo by Wong Tuan Wah.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Natural Disasters and the Nature of Cities<\/a><\/h1>\n

by Glenn Stewart
\nChristchurch, New Zealand<\/h1>\n

Environmental traumas are here. \u00a0Global climate is a reality that is bringing extremes in weather as we have seen recently with the devastating impacts of Hurricane Sandy in the northeast of the USA. \u00a0And in the last several years there have been massive earthquakes that have devastated cities in Japan, Haiti and New Zealand. \u00a0To manage the effects of these traumas on the urban environment, we first must identify the socio-ecological drivers governing the urban ecosystems and then ascertain the degree of departure of the \u201cnew-normal\u201d state from the pre-trauma conditions. \u00a0Individual and institutional responses set the trajectory of recovery and subsequently create a \u201cnew-normal\u201d not only for ecological but also social systems.<\/p>\n

The Christchurch earthquakes that began in September 2010 provided a unique opportunity to address the impacts of traumas on the urban environment and in particular, identifying \u201cresilient\u201d components of coupled ecological-social systems. \u00a0In this blog I will outline a study focussing on urban vegetation succession post-earthquakes. \u00a0 In later contributions I will update the findings of this study based on further data analysis and discuss other aspects, such as the effects on urban fauna, and implications and options for future urban greening thru ecological design. Read more…<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

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Map of Avon-Otakaro Network urban woodland proposal Credit: http:\/\/www.avonotakaronetwork.co.nz\/<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

We\u2019re Number 1* (*Depending): The Values Embedded in \u201cMost Green City\u201d Lists<\/a><\/h1>\n

by David Maddox
\nNew York City<\/h1>\n

Who doesn\u2019t love a list? \u00a0The 100 richest people in the world. \u00a0The best guitar players of all time. The most beautiful beaches in the world. The world\u2019s \u201cgreenest cities\u201d. \u00a0The USA\u2019s most livable cities. \u00a0The most resilient cities. \u00a0For people interested in the particular theme of the list, the lists are fascinating. \u00a0We can compare them against our own ideas and experience. \u00a0We can debate and complain about the order. \u00a0(I personally agree with Jimi Hendrix at number 1 in\u00a0Rolling Stone\u2019s list<\/a>\u00a0of guitar players, but think that\u00a0Ry Cooder at #31<\/a>\u00a0is scandalously low.)<\/p>\n

Some lists are based on simple and easily understood data, such as the\u00a0Forbes list<\/a>\u00a0of 2012\u2019s richest people in the world. \u00a0Let\u2019s accept as correct\u00a0Carlos Slim Hel\u00fa<\/a>\u2019s valoration ($69 billion) and agree he has the most scratch. \u00a0Among the swells,\u00a0Mukesh Ambani<\/a>, whose\u00a0personal skyscraper<\/a>\u00a0towers above Mumbai and has a green wall, is a laggard and in the (relative) poorhouse at #20. \u00a0A list of the\u00a0most beautiful beaches<\/a>, like the guitar players, is much more subjective, but nevertheless is grounded in a set of attributes, such as the beauty of the physical setting, the soft whiteness of the sand, and so on.<\/p>\n

The critical thing to keep in the front of one\u2019s mind when pondering all such lists is that they are based on\u00a0values<\/strong>, which are in turn based on concepts of what is important. Read more…<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

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A conceptual model for the elements of critical green in a “green” city. Graphic by David Maddox.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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Cities are ecological spaces. \u00a0But only relatively recently has this new vision of ecologically sophisticated cities gained momentum. \u00a0Today, in increasing numbers, scientists, designers, and practitioners create useful knowledge about the nature of cities through study and research that can inspire public debate and decision makers. \u00a0Thinkers imagine how to conceptualize urban nature; ecologists study […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":214,"featured_media":8277,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[300,273,298,299,297],"tags":[40,44,401,55,28,34,38,66,53,37,404,29],"coauthors":[361],"class_list":["post-1905","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-essay-art-and-awareness","category-essay","category-essay-people-and-communitites","category-essay-place-and-design","category-essay-science-and-tools","tag-architecture","tag-art","tag-biodiversity","tag-conservation","tag-design","tag-experiencing-nature","tag-gardens","tag-parks","tag-stewardship","tag-vacant-lots","tag-value","tag-what-is-urban-nature"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thenatureofcities.com\/TNOC\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1905","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thenatureofcities.com\/TNOC\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thenatureofcities.com\/TNOC\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thenatureofcities.com\/TNOC\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/214"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thenatureofcities.com\/TNOC\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1905"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.thenatureofcities.com\/TNOC\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1905\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thenatureofcities.com\/TNOC\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8277"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thenatureofcities.com\/TNOC\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1905"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thenatureofcities.com\/TNOC\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1905"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thenatureofcities.com\/TNOC\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1905"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thenatureofcities.com\/TNOC\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=1905"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}