What makes a great city? It is a pressing question because by 2030, 5 billion people—60 percent of the world’s population—will live in cities, compared with 3.6 billion today, turbocharging the world’s economic growth. Leaders in developing nations must cope with urbanization on an unprecedented scale, while those in developed ones wrestle with aging infrastructures and stretched budgets. All are fighting to secure or maintain the competitiveness of their cities and the livelihoods of the people … [Read more...]

Detroit filed for bankruptcy. City planners received this news with shock and dismay, like the death of an ailing uncle, the conversations around the water coolers made it sound like the City was living on borrowed time. But the big question is why? Why Detroit, which in the 1950′s was the nation’s fourth largest city, with a population of 1.8 million, was allowed to slide into this sad state of affairs, and where it had to seek Court’s protection to ward off the debtors? Kevyn Orr, the … [Read more...]

The Rails-to-Trails program has long been a government program everyone can love. In 1983, Congress created the feel-good program to convert abandoned rail tracks into hiking and biking trails for public use. Not only did the program re-purpose ugly abandoned trackwork, but it did it on the cheap. When Congress passed the measure into law, the Congressional Budget Office found that it wouldn't cost federal taxpayers a dime. The railroad usually pulls up the tracks and leases or donates the … [Read more...]

Erika Hanna Oxford Historical Monographs 240 pages | 12 black and white images and 4 maps | 216x138mm 978-0-19-968045-0 | Hardback | 01 August 2013 Examines civil society and activism to provide a new approach to the 1960s in the Republic of Ireland, moving away from previous emphasis upon economic reforms and high politics Uses urban politics to provide a new examination of social and cultural change in 1960s Ireland Provides a new interpretation of the cultural politics of … [Read more...]