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The aspirational city in the Abu Dhabi desert continues to plan and build. It may indeed become a ‘greenprint’ for urban development if it achieves very low or zero-carbon. My editor at AramcoWorld pushed me to find metrics. I wrote about the place, the planners, the people and their ongoing efforts in Chasing Zero (see on-line).
This family history tells about three generations of Seiters on their farm in Arkansas. It comes from my mother, Mary Magdalen Mammoser née Seiter, who told me many of her memories of childhood and life on the farm…
Planners at work, grappling with the world as it is, facing the constant challenge of bringing ideas into practice.
Planning Chicago, by Jon DeVries and Brad Hunt, calls for a return to big ideas in a city once famous for bold planning. The authors decry the lack of vision and failure to implement that has beset Chicago planning for decades.
For more than 2 years I led an environmental advocacy org in the industrial Lake Calumet area…I stitched together the city’s plans and added a few ideas of my own, assembling a regional strategy on an illustrated map…
Chicago is one of the world’s great cities but its future isn’t so certain… The 2nd annual Global Cities Forum, held downtown during three days in June, asked many questions about the world’s top cities. Our town stood shoulder to shoulder with the giants and fared pretty well. But the global economy is in constant flux…
“Risky Routes: Energy Transit in the Middle East,” by Robin Mills, published by Brookings in April 2016, charts the whole spectrum of risk, from a temporary diminution of supply to a major disruption from closing a key chokepoint. I wrote a summary review and a 2-part interview with Robin for Oilprice.
Cook County led the way in planning and building the expressways that now run through the heart of the city. I reported on the county's first comprehensive transportation plan since 1940, writing for BuiltWorlds. The new plan is about walking and bicycling and simply trying to hold the huge system together. How times have changed.
I have enjoyed travelling in the Caucasus region and sometimes visiting the city of Baku. I met two planners there who helped me to see the rich historic layers of the city, in Baku at a Crossroads for Planning magazine.
Masdar City in Abu Dhabi is a very interesting attempt to build a low-carbon sustainable city in the Middle East.
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