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Plans for a solar community in West Philly are halted by legislative red tape

Brianna Baker

October 23, 2019 |

The Philadelphia Citizen |

Text |

1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, Gardner, Massachusetts

Pennsylvania law is preventing a Philadelphia neighborhood from converting an empty lot into a solar farm, but community members are working to fight against this by citing neighboring states that are seeing positive impact from similar projects. One such project is in Massachusetts where shared solar energy systems is helping to offset "80 percent of the power needs of a nearby assisted living facility, an affordable housing development, a family-owned hardware store and a non-profit serving those with disabilities."

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Rooftop beehives in Philly help nurture bees—and maintain our food supply

Jason Wilson

October 17, 2019 |

The Philadelphia Citizen |

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800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Bees and other pollinator populations have been rapidly declining, threatening food production nationwide, but urban beekeeping is helping to fight against this trajectory. In Philadelphia, rooftop beekeeping has become the norm for one section of the city, where the honey harvested goes directly to the businesses in the area.

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San Francisco's Market Street Car Ban Is Overdue

Laura Bliss

October 17, 2019 |

Bloomberg CityLab |

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800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States, San Francisco, California

A plan to redesign Market Street in San Francisco uses a controversial approach used by cities around the world: eliminating personal cars entirely. This bicycle, pedestrian and bus-oriented layout approach reduces traffic accidents and fatalities; San Francisco plans to move forward with their plan in 2020.

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What Baltimore Gets Right about Urban Trees

Christine McLaren

October 17, 2019 |

Reasons to be Cheerful |

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800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States, Baltimore, Maryland

Baltimore has become a leader in maintaining and growing the city’s trees by monitoring their health more closely. Using a new mapping technique, city officials can analyze its current tree canopy and see how it affects other city data like temperature, health, and crime. While growing the green space has been slow and revealed areas of income inequality, their successes could be a model for other communities that want to grow their urban forests.

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Facing unbearable heat, Qatar has begun to air-condition the outdoors

Steven Mufson

October 16, 2019 |

The Washington Post |

Multi-Media |

Over 3000 Words

Response Location: Qatar, Doha

In Qatar, where temperatures have reached unbearably high degrees, an engineering professor at Qatar University has designed a way to provide air conditioning to the outdoors. Although the method is arguably not a solution for climate change and could actually have negative impacts, it is successfully allowing people in the country to be able to leave the their homes, which in turn benefits the economy of the country.

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Building for Real With Digital Blocks

Tina Rosenberg

October 15, 2019 |

The New York Times |

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1500-3000 Words

Response Location: Sweden

To get input on city design plans from citizens without any technical knowledge, some city planners are turning to Minecraft, an easy-to-use computer game that allows users to build in a three dimensional environment. Useful for planning public spaces (rather than designing a building), Minecraft has been adopted by UN Habitat to plan everything from soccer fields in Nairobi to a riverbank in Kosovo.

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Urban living makes us miserable. This city is trying to change that

Fleur MacDonald

October 15, 2019 |

Mosaic Science |

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Over 3000 Words

Response Location: Scotland, Glasgow

Glasgow continues to learn from its systemic failure in urban planning during and after the industrial revolution by redesigning its living spaces to be separated from industrial areas, and by including nature and green space in the city scape. One initiative, called the Children's Wood, brings youth to a designated green space and teaches gardening as well as peer support and community engagement, fostering a sense of connectivity in the younger generation.

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Spain's Happy Little Carless City

Will Doig

October 11, 2019 |

Reasons to be Cheerful |

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800-1500 Words

Response Location: Spain, Pontevedra

In Pontevedra, Spain, the city has taken incremental action to reduce cars and congestion in the city center. As the city is small and walkable on foot, walking has become the foremost transportation option, not through extreme regulatory hurdles, but by engaging business owners, providing short-term parking and even free parking on the edge of town, and making sure pedestrians feel front and center. Through slight design changes, local government and citizens alike have been able to reimagine what a walkable city looks like, then put it into effect with great success.

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Kendall businesses to try a different kind of experiment — fixing traffic

Jon Chesto

October 09, 2019 |

The Boston Globe |

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Under 800 Words

Response Location: United States, Cambridge, Massachusetts

In 2016, MIT’s Transit Lab made huge changes in the transportation benefits it provided, including subsidizing public transportation for close to 11,000 employees and increasing the costs of employee parking. As smaller business in Cambridge’s Kendall Square come together to address the city’s transportation issues, it looks to MIT as a source of inspiration and hopes its collective approach can be used across the country.

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Fill, Build and Flood: Dangerous Development in Flood-Prone Areas

Laurie Mazur

October 08, 2019 |

U.S. News & World Report |

Multi-Media |

800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States, Charlotte, North Carolina

To combat excessive flooding in low-plain areas, cities like Charlotte are passing critical legislation that regulates fill-and-build development, a type of construction that leads to more intense flooding in vulnerable neighborhoods. Charlotte bases flood control plans off future conditions rather than current or past flooding areas, and the city charges a fee for homeowners that, in turn, provides dedicated funding for stormwater management

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