Artificial islands that are now mushrooming across the ocean are regarded as ‘engineering marvels’. But, little attention is paid to how these human-made structures affect sea life.
The Commonwealth Games is often dubbed the ‘friendly games’, but its history shows that friendliness applies only to ‘the right sort of people’.
AAP
Preparations for next month’s Commonwealth Games on the Gold Coast are pushing homeless people out of town, and out of the state. Sadly, that’s not unusual for events of this sort.
As planning minister, Jackie Trad said legislative changes would make the planning system more open and accountable.
AAP/Darren England
Changes under Queensland’s recently instituted Planning Act give councils much more leeway in their decision-making, which makes it harder for appeals against decisions to succeed.
Flint, Mich., has one of the highest crime rates in the country for a city of its size. One neighborhood has found a novel way to fight back.
Carlos Osorio/AP Images
Crime is way down in one Flint, Michigan, neighborhood, where locals have teamed up to revamp neglected public spaces. Here, why ‘busy streets’ can prevent violence and save cities money.
Third places are most effective when, like Waverley Community Garden in Sydney, they appeal to people of all ages and backgrounds.
d-olwen-dee/flickr
Third places are shared spaces where people can informally socialise. As a potential antidote to the modern scourge of loneliness, it’s worth asking what makes the best of these places tick.
Specialist Disability Accommodation has enabled Ben Parkinson, pictured with his carer, to live in a home of his own.
Summer Foundation
The NDIS is allowing for Specialist Disability Accommodation for 28,000 people, with 17,500 already in such housing. The potential demand for this life-changing supported housing is even greater.
The ‘Bicycle Snake’ in Copenhagen separates pedestrians and cyclists, allowing both to navigate the city more safely.
Cycling Embassy of Denmark/DISSING+WEITLING
New analysis reveals just how little is spent on cycling and walking projects around Australia. No state’s spending on cycling is more than 1.5% of its road funding.
Greater Manchester wants to be “zero carbon”. But this sort of target raises some important questions.
Jakarta’s traffic system is one of many facets of the city that could be improved by smart cities technologies, but at what cost?
Vasenka Photography/Flickr
Governments are using Big Data to design improvements and upgrades of cities. But ethical questions need to be considered, lest we end up jeopardising citizens’ privacy or deepen social inequalities.
Signs of homelessness are becoming more visible.
Tracey Nearmy/AAP
A decade after the launch of a national campaign to reduce homelessness, the latest figures show Australia is going backwards. Research points to problems in the public housing system as a key factor.
In both Indian and Australian cities, cyclists who deliver goods and services have to take it slow.
Malini Sur
Cycling is a low-cost and non-polluting way to make deliveries in congested cities. Slow cyclists should be recognised as good for the economy and environment, not treated like second-class citizens.
Benjamen Gussen’s proposal for a ‘charter city’ in the Pilbara stimulated this imaginary depiction.
Justin Bolleter
Business-as-usual projections assume our four biggest cities must absorb three-quarters of Australia’s population growth over the next 30 years. Might new cities be a better way to deal with it?
The argument that stronger supply will deliver more affordable housing isn’t borne out in areas where new unit and apartment construction is booming.
Joel Carrett/AAP
The clichés about housing supply and regulatory restraints are distractions from the need to focus on expanding the affordable housing sector to directly meet the needs of low-income households.
The IPCC’s first cities conference revealed the challenges in bridging the gaps between scientific knowledge and policy practice, and between cities in developed and developing nations.
Cities IPCC/Twitter
The first IPCC conference on cities has highlighted the challenges of reconciling science, urban practices and politics. But it was an important recognition of cities’ leading role in climate action.
Jobs are in the city centre, but population growth is in the west, resulting in long, slow commutes.
AMPG/Shutterstock
The population growth is in the west, but most of the jobs are still in the city centre. Three major development proposals could help reshape Melbourne in ways that help overcome this costly mismatch.
Even in cities with good public transportation, some areas can be ‘transit deserts,’ where demand exceeds supply. Living in these zones makes it hard to access good jobs, health care and other services.
The Hawkesbury’s waters look beautifully natural but treated sewage makes up to 20% of the river flow where the North Richmond Filtration Plant draws its water.
Karl Baron/flickr
Perth is looking at recycling all its sewage in the city’s future water supply. But many Australians’ drinking water already contains indirectly recycled treated sewage.
The design for Paris Rive Gauche incorporates a mix of uses and access to green spaces.
Paris Rive Gauche/SOA Architects
Ruth and Maurie Crow were early advocates of the compact city. They also warned 50 years ago that a clear justice intent was needed to shape cities for their citizens rather than vested interests.
The plantings of New York’s High Line Park were inspired by plants that had naturally colonised the disused railway viaduct.
Beyond my Ken/Wikipedia
If the nature we desire is, in fact, its expression as untamed wildness, then we should turn to the creativity of artists as well as urban designers when building our cities.