EngagingCities

mySociety has published a report as a result of the Civic Tech Cities project, attempting to shed light on one of the more opaque forms of civic technology implementation, namely, the tech develope…

Op-Ed: “It is not enough to simply label a space as public and not do the work to think intentionally about the experiences that marginalized groups will have within that space.”

By  Stephanie Marino via Deep Roots Design affects the brain. We know this intuitively, as we get frustrated when poor wayfinding causes us to get us lost or we feel renewed after a run in the park, but only recently are we starting to understand how and why. Our immediate environment can prompt both negative and positive effects and it’s becoming evident that the way spaces are designed can exert a strong influence on our behavior. This is especially important

For many years, open access to data has been viewed as an important means of improving government transparency and accountability and deepening citizen engagement, and today hundreds of local and national governments worldwide are using open data portals to publish data and documents that they produce over the course of their operations.

New research shows cities that prioritize the maintenance of public spaces and community assets are more likely to inspire civic trust, stewardship and participation in public life. Here are three key findings — and three ways city leaders can incorporate them in their communities. This is a guest post by Suzanne Nienaber. This is the…

A new handbook offers advice to cities willing to make the leap to join Frankfurt, Vancouver, San Francisco and more than 300 others in the transition to clean energy.

Middle school is fertile ground because 11-14 year olds are increasingly concerned about fairness, justice, and their own thoughts on the world around them

How a Vermont town is dealing with major questions about school district consolidation.

A discussion of play, meaning, smart cities and civic life with Eric Gordon, professor and director of the Engagement Lab at Emerson College.

Linn Davis makes the case for urban thinker Jane Jacobs as a grandmother of modern public

Americans are conflicted about urban development: somehow we’ve demonized both sprawl and density. Here’s the case for the hyperdense city: prosperous, sustainable, delightful.

What elements make people feel more welcome in public spaces.  

We asked mayors, urbanists and other thinkers for their diagnoses, and most took the long view—looking beyond Donald Trump.

Some of the world’s poorest countries will be hit hardest as climate change affects marine fisheries all over the world, according to a new study. The global fishing industry produces a total catch worth of about $90bn (£71bn) but the warming ocean temperatures are causing many valuable species to shift their usual ranges. The potential for water to hit temperatures lethal to corals such as Australia’s Great Barrier Reef, which support vast amounts of other marine life, is a particular problem.

Jonathan Andrews reports from Songdo which last week played host to the sixth New Cities Summit – ‘Thriving cities: the building blocks of urban wellbeing’.

Jessie Conover responds to recent articles calling for less public participation in our

Murray Whyte asks what, if any, rules art should follow when shared with the public.

New Urbanism is a well-known movement that aims to create more walkable communities. Less known is New Ruralism, which is focused on the preservation and enhancement of rural communities beyond the edge of metropolitan regions. Small towns now part of this nascent movement seek to define themselves on their own terms, not just in relation…

The promise of civic technology is that better democracy can come via connection, automation, and data. 

Three experts from NYC, NOLA, and Rio zeroed in on cities' response to climate change at Cities and Climate Action, a Columbia GSAPP conference.

Eric Liu discusses what makes activism work and the power that we all possess.

The San Antonio Progressive Alliance organized a community meeting on Participatory Budgeting that was held last night at Brick at Bluestar. The meeting featured a presentation by Palo Alto Community…

The design studio Pensa envisions the way autonomous vehicles could transform far more than our streets.

This week I traveled from Northville, MI to Madison, WI with a stop in Chicago, IL. Three distinctly different places. All successful in their own way. Northville is an old Victorian town of 6,000 …