It’s news roundup time, with ten stories that you might enjoy from this week’s national news. And of course, a News Roundup Challenge. First, well done, Joshua Poe and Royce Meredith, who correctly identified last week’s street view as the intersection of Longest and Everett avenues in the Cherokee Triangle in the comments and on the Broken Sidewalk Facebook page (Like us!). We’ve put together a before and after slider of that intersection below so you can see what it looks like today.
Here’s another view up top ready to be identified in the comments. The photo was taken in 1947 and shows a pivotal time in Louisville’s history when cars were beginning to take over as the deciding factor of built form, a legacy that is with us to this day. It seems strangely appropriate that oil from a parking lot is spilling over and covering the sidewalk. A helpful hint: Every building in the photo has since been torn down.
On with the news:
A Complete Guide to the Future of the U.S. Freight Movement. What are the environmental impacts of the invisible logistics of the ‘stuff’ we buy? Can our severely underfunded infrastructure continue to support our consumption patterns? CITYLAB
Report Offers Ideas for a Boston Beset by Rising Seas. Can Boston’s proposed canal system save the city from rising sea levels? Boston Globe
Trees in Hard Landscape: Now Available! “Trees in Hard Landscapes: A Guide for Delivery explores the practical challenges and solutions to integrating trees in 21st century streets, civic spaces and surface car parks, detailing process, design and technical options. It will be of particular interest to highway engineers, public realm professionals and tree specialists.” Planetizen
Taxpayers vs. Private Investors: Shifting the Risk of Funding Public Projects. Rachel Dovey reveals the risk of public-private partnerships in funding our infrastructure. NEXT CITY
Is Urban Revitalization Without Gentrification Possible? Can urban revitalization projects create physical neighborhood improvements without displacement? DC Housing Authority is betting $550 million that they can. Sustainable Cities Collective
Mixed Reviews on New Passenger Rail Reauthorization Act. Good news for people who like bad news; Congress has reintroduced the passenger rail act…but with a 40 percent decrease in Amtrak funding. Planetizen
Mapped: How the Creative Class is Dividing Cities. Emily Badger gives us some insight and analysis into Richard Florida’s claim that the Creative Class is pushing the “service” and “working” classes to the fringe of cities. Washington Post
In America’s Poorest City, A Housing Breakthrough. In Brownsville, Texas, bcWorkshop and the Community Development Corporation of Brownsville have discovered how adding a little more time to the design process, in this case four to six weeks, alongside a participatory design process with the future tenants can create housing breakthrough. CITYLAB
Is Istanbul’s Urban Design Causing Freak Mini-Tornadoes? Using climate change as an argument against urbanization, Dr. Martin Hoerling, makes that the case that the rapid urbanization of Istanbul is causing huge air masses to form over the city. Inhabitat
Building Imaginary Cities. Keeping with Dr. Mindy Fullilove’s theory of finding the city we want at the intersection of memory, reason, and imagination, Darren Anderson’s upcoming book explores the fictional urban landscapes of our mind and how they relate and affect our real world architecture. CITYLAB
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[Images: Before and after images courtesy UL Photographic Archives / Reference and Google. Top image courtesy UL Photographic Archives / Reference.]
