Architecture & Urban Planning

In theory, local urban leadership on climate adaptation could significantly reduce the vulnerability of those who need the greatest protection. More people live in cities than ever, providing an opportunity to concentrate climate investments. In reality, most adaptation proposals try to protect existing development in coastal and low-lying urban areas in ways that perpetuate continued growth in these exposed areas. The fact is, there are winners and losers in urban climate adaptation projects, and it is the poorest and most marginalized who (as always) tend to lose.

Around the world, urbanization and climate change are transforming societies and environments, and the stakes could not be higher for the poor and marginalized. The 2015 UN climate conference in Paris (COP-21) highlighted the need for coordinated action to address the profound injustice of the world’s most disadvantaged people bearing the greatest costs of climate impacts. Among those at the COP were mayors from around the world advocating for the important role of cities in these efforts.

Local groups just netted a big bundle of cash — all for dreaming up ways to make transit more bearable in the Bay Area. Lessening BART crowding, offering Caltrain riders a ride home and donating bikes to kids all netted cash prizes in the 11th Hour Project’s Just Transit Challenge this week, which aimed to empower local groups to help curb carbon emissions by increasing access to transit.

“One of the major problems with this draft Environmental Impact Report is it is not including the Brockway Campground,” said Isaac Silverman, staff attorney for environmental group Sierra Watch. “What we have are two projects proposed by the same developer on continuous landholdings owned by the same person. Common sense, CEQA (and) good planning requires an approach that considers the full impacts of these two projects together.

It’s no secret that urban farms and gardens are core to Portland’s identity as one of the most sustainable cities in the world. What’s maybe lesser known is that those young patches of kale and cabbage are often entangled in processes of gentrification and displacement.

For many U.S. veterans, finding fulfilling employment and acclimating back into civilian life can be just as taxing as military service itself. At the same time, America is facing a shortage of farmers, with almost 30% of growers over the age of 65, and fewer than 10% under the age of 35. The Heroic Food Farm is an initiative by Heroic Food and Ennead Architects/Ennead Lab, in collaboration with RAFT Landscape Architecture, to guide returning soldiers from "barracks to barns," with a new mission of battling the nation's farming crisis.

Stuart Cohen, executive director of TransForm, has spent a lot of time thinking about induced demand as well. “We know it exists,” he says. “That’s why we put up new transit routes—because we want to induce demand for transit. But we also know that new roadways induce more car trips.”