A cement factory by astrid westvang under license Creative Commons.
The concrete that warms the climate shapes our cities. A $100 billion lesson in how not to build public transit. Short-term rentals create problems in small towns.
Climate-warming concrete shapes our cities: At a minimum, concrete production processes account for 6-8% of global carbon emissions. Overall, the concrete industry produces enough concrete each week to rebuild Paris. What are we doing to reduce the carbon footprint of an industry that connects us all? (Ted Fishman | fast business)
A $100 billion lesson in how not to build public transit: US transit construction costs are out of control. And perhaps the worst example of how this happens is the $100 billion blank check for the Gateway project on the Northeast Corridor. Not a single project will build new stations or lines to connect people, but fulfill the wishes of agencies along a fragmented transport network. (Aaron Gordon | Motherboard)
Short-term rentals create problems in small towns: Short-term rental companies like AirBnB and VRBO are causing problems for small tourist towns across the country. The pandemic has seen an increase in the number of people able to work anywhere and travel, which has increased the value of vacation homes in popular destinations, but has also driven out long-term residents. In Sedona, Arizona, with its scenic red rocks, up to 15% of the housing stock is used for short-term rentals with no relief in sight for the workers who keep the city running. (Rosie Bradbury | wired magazine)
Breaking up the auto-oriented superblocks in San Diego: San Diego has approved a bold plan in the Mira Mesa area to rezone large, car-oriented superblocks for the development of pedestrian-friendly urban villages. Some of the major streets will be redesigned with dedicated bus and bike lanes and plans call for 24,000 new homes in denser developments and the creation of over 30,000 jobs. (David Garrick | San Diego Union Grandstand)
Boston Freeway Decision Still Resonates: 50 years ago last week, Massachusetts Governor Francis W. Sargent killed a freeway plan that would have run eight miles south of Boston. The road would have destroyed neighborhoods and cut through the fabric of the city. But the decision also made room for a now beloved four-mile-long park and laid the foundation for the Ted Williams Tunnel and Big Dig. It was a tough decision for Governor Sargent at the time, but one that still resonates today. (Danny Mcdonald | boston globe)
quote of the week
“But we don’t need to subsidize institutional investors to buy homes in working-class neighborhoods and keep them to value them and turn them into Airbnbs.”
California Rep. Ro Khanna on his bill, “The Stop Wall Street Landlords Act” that would limit tax and other benefits given to institutional investors in housing.
This week on podcastwe meet Rep. Earl Blumenauer of Oregon’s Third District at the Rail~Volution conference in Miami.
Comments are closed.