The City Desk: Urban issues and sustainability

• NEW: Denver's new light-rail line spurs hopes for another boom on West Colfax || Denver Post
• Global cities don't just take, they give || Urbanophile
  
• Families say sacrifices to live in downtown Vancouver are well worth it || Globe News
  
• After years of planning and building, attractions helping to revive downtown Dallas || Dallas Morning News
  
• Miami breaks ground on new downtown railroad station || Miami Curbed
• Colorado road money can now be used for transit || Denver Post
  
• Stepping up to restore Cincinnati's neglected pedestrian stairways || The Atlantic
  
• The Bullett Center in Seattle goes well beyond green || NY Times
  
• Tax-increment financing proves big help to downtown Fort Worth || Star-Telegram
• Why cities matter || Urbanophile
  
• Detroit (yes!) shows the way to beat the inner-city blues || Richard Florida/Financial Times
  
• Wilshire Boulevard, a main street like no other || LA Times
• British Columbia's transit dreams || Globe and Mail
  
• In Boston, a Downtown Crossing worth the wait || Boston Globe
  
• Parking Madness: Who has the worst parking crater in the U.S. || DC Streets Blog
• Marquee developments of 2012 leave downtown Dallas poised for growth || CBS/DFW
  
• We all benefit from transit, and we should all pay for it || Baltimore Sun
  
• Massachusetts plan starts small for big upgrade in rail system || NY Times
• $2 billion plan unveiled for downtown Montreal || CBC
  
• The economic case for rail subsidies || The Atlantic
  
• Study: Hook public transit users while they're young || Montreal Gazette
• Nine worst planning moves in Twin Cities history || MinnPost
  
• New wave of development in store for downtown Pittsburgh || Post Gazette
  
• Commuters give up the 'ball and chain' of the car || CNN
  
• Retrofitting suburbia to be more sustainable || Smart Planet
• Downtown Dallas is growing, but where are the stores? || Dallas Morning News
  
• Yes, passenger railways curb car-traffic externalities || Vox
• How deadbeat banks pushed Detroit to the brink || National Memo
  
• Bringing work back to the city: The future of downtown San Francisco || SPUR
  
• Designing buildings around cars will only make our car problems worse || Boston
• Downtown Cincinnati on the rise || Urbanophile
• The last tower: The decline and fall of public housing || Harpers
  
• A cluster grows in Chicago || Global Midwest
  
• LA downtown streetcar will help create car-free urban zone || KPCC
  
• Picture-perfect Portland || The Oregonian
  
• How Los Angeles — yes, Los Angeles — is becoming America's next great mass transit city || Slate
• Nobody home at suburban office 'parks' || The Sun-Times
• $50 million makeover for downtown Milwaukee lakefront || TMJ
  
• Cincinnati vs. Cincinnati || Urbanophile
  
• With its embarrassment of riches, why isn't Cincinnati the San Francisco of the Midwest? || Urbanophile
  
• Vancouver, the almost perfect grid || Human Transit
  
• The great divergence leaves many cities in the fight of their lives || Urbanophile
  
• Boston building for people, not cars || NY Times
• No parking? No problem. || Urbanophile
  
• Despite core strength in some cities, the 2000s were very good to the suburbs || New Geography
• Philadelphia's amazing suburban rail system || Urbanophile
  
• Community gathers at The Last Bookstore in downtown LA || LA Times
  
• How civic stewards created the world-class Texas Medical Center in the heart of Houston || New Geography
  
• Parking costs us in ways we never realized || LA Magazine
  
• Why suburbia is affecting your spiritual life || This is Our City
  
• Light-rail corridor brings new crossroads to St. Paul || Minnesota Post
• Walkability and the one mistake that can wreck a city || DC Streets Blog
  
• Study: Light rail posts spectacular ridership gains || Railway Age
  
• What a technology center looks like: Austin lands 1,000 National Instruments engineering jobs || Austin American Statesman
  
• How Philadelphia's transit system became the best || Governing
  
• Want to help downtown Dallas? Tear down the highways || D
  
• The death of the American mall and the rebirth of public spaces || The International
  
• Buenos Aires could be model for thinking about U.S. cities || Upbanophile
  
• Zappos headquarters driving long list of development to downtown Las Vegas || KTNV
• Push for Austin rail resumes, but opposition lingers || Austin American Statesman
  
• Century-old Dallas bridge makes way for streetcars || WFAA
• Even downtown Buffalo is seeing a boom || Bluffalo Law Journal
• Wichita sees progress in downtown revitalization || Wichita Eagle
• As downtown booms, Austin looks to improve a key park || Austin American Statesman
  
• How the ruins of Detroit are a warning to America || Jaolpnik
• Downtowns in Ohio's largest cities are booming || Columbus Dispatch
  
• Billion-dollar mixed-use project planned for downtown LA's Fashion District || Downtown LA News
  
• More losers than winners in America's new economic geography || Richard Florida
• San Diego's downtown vision to get a reboot || Union Tribune
  
• The wildly different age demographics of U.S. cities || Atlantic Cities
  
• Why 'authenticity' is so central to urban culture || Atlantic Cities
  
• Why the remake of New York's majestic library still leaves stacks of questions || NY Times
  
• El Paso ballpark will reflect Union Depot design || El Paso Times
  
• Toronto's thriving downtown lures jobs back to the core || Toronto Star
  
• Does human capital tend to cluster in center cities or suburbs? || Atlantic Cities
  
• Seattle's Bullitt Center may be the greenest office building ever || GOOD
• Before LA became a car town, commuters actually rode mass transit || Atlantic Cities
  
• California rail expansion continues with $135 million federal grant || Sacramento Bee
  
• A grand plan to make Silicon Valley an urban paradise || Atlantic Cities
  
• Even in Sioux Falls, empty nesters flock to downtown || KELOland
  
• Looking at six downtown LA mega-projects || LA Downtown News
  
• Subways are spreading fast worldwide || The Economist
• Amazon uses urban campus, city living as recruiting tool || Seattle Times
  
• Where did downtown Sacramento's population go? || Sacramento Press
  
• Why the Zipcar-Avis deal means you'll finally be able to give up your car || Wired
  
• Downtown Pittsburgh emerges from losses and turmoil renewed || Post Gazette
• LA's huge year for pedestrians, parks, public transit || Curbed
  
• Next up for downtown Indy after billion-dollar medical expansion, boom in apartments || Indianapolis Star
  
• The future of city driving: Per-mile commuting || Atlantic Cities
  
• LA's Expo Line draws partiers downtown for growing social scene || KPCC
  
• 2012 — Toronto's year of public transit || Globe & Mail
  
• Greening the city for the urban future || BBC
  
• Conspiracy theory: Where did all the streetcars go? || Globe & Mail
• Travis County spending more than $1 billion in downtown Austin || Austin American Statesman
  
• The one thing that can wreck a city || Rustwire
• Downtown Dallas comes of age || Dallas Morning News
  
• $1 billion in projects in downtown Minneapolis || Star Tribune
  
• New thirst for urban living benefits downtown Detroit || NY Times
  
• The benefits of public transportation || Health Digest News
• San Antonio aims at ballpark as part of downtown improvements || San Antonio Express News
  
• Better transit, bigger crowds, safer downtown || TC Daily Planet
• How an industrial city reinvented itself as a sustainability hub || Atlantic Cities
  
• Ottawa digs in for a light-rail line || The Globe and Mail
  
• Kansas City streetcar gains approval || Railway Age
  
• Downtown Oklahoma City office market thriving || Business Journals
  
• Master plan gets LA Union Station on track for the future || LA Downtown News
  
• Northwestern Mutual selects downtown Milwaukee over suburbs for new $300 million headquarters || Milwaukee Business Journal
  
• Downtown Boston builds a new vitality || Boston Globe
  
• Engineering projects will transform Seattle all along the waterfront || NY Times
  
• Blue Seattle ensured that red Washington elected a Democratic governor || Seattle Times
• Six ideas every city should steal from Barcelona || Atlantic Cities
• Vancouver unveils $2.8 billion vision for Broadway subway corridor || Vancouver Sun
  
• Ten techniques for making cities more walkable || The Atlantic
• ChinaTrust moving HQ from suburbs to downtown Los Angeles || LA Times
  
• How the rural-urban divide is splitting America || The Atlantic
  
• Sketching a map of truly walkable cities || Neal Pierce
• Ambitious makeover begins of Denver's historic Union Station || Denver Post
  
• Why cities with denser cores do better || The Atlantic
• San Francisco's tech boom spills into other jobs || SFGate
  
• Despite recent gains, some pieces are missing in downtown Dallas || Dallas Morning News
• Saving Seattle's neighborhood authenticity through better buildings || Atlantic Cities
  
• LA's downtown streetcar: Good project, terrible process || LA Downtown News
  
• What happens when Brooklyn moves to Vegas || NY Times
• How historic preservation turned Denver's skid row into a success story || Planetizen
  
• Sacramento brownfield could become model of urban redevelopment || Atlantic Cities
  
• How the GOP became the anti-urban party || NY Times
• Is it game over for Atlanta? || Urbanophile
  
• Center City is Philadelphia's economic engine || Philadelphia Inquirer
  
• Tearing down freeways could make better cities || Wired
• The alarming link between lack of walkability and diabetes || Atlantic Cities
  
• How Los Angeles (yes!) is becoming America's next great mass-transit city || LA Metro
  
• Boost ridership by replacing buses with rail || Atlantic Cities
  
• Can city life be exported to the suburbs? || Wash Post
  
• Walkable urbanism: The next major real-estate cycle? || Atlantic Cities
  
• The economic secret of vacant city spaces || Forbes
  
• Tax breaks pay off in San Francisco || WSJ
  
• The geography of entrepreneurship || Atlantic Cities
  
• Downtown Austin matures into vibrant residential area || Austin American Statesman
• Do Democratic Leaders hate cities? || Salon
• Why do cities give away so much to Bass Pro Shops and Cabela's? || The Atlantic
• What big cities lose when they lose their small businesses || Atlantic Cities
  
• A Cincinnati park shifts the paradigm || American City
  
• Visualize LA's future rail lines || Switchboard 
• How Portland got its groove back || Slate
• The cost of America's inefficient sprawl || CNN
  
• Urban flight in reverse benefits Detroit's core || BusinessWeek
• Younger workers pushing companies to locate in (real) cities || Boston Globe
• Want to change your city? Check its vitals || HuffPo
  
• The suburban American shopping mall turns 60 (and prepares to retire) || The Atlantic
  
• Why can't the Bronx be more like Brooklyn? || NY Times
  
• Cincinnati enjoys payoff from work to reclaim its riverfront || NY Times
  
• Rochester's unique place in the Rust Belt revival || Atlantic Cities
  
• The economic impact of knowledge clusters || Atlantic Cities
  
• Count 'em — 68 major projects under way in downtown Los Angeles || LA Downtown News
  
• Now coveted: A walkable, convenient place || NY Times
• Agencies work together to build passenger rail in north Texas || Progressive Railroading
  
• Long commutes linked to poor health || USA Today
• Urban trees reveal income inequality || Per Square Mile
  
• Czech trains temps travelers off roads || WSJ
  
• What really matters for increasing transit ridership || Atlantic Cities
  
• Revitalized downtown Cleveland attracting population || Cranes
  
• In San Diego, infrastructure deficit disorder || PlaceShakers & Newsmakers
  
• Downtown LA's population on the rise, represents city's multucultural vibe || LA Times
  
• America's foolish detour into shopping malls || Crosscut
  
• James Howard Kunstler dissects suburbia || TED Talks
  
• Why some cities lose when others win || Atlantic Cities
  
• Newest streetcar to remake Seattle's First Hill neighborhood || Seattle Times
  
• LA looks to merge mythic past to glistening future with streetcar line || Wash Post
  
• What Twitter means to Detroit || Atlantic Cities
  
• Washington Union Station begins $35 million makeover || Wash Post
  
• Abolishing parking minimums is not 'anti-children' \\ Atlantic Cities
  
• The impending urban water crisis || Salon
  
• Denver vs. Phoenix: How to build a successful downtown stadium || Atlantic Cities
  
• American suburbs face twin perils of climate change and peak oil || Scientific American
  
• The streetcar as a city's moving symbol || Atlantic Cities
• America's romance with sprawl may be over || USA Today
  
• Seattle sees yet another downtown boom, with great reset implications || Jon Talton/Seattle Times
  
• The new suburban poverty || NY Times
  
• How Amazon got the urban campus right in downtown Seattle || Atlantic Cities
  
• San Antonio's slow start courting the creative class still stings || SA Current
  
• A block with Andrew Carnegie's stamp || NY Times
  
• Whole Foods' Detroit gamble || Wall Street Journal
  
• What would it take? The carbon-neutral city || Utne Reader
  
• Most Americans want a walkable neighborhood, not a big house || Good
  
• Rochester's survival lessons || NY Times
  
• Why reusing old buildings is greener — and gives a city more soul — than starting from scratch || Seattle Times
  
• Long Beach joins the 'parklets' trend || LA Times
  
• A field guide to false anti-train arguments || NARP blog
  
• Why city matters to your business || Inc magazine
  
• 'Free' parking turns out to be very costly || LA Times
• Free-falling Milwaukee: One city's middle-class decline || The Atlantic
  
• The bold urban future starts now || Salon
  
• Are freeways doomed? || Salon
• How should we design the cities of our dreams? || Salon
  
• Public transportation and community || TreeHugger
  
• The death of the fringe suburb (bad news for Phoenix) || NY Times
• To rethink sprawl, start with offices || NY Times
  
• Why cities should dismantle highways || Smart Planet
  
• Resetting urban land use: What's next || The Atlantic
  
• Goldilocks density: Just right || Treehugger
  
• The myth of the progressive city || Salon
  
• The unbearable cost of sprawl (and what we can do about it) || Atlantic Cities
  
• How suburban sprawl works like a Ponzi scheme || Atlantic Cities
• Real socialism? How about the policies that artificially maintain cheap motoring || Urban Country Bicycle Blog
  
• Cities that get hit the hardest by climate-change's rising sea levels || Washington Post
  
• Which type of people choose a walkable lifestyle || Sustainable Cities Collective
  
• The 'best of the best' of American cities || Scientific American
  
• To attract young talent, companies move back downtown || Fortune
  
• Jim Kunstler on tomorrow's cities || Orion
  
• The top 10 climate-ready cities in America || Triple Pundit
• Light rail for dummies || The Atlantic
  
• Manhattan's High Line isn't just a sight to see, it's an economic dynamo || NY Times
  
• With eye on climate change, Chicago prepares for a hot long-term forecast || NYTimes
• The real best cities for transit (and why the media represented the Brookings report || The Atlantic
  
• LA commits record $4.2 billion to transit projects, mostly rail. || LA Times
  
• Pedestrian perfection: America's most walk-friendly cities. || The Atlantic
  
• Jane Jacobs on New Urbanism, gentrification and her legacy (from 2001).
• Americans (mostly) prefer smart growth to sprawl.
  
• The tragedy of Milwaukee's bus service: Why continued cuts don't work.
  
• Select urban centers draw young, educated adults (no, not Phoenix).
  
• Boomtown 2025: 136 new cities poised to take their place among leading urban centers (no, Phoenix isn't one of them).
• Big surprise: People drive less in compact cities with good transit.
  
• Behind Detroit's shocking 25-percent population loss in a decade.
  
• If the Tea Party went downtown.
  
• Why Australia and Canada have the world's most livable cities.
  
• How Seattle transformed itself.
  
• No downtown in Los Angeles? Think again.
• What does "ruin porn" tell us about the Motor City.
  
• The ever-rising cost of America's highways.
  
• Cities and resilience: The year climate change started to hurt politicians.
  
• Rust Belt cities look to Old World for ideas about growth.
  
• A heartbreaking photo essay on the ruins of the once-great city of Detroit.
  
• The urban density of smart people — and where the smart people are going. (Sorry, Phoenix).
  
• How retrofitting suburbia for transit and walkability could restart the real estate engine.
• In Vancouver, an experiment in suburban-urbanism.
  
• The Great Recession's biggest victim is suburbia.
  
• A post-sprawl Los Angeles.
  
• Why 'free' parking comes at a price.
  
• The age of nations is over. The new urban age has begun.
  
• Urban lands of opportunity in the big reset.
  
• Cities shrinking to survive.
  
• Why do minimum parking requirements still exist?
  
• New Urbanism for the apocalypse.
  
• Richard Florida explains why cities are idea factories.
• City centers gain young whites as suburbs get older, poorer.
  
• The least and most wasteful American cities.
  
• The $300,000 water meter — How one town keeps development out.
• Cost of long commute offsets suburbs' "bargain" housing.
• Construction shifting back to urban cores in many cities.
  
• Getting Jane Jacobs right.
  
• In Des Moines, downtown expands thanks to private investment, public-private partnerships.
  
• The new master plan and the decline of suburbia.
• A boulevard park for Seattle's dense downtown Belltown neighborhood.
  
• Airlines and rail must be teamed up to ease congestion.
  
• Circulator brings free transit to Baltimore.
  
• Death to dead ends in the new suburbia?
• Cleveland sees development boom on Euclid corridor.
  
• What American cities can learn from Barcelona.
  
• More about the myth that roads and freeways "pay for themselves.
  
• A cautionary tale about economic development, mergers and lack of corporate loyalty to place.
  
• Fiscal wreck stymies Denver's visionary rail plans.
  
• First government subsidized sprawl, now it's subsidizing the deterioration of sprawl.
  
• Bloomberg's big-development vision for NYC stalled.
  
• Is your suburb the next slum?
  
• Detroit -- the death, and possible life, of a great American city.
  
• How Pittsburgh bounced back. Renewal is a long process.
  
• Key reasons for Portland's success. Most of all it's comfortable with being urban.
  
• The green case for cities: If you want to save energy, leave the suburbs.
  
• Hilarious and accurate send-up of Samuelson's anti-rail rant in Newsweek.
  
• Cities to learn from in the creative economy (Phoenix need not apply).
  
• Fast trains to the airport prove popular and cost-effective.
  
• A tour through the ghastly auto-centric sprawl-opolis that Wal-Mart built.
  
• Transportation stimulus gives short shrift to metros that produce most of America's GDP, hold most of its people.
  
• Retailers head for the exits in Detroit (a city with no national grocery chains).
  
• Improved rail lines spur urban revival.
  
• Civic crime: The abandonment and likely demolition of Detroit's priceless Michigan Central Station.
  
• Is Denver in danger of screwing up Union Station project?
  
• Richard Florida on the rise of anti-urbanism.
  
• Youth magnet cities hit midlife crisis -- but hipsters keep coming.
  
• Germany imagines suburbs without cars.
• Toronto gets sleek new streetcars.
• Chicago unveils ambitious downtown plan.
• Walkability grows as a real-estate plus.
• Dubai: How not to build a city.
• Inside Obama's urban policy.
• Reinventing America's cities: The time is now.
• Fifteen Chinese cities are building subways.
• Bus rapid-transit done right.
• Texas county will build commuter rail line to Dallas.
• As projects grind to a halt, subdivisions turn into wastelands.
• Portland's creative economy helps cushion city from crash.
• California areas hostile to development and 'growth,' enjoy least of recession's pain.
• Richard Florida: How the crash will reshape America (Good for real cities. Sorry, Sun Belt).
• Time flies and drinks flow on Germany's high-speed rail.
• With sprawl and little transit, Boise faces rising smog problem.
• Road worriers: Can New Urbanists seize the moment?
• Pittsburgh develops prosperous life after steel.
• Ambitious subway network changing Beijing.
• Let's 'bail-in' GM and let it rebuild the streetcar systems it conspired to destroy.
• Thanks to transit, New York grew but traffic didn't.
• Being green proves good business for Portland.
• Seattle Council approves large streetcar expansion.
• Urban loneliness largely a myth.
• Mass transit projects fared well at the polls.
• Korean firm bets big on ambitious downtown LA project.
• Pyramid fails to lift Memphis' blues.
• Downtowns across U.S. see streetcars as essential part of multi-modal mass transit system
• Trading places: Affluent move to city centers, as poor move to suburbia.
• Cities in "road warrior" South and West embracing light-rail systems.
• Charlotte sees upswing in center city near light-rail line, while many suburbs decline.
• Urban living kinder to the planet than suburban lifestyle.
• Light rail success in Dallas brings major expansion.
• Across U.S., communities rethinking how they grow, embracing density.
• Oklahoma City's downtown revival includes river for sports.
• An ambitious plan for center city in Las Vegas (yes, Las Vegas).
• House prices fall most in areas with long commute.
• Shanghai's building huge new subway system.
• Steps to speed up train service in the U.S.
• The coming slums of exurbia.
• While U.S. rail languishes, train in Spain to beat plane.

• Read Jon's columns on cities and urban issues.