NEWS FROM THE URBAN WORLD - Most popular stories for November
Institutional News and Opinion Highlights
UN-HABITAT extends support OF water provision TO 15 new cities in Eastern Africa
UN-HABITAT announced it will be expanding its successful Lake Victoria Water and Sanitation Initiative to fifteen more cities in Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda and Burundi, with support of US$4.2 million from the African Development Bank.
Less Crime Through Urban Design
Environmental criminology may not be the most well-known field, but in this profile of Nikki Filipuzzi and her work throughout Calgary, Tamara Gignac shows how even the right amounts of shrubbery and light can make the city safer.
Handbook shows way for public authorities to successfully buy green
Over 2 trillion Euros is spent on public contracts on a yearly basis in the EU, translating to 19 percent of its GDP. It is clear that there is huge potential to make this spending more sustainable.
Share your city’s success story and become the next Big Idea @ Cities of Migration!
Successful cities are led by innovative, forward-looking local governments that work hard to serve the best interests of the public, including new immigrants. These cities view inclusion and the diversity of the city as core values and assets in today’s global economy.
Cities cooperating beyond their boundaries: Evidence through experience in European cities
At the start of a new millennium, Europe is faced with major challenges, most of them resulting mainly from the globalisation process. The issues at stake cover a wide range of policy domains, the main ones being economic competitiveness and regeneration, social cohesion, demographic change, environmental sustainability, cultural development and democratic renewal.
Municipal Leadership on Immigrant Integration
Cities are major players on the global migration stage. Local governments are waking up to the impact of immigration, building inclusion into public policy while responding to new opportunities for business development and infrastructure design.
Join us in quest for better cities, Clos tells students
UN-HABITAT Executive Director Dr. Joan Clos on Tuesday told students at the University of Nairobi that he considered universities as strategic partners in the quest for sustainable urban development.
Are Americans Ready to Live in Smaller Homes?
As the world population reaches 7 billion some U.S. builders are working on smaller, compact homes.
According to Joyce, as the world population continues to grow and developing continue to consume goods on par with developed nations, resource availability shrinks. Zeta Communities in California is constructing pre-built homes that are as small as 300 square feet. The homes are built and assembled in a factory and are highly efficient, according to Zeta President Naomi Porat.
How to Build a Better Park
New Urbanist Peter Katz presents his guidelines for creating a popular urban park. First published in 1995, Katz's ideas still hold up.
Katz bemoans the "windswept plazas and sterile atria" created by corporate developments in downtowns across the country:
"A public park should look and feel truly public. Being bounded by streets or sidewalks on all sides is one sure way to communicate "publicness." The presence of civic buildings and monuments also reinforces this public character.
Let your city shine!
The European Commission’s annual ‘RegioStars’ awards recognise good practices in regional development and highlight innovative projects which serve as an example to other regions.
The 2013 awards will feature a new category, ‘CityStar’, focusing on integrated approaches to sustainable development in cities.
Americans Think Planning Process is Unfair
A new survey found that 64% of Americans think that the relationship between local officials and developers makes the approval process unfair.
The Saint Index asked people a lot of questions about city planning, and concluded that NIMBYism is more prevalent than ever, and skepticism over the planning process is the rule of the day. Nearly 1 in 5 people surveyed had actively fought a development from being built:
Are your buildings worth an award for being green?
As part of this year’s UN climate change conference (COP17), the World Green Business Council will be presenting the first annual WorldGBC Government Leadership Award.
LG Action final report and case study series on local climate and energy action
The final public report reflects highlights and summarises achievements. Further, 30 short cases are available in multiple languages (English, Danish, French, German, Hungarian, Italian, Polish), to inspire local governments to become more ambitious and engage in local climate and energy action. Take a look on - www.lg-action.eu/results
New Immigrants Not Moving to Cities
A report from the Brookings Institution finds that the growing population of foreign-born residents in the U.S. is eschewing larger cities, settling instead in suburbs and smaller cities.
Cities cooperating beyond boundaries
EUROCITIES has published a report on metropolitan area cooperation within the EU
The EUROCITIES metropolitan areas working group met in Brussels on 22 September 2011 to finalise a report on metropolitan area cooperation within the EU.
‘Cities cooperating beyond their boundaries’ was drafted jointly by Lille Metropole and Oslo with contributions from around 40 cities that have participated in the working group over the past year.
Safer Drinking Scenes throughout Europe, learning from each other in order to prevent binge and heavy drinking
Massive alcohol consumption by young people in public spaces, often referred to as “binge drinking”, is a growing phenomenon in most European cities. It has therefore become a focus of attention and is now mentioned frequently as a priority of local policy.
Streetcars On The Rise Once Again
The Obama Administration has decided to provide federal funding for a variety streetcar projects. Over the past few months, cities including San Antonio have proposed routes that will run through densely populated areas.
13 cities are already ENGAGEd! Are you?
Energy Cities invites you to join the ENGAGE campaign : an innovative and participative initiative designed to help local authorities reach their energy & climate objectives www.citiesengage.eu
Building clean and efficient cities – a movie from the Urban Climate Project
ICLEI South Asia prepared a movie on the Urban Climate Project – Building clean and efficient cities.
Through the Urban Climate Project, ICLEI South Asia with support from the National Institute or Urban Affairs (NIUA), assisted the two project cities Coimbatore and Rajkot, India. They helped to implement infrastructure projects through technical and financial support for pilot interventions by including cleaner and efficient technologies and also to model GHG deflections to showcase benefits.
To read the full stories and more news, please visit http://www.urbanicity.org/Site/News/default.aspx
City News Highlights
Luanda, capital of Angola, retains title of world's most expensive for expats
Luanda, the capital of oil-rich, is the most expensive city in the world for expatriates to live in while London is now cheaper than Rio de Janeiro, Hong Kong and Sydney, a survey has revealed. The southern African city won the dubious accolade for the second year running, narrowly edging out Tokyo, which was followed in third place by the Chadian capital N'Djamena, Moscow and Geneva.
City program aims for 1,000 benches in 5 boroughs
Pedestrians across the city will now have new places to rest.
The Department of Transportation launched its CityBench program, through which it will install 1,000 benches across the five boroughs at places like bus stops, commercial districts and senior centers over the course of three years. The first benches, at Chelsea's Covello Senior Center, were unveiled Thursday afternoon.
Streetcars are Go in Cincinnati
In Cincinnati, voters have defeated an attempt to block the city's new streetcar, which now will move forward and could be operational as early as 2013. The new streetcar will link downtown and the uptown district around the University.
Dubai's Dirty Problem
In Dubai, the Burj Khalifa is the tallest building in the world. But it shares one problem will all skyscrapers in Dubai - there is no central sewage infrastructure to accommodate the waste they produce.
Study shows health benefits of bike sharing schemes (Spain)
A study on the health impacts of the Bicing bike sharing scheme in Barcelona, shows that the initiative saves 12 lives every year. In addition, the scheme contributed to reduced yearly CO2 emissions by an estimated 9.000 metric tons.
Creative Planning Helped to Avoid Transit Cuts
The Milwaukee County Transit System had planned to reduce service due to a reduction in state aid in 2012. According to Jeramey Jannene, "with some last minute creative planning, they were able to avoid many cuts thanks to the use of CMAQ funds."
Bremen inaugurates first bicycle barometer (Germany)
A 25% cycling mode share makes Bremen a “champion” cycling city and the cycling capital in Germany for cities of over 500,000. A newly installed bicycle barometer is another step the city is taking to raise further awareness of cycling and to highlight its importance as a daily transport mode.
Many Opt To Pay Parking Fines Rather Than Parking Fees
In downtown Chicago, the parking lots add an extra $2 "congestion" tax for parking the whole day. Instead, many park illegally at Metra Station receiving parking tickets just to avoid the congestion pricing.
Electric SPARTACUS tram to connect Belgium and The Netherlands
The Flemish government has decided to implement a high-speed electric tramway between the cities of Hasselt (Belgium) and Maastricht (The Netherlands). The new line has the potential of attracting 6.8 million travellers per year.
Durban initiative to clean up carbon footprint
With the huge UN COP17 climate change summit just 18 days away, the eThekwini municipality has revealed a ground-breaking project as part of its greening programme to offset the carbon footprint of Durban’s hosting of the event.
Making a City in the Heart of the Oil Sands
Fort McMurray is one of Canada's fastest-growing, wealthiest and most expensive cities...with no downtown.
As the base of operations for the oil sands of northern Alberta, Fort McMurray has experienced such massive growth that little attention has been paid to making it a place worth living in. But its residents are extremely well-paid -- so much so that many of them can afford to live elsewhere and fly in. Now Fort McMurray is trying to turn itself into a real city.
Cape Town awarded World Design Capital 2014
Cape Town has been named World Design Capital for the year 2014, ahead of fellow shortlisted cities, Dublin and Bilbao.
The sought-after accolade was awarded to the Cape Town recently at the International Design Alliance (IDA) Congress in Taipei.
Planners Working to Avoiding Transportation Disaster at Olympic Games
Olympic Planners have just ten months left to prepare for an anticipated 15 million trips a day during the event in an already congested city. So far, about 6.5 billion pounds ($10.2 billion) has been invested.
Bordeaux's transport system representing 100 million trips per year and 54.7 million passengers
Bordeaux Metropole is one of the largest urban areas in France, home to around 720,000 people and serving a large metropolitan area of 1.1 million citizens. Like any modern city, Bordeaux faces the challenge of providing an efficient and accessible public transport system to ferry its inhabitants – and the many tourists who flock to the city every year – back and forth. Bordeaux has grown swiftly over the past decade. The city was faced with an influx of traffic and identified the need to develop an alternative mode of transport.
Smarter Nairobi to respond to population explosion
A Nairobi Smarter Cities round-table organized under the auspice of the IBM 'Smarter Cities Initiative' explored ways to prepare Nairobi for rapid urban growth, including intelligent transport systems.
To read the full stories and more news, please visit http://www.urbanicity.org/Site/News/default.aspx
To submit a news story to Urbanicity, contact Jeremy Flay
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