Cell phones usually contribute to urban noise pollution. But the folks at Paris’s Sony Computer Science Laboratory have created an app that lets any GPS-enabled phone help us understand the problem. Behold NoiseTube:

Serenity now!

…
Read & Discuss

Cell phones usually contribute to urban noise pollution. But the folks at Paris’s Sony Computer Science Laboratory have created an app that lets any GPS-enabled phone help us understand the problem. Behold NoiseTube:

Serenity now!

…
Read & Discuss

Ped Shed over Drive Shed
Cities could close and re-purpose or retrofit parking garages to create incentives for walking or riding bikes, mixed with unique spaces for work, play, art, learning, farming, and other sustainable, entertaining, and productive experiences.

This is part 19 of a continuing brainstorm on the future of cities, inaugurated at the CEOs for Cities Velocity conference in September, 2009. We’ll post a new idea each day until we run out, at which point we’re counting on…

Read & Discuss

Citizen Recruiters
Every single citizen should be engaged in the city, valued, and respected. Citizen Recruiters are analogous to military recruiters who go out and get people “in the game.” They would issue a personal invitation to be involved, and help the recruits navigate the system to find the right opportunities to “play.” They could get involved in city services, learning, or apprenticeships. Supported by a technology infrastructure, CRs would invite citizens both in person and…

Read & Discuss

The average American is both overweight and spends more than 100 hours per year commuting, that vast majority of those hours being spent in a car. Are those numbers correlated? Could we help reduce our societal weight gain by encouraging more commutes by bike or foot? Our latest Transparency is a look at the number of active commutes in several countries, as compared to those countries obesity rates.

A collaboration between GOOD and Lamosca.

…
Read & Discuss

How poor regional planning can suck the life out of cities.

Regionalism is all the rage. The Obama Administration is betting big on regional planning as a way to make smarter decisions on transportation, climate, the economy—all those things that don’t respect political boundaries. The Administration plans to reward communities that work together across jurisdictions toward common goals and, by implication, punish those that do not.

Who can argue with that? I certainly can’t.

But as I sit…

Read & Discuss

Prosper.org
The Ingenuity Ringmaster (blessed and supported by the city) would commit to a problem worth solving, and citizen innovators would submit ideas, and then the city would create a portfolio of projects with design criteria and guidance. Leveraging a micro-financing engine, citizens could vote with their dollars to decide which problems were solved. Personal investment would also drive involvement and contribution (anyone can volunteer to mentor the team, etc.). People would share, learn, and improve…

Read & Discuss

Today on Twitter we asked our followers how long their morning commutes were, and your means of transportation. We collected some of our favorite responses below. We ask a question to our Twitter faithful once a day, so if you’re not yet following @GOOD, make sure to sign up and participate in the conversation.

Read & Discuss

In their ongoing series devoted to moving cargo around by bike, TreeHugger focuses today’s entry to the workhorse of the genre: extended frame bikes. Here’s a glimpse:

In our endeavours to take a snapshot of the world of Bicycle Cargo we have to date looked at the Racks And Bags used for bicycle cargo as well as the Bike Trailer. Now in Chapter Three, we take a gander at over 20 Extended Frame Bikes, as used for the…

Read & Discuss

Ingenuity Ringmaster
This official would set the tone for inhabitants through open leadership and a malleable infrastructure, encouraging opportunities for risk-taking, seeding innovation, suggesting process and projects, and rewarding innovators by supporting imagination and invention. This is the coach that blows burning embers of ideas into rising flames of success.

This is part 16 of a continuing brainstorm on the future of cities, inaugurated at the CEOs for Cities Velocity conference in September, 2009. We’ll post a new idea each…

Read & Discuss

Cell phones usually contribute to urban noise pollution. But the folks at Paris’s Sony Computer Science Laboratory have created an app that lets any GPS-enabled phone help us understand the problem. Behold NoiseTube:

Serenity now!

…
Read & Discuss

Cell phones usually contribute to urban noise pollution. But the folks at Paris’s Sony Computer Science Laboratory have created an app that lets any GPS-enabled phone help us understand the problem. Behold NoiseTube:

Serenity now!

…
Read & Discuss

Ped Shed over Drive Shed
Cities could close and re-purpose or retrofit parking garages to create incentives for walking or riding bikes, mixed with unique spaces for work, play, art, learning, farming, and other sustainable, entertaining, and productive experiences.

This is part 19 of a continuing brainstorm on the future of cities, inaugurated at the CEOs for Cities Velocity conference in September, 2009. We’ll post a new idea each day until we run out, at which point we’re counting on…

Read & Discuss

Citizen Recruiters
Every single citizen should be engaged in the city, valued, and respected. Citizen Recruiters are analogous to military recruiters who go out and get people “in the game.” They would issue a personal invitation to be involved, and help the recruits navigate the system to find the right opportunities to “play.” They could get involved in city services, learning, or apprenticeships. Supported by a technology infrastructure, CRs would invite citizens both in person and…

Read & Discuss

How poor regional planning can suck the life out of cities.

Regionalism is all the rage. The Obama Administration is betting big on regional planning as a way to make smarter decisions on transportation, climate, the economy—all those things that don’t respect political boundaries. The Administration plans to reward communities that work together across jurisdictions toward common goals and, by implication, punish those that do not.

Who can argue with that? I certainly can’t.

But as I sit…

Read & Discuss

Prosper.org
The Ingenuity Ringmaster (blessed and supported by the city) would commit to a problem worth solving, and citizen innovators would submit ideas, and then the city would create a portfolio of projects with design criteria and guidance. Leveraging a micro-financing engine, citizens could vote with their dollars to decide which problems were solved. Personal investment would also drive involvement and contribution (anyone can volunteer to mentor the team, etc.). People would share, learn, and improve…

Read & Discuss

Today on Twitter we asked our followers how long their morning commutes were, and your means of transportation. We collected some of our favorite responses below. We ask a question to our Twitter faithful once a day, so if you’re not yet following @GOOD, make sure to sign up and participate in the conversation.

Read & Discuss

In their ongoing series devoted to moving cargo around by bike, TreeHugger focuses today’s entry to the workhorse of the genre: extended frame bikes. Here’s a glimpse:

In our endeavours to take a snapshot of the world of Bicycle Cargo we have to date looked at the Racks And Bags used for bicycle cargo as well as the Bike Trailer. Now in Chapter Three, we take a gander at over 20 Extended Frame Bikes, as used for the…

Read & Discuss

Ingenuity Ringmaster
This official would set the tone for inhabitants through open leadership and a malleable infrastructure, encouraging opportunities for risk-taking, seeding innovation, suggesting process and projects, and rewarding innovators by supporting imagination and invention. This is the coach that blows burning embers of ideas into rising flames of success.

This is part 16 of a continuing brainstorm on the future of cities, inaugurated at the CEOs for Cities Velocity conference in September, 2009. We’ll post a new idea each…

Read & Discuss

Free-agent Portfolio
Every citizen should be an entrepreneur and a free-agent. From the time you graduate junior high school, citizens would collect learning credits and acquired skills in a portfolio for every kind of demonstrable learning—from engineering and skateboarding to car sales negotiation and waitress skills. All learning would be applicable and a value-add to employers. The city would operate more like a talent agency, providing citizens with the infrastructure and resources to leverage and market…

Read & Discuss

The average American is both overweight and spends more than 100 hours per year commuting, that vast majority of those hours being spent in a car. Are those numbers correlated? Could we help reduce our societal weight gain by encouraging more commutes by bike or foot? Our latest Transparency is a look at the number of active commutes in several countries, as compared to those countries obesity rates.

A collaboration between GOOD and Lamosca.

…
Read & Discuss

Dubai can seem more like a mirage than any place on Earth—even in the shade, it’s marvelously bright. Whether the city is the most precious gem in the United Arab Emirates’ crown or merely a piece of costume jewelry is up for debate; regardless, its very presence is remarkable. But for all its pomp and extravagance, there are real people who work and live there. Through the lens of the photographer Dustin Aksland, who recently traveled…

Read & Discuss

As the world gets closer to the COP15 Climate Change conference, it’s important to look at from where the emissions around the world are coming. In the last year, some countries have started  to clean up their act, while other countries continue to pump out carbon dioxide. Our latest Transparency is a look at the five highest emitters in each region of the world as of 2007 and whether they have increased or decreased both…

Read & Discuss

Most of the world’s population now lives in cities. How can we make sure these urban centers are good homes for humanity? Cities from Bogotá and Rio de Janeiro to Seoul are leading the way, using fresh ideas to reduce pollution and waste; provide efficient, clean transportation; and support biodiversity.

…
Read & Discuss

Most of the world’s population now lives in cities. How can we make sure these urban centers are good homes for humanity? Cities from Bogotá and Rio de Janeiro to Seoul are leading the way, using fresh ideas to reduce pollution and waste; provide efficient, clean transportation; and support biodiversity.

…
Read & Discuss

Back on the Train Gang

By Michael Dukakis. Dukakis is a former governor of Massachusetts and served on Amtrak’s board of directors. He thinks we need to use Detroit factories to manufacture trains.

After years of delay, during which both Europe and Asia enjoyed the benefits of modern trains that run at speeds of 200 miles per hour and beyond, President Obama, Vice President Biden, and Congress have made an $8-billion down payment on what can and…

Read & Discuss

Back on the Train Gang

By Michael Dukakis. Dukakis is a former governor of Massachusetts and served on Amtrak’s board of directors. He thinks we need to use Detroit factories to manufacture trains.

After years of delay, during which both Europe and Asia enjoyed the benefits of modern trains that run at speeds of 200 miles per hour and beyond, President Obama, Vice President Biden, and Congress have made an $8-billion down payment on what can and…

Read & Discuss

Blockade Parade

How closing streets can actually reduce traffic

As the city of Vancouver prepared to convert a car lane on the busy Burrard Bridge into a bike path last summer, some imagined impending anarchy. At the time, one cabbie, Jatinder Nijjar, predicted, “It is going to be chaos.” In fact, the trial—and the traffic—has run smoothly so far.

Nijjar might have had different expectations had he read “The Price of Anarchy in Transportation Networks,” a paper published in…

Read & Discuss

Portland vs. San Francisco

Portland, Oregon, and San Francisco seem locked in an ongoing battle to become the left coast’s left-most city. To stoke the competition, the blog Gas2.0 has launched a website to track each city’s progress toward building an infrastructure for electric cars. We asked the mayors of both cities to explain what they’re doing to win:

Mayor Gavin Newsom on why the Bay Area will win:

Bay Area consumers have been the early adopters of green…

Read & Discuss

Gun-damn

The city of Tokyo has embraced the spirit of cultural adventurousness. Their contribution: a 60-foot tall Gundam statue, based on the mechanized warrior from the eponymous anime series, which turned 30 this year. The giant toy is inexplicably, but awesomely, tied into a city-wide greening effort, and is part of a campaign to host the 2016 summer Olympics.

Photo by Tim Lindenschmidt

Read & Discuss

The ability to locate a shooting quickly can help police catch bad guys and save lives. In Richmond, California, acoustic gunfire detection is doing just that. With acoustic sensors distributed around the city, dispatchers can use the sound of gunfire to pinpoint where a shooting happened, the number of shots fired, and even the kind of gun that was used.

…
Read & Discuss

The ability to locate a shooting quickly can help police catch bad guys and save lives. In Richmond, California, acoustic gunfire detection is doing just that. With acoustic sensors distributed around the city, dispatchers can use the sound of gunfire to pinpoint where a shooting happened, the number of shots fired, and even the kind of gun that was used.

…
Read & Discuss

Buildings are actually responsible for more greenhouse gas emissions than cars. But simply weatherizing houses and businesses can reduce their environmental impact and lower energy bills—while creating new jobs in the process. Everyone wins.

Created in partnership with Green for All, a national organization dedicated to building an inclusive green economy, strong enough to lift people out of poverty. For more information on programs near you, visit www.greenforall.org.

…
Read & Discuss

Most of the world’s population now lives in cities. How can we make sure these urban centers are good homes for humanity? Cities from Bogotá and Rio de Janeiro to Seoul are leading the way, using fresh ideas to reduce pollution and waste; provide efficient, clean transportation; and support biodiversity.

…
Read & Discuss

Most of the world’s population now lives in cities. How can we make sure these urban centers are good homes for humanity? Cities from Bogotá and Rio de Janeiro to Seoul are leading the way, using fresh ideas to reduce pollution and waste; provide efficient, clean transportation; and support biodiversity.

…
Read & Discuss

In our cities, waste collection can be pretty wasteful itself. Garbage trucks have to make near constant trips to keep public trash bins from overflowing—contributing to traffic and pollution. To keep our cities in harmony, we’ll have to figure out a better system for urban waste collection. The people at BigBelly Solar already have one solution.

See the full Road Map to Harmony here.  

…
Read & Discuss

Our planet is a fragile ecosystem. To keep it in balance, we must figure out how to improve our urban transportation. B-Cycle in Denver, Colorado offers a unique and sustainable solution for how we can move through our cities. This European-style bike sharing system enables residents of Denver to access bicycles conveniently at various stations throughout the city. By replacing short car rides with environment-friendly biking, B-Cycle helps to keep our air clean, our…

Read & Discuss

Americans take 911 for granted, but in many developing nations a centralized emergency telephone number is unheard of. In Mumbai, a private ambulance company has stepped up to fill the void in emergency medical service. In a city where "ambulance" used to be synonymous with "hearse," Mumbai residents..
Read & Discuss