Cities around the country are facing a dilemma — build defenses against sea level rise with taxpayer money, or refuse to build defenses and watch big-name companies go somewhere else. This is what’s happening in Silicon Valley, where two of the world’s biggest tech companies — Facebook and Google — are expanding their campuses in …
SUHII, which stands for “Surface Urban Heat Island Intensity,” has been globally mapped by authors and creators T. Chakraborty and X. Lee with Yale University’s Center for Earth Observation. As the world is getting hotter, our urban areas are suffering the most, with highly developed neighborhoods sometimes climbing 15°F to 20°F hotter than their neighboring …
Read more “SUHII or “Surface Urban Heat Island Intensity” is now Mapped for Every City in the World”
In early June, the Army announced that it had fully implemented its Tenant Bill of Rights for 36 of 44 Army installations that utilize privatized housing. Mark Esper, the former Secretary of Defense, signed the original bill in 2020, calling it, “a promise we should have made back in the late ‘90s when the Army …
Read more “Tenant Bill of Rights Implemented Across Army Installations”
Google Maps has added a new feature that lets you avoid crowded public transportation spaces. Spanning 100 countries and over 10,000 public transit systems, the new feature allows you to see exactly how busy your subway or bus might be. Based on user feedback and location trends, the app is able to make near-accurate transit …
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According to a new report by Climate Central — an independent research group that conducts scientific research on climate change — New Orleans, Newark, and New York City have a pretty significant heat problem. These cities, along with places such as San Francisco and Houston, have something called “urban heat islands” — metropolitan areas that …
Read more “New Orleans, Newark and New York City have the Country’s Most Intense Urban Heat Islands”
In early July, a local Baltimorean named Laurel Mendez was going about her day until she stumbled upon a 7-inch crack in the sidewalk — an unnecessary barrier that she couldn’t overlook. “Between the broken sidewalks and the big gaps in the sidewalks that haven’t been repaired, I could barely get from the bus stop …
Read more “Disability Advocates Are Suing Baltimore Over Sidewalk Conditions”
“Biodiver City” is a proposed project by the Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG) to create a small chain of biodiverse island habitats off the northwest coast of Malaysia to alleviate overcrowding on the country’s mainland. The Malaysian island of Penang, typically known for its beaches and food, is set to host this new project, where three …
Just before Juneteenth, in a very extraordinary moment for the Nation, the White House recognized “exclusionary zoning” and its effect on racial discrimination in the housing market for the first time. In the White House blog (yes they have a blog), authors Cecilia Rouse, Jared Bernstein, Helen Knudsen, and Jeffery Zhang wrote about Juneteenth — …
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Historically, questions about transit equity have been pretty difficult to answer. That’s because the opportunity gaps that exist across race, income, and other characteristics were beyond the computational capabilities of transit agencies. But advances in how agencies report service information have finally made it possible to quantify these access-to-opportunity metrics. Insert the TransitCenter Equity Dashboard. …
Ex situ conservation and in situ conservation are two important strategies that are used to protect endangered animals and plants around the world. Yet, despite their similar-sounding names, they are fundamentally different in how they approach conservation. While both ex situ and in situ conservation are a means to protect endangered animal and plant species, …
Read more “Ex Situ Conservation: Is it better than In Situ Conservation?”