city government
The Omnibus Roundup – Bragdon, Pakistan, urban interventions and Centers of the USA

Last week Mayor Bloomberg appointed David Bragdon, former president of the Oregon Metro Council — an elected regional planning agency — and a rumored mayoral candidate in Portland, to head up the Mayor’s Office of Long-Term Planning and Sustainability, which is charged with administering PlaNYC. Portland has certainly made…

Code for America

Jennifer Pahlka, founder of a non-profit that links city governments and web 2.0 talent, envisions a future in which city governments act more like the citizens they serve.

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Urban Land Use: Looking Beyond the Charter Commission

Photo: Giles Ashford

Last Wednesday the Municipal Art Society partnered with Manhattan Community Board 1 (Lower Manhattan) to host a daylong discussion, “Land Use and Local Voices: Is the City’s Land Use Process in Need of Reform?”. The event was organized in response to the…

Conversations on New York #3: Benepe, Burden and Burney

Last week, New York City Commissioners Amanda Burden, of the Department of City Planning (DCP), Adrian Benepe, of Parks and Recreation (DPR), and David Burney, of the Department of Design and Construction (DDC), convened at the Great Hall of The Cooper Union for the third in the Architectural League’s series…

Conversations on New York #2: Dan Doctoroff

A recap of the second of the League’s Conversations on New York, with Dan Doctoroff, former NYC Deputy Mayor for Economic Development, and Paul Goldberger, architecture critic for The New Yorker.

Conversations on New York #1: Alexander Garvin

Matthew Storrie recaps the first of the Architectural League’s “Conversations on New York” with Alexander Garvin. Check it out and then join the League THIS THURSDAY for a rare chance to hear Dan Doctoroff and Paul Goldberger discuss the past decade of development and the challenges facing the city looking forward from 2010.

Open Data Standards for City Agencies

Erratic time lines, gaps in outdated information and incompatible forms often frustrate the process of locating and accessing data from city agencies. Even learning what data exists – let alone its availability – may require some serious mining. Besides, once researchers and tech developers get their hands on data, the city may have its own ideas about…

Empowering the City:
London / New York

Gerald Frug contrasts the structures and powers of city government in London and New York in order to ask a crucial urban question: what are our cities empowered to do?

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Active Design Guidelines: A new definition for sustainable cities

There’s a new, bright green poster that will be making an appearance around the city in the near future, encouraging people to take the stairs and ”Burn Calories, not Electricity.” In addition to reducing our carbon footprints, the city is offering us another way to help the environment and to…

The Omnibus Roundup – eminent domain, NYC commissioners, affordable housing, and Bronx architecture

As you’ve probably heard by now, a state appeals court has barred the use of eminent domain for parts of a 17 acre site intended for development by Columbia University, ruling the condemnation unconstitutional. This on the heels of last week’s more developer-friendly rulings for Atlantic

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