Our economy consists of both goods and services. Traditionally, design has focused on one, not the other. Laura Forlano talks to leading practitioners in this emerging field.

Xenophobia. Unfunded entitlements. Anti-immigrant zeal. More retirees than workers. Crumbling infrastructure. Failing schools. Threats to burn books. Taken together, our national ailments have shaken my belief in a Country of Cities. I have argued on these pages that density and infrastructure, and the diverse ecology they engender, can lead us out of this recession to a greener, leaner nation...

On Sunday afternoons, when most industrial businesses are closed, IBZs have a surreal and at times eerie quietness that is rare in New York City.

As oil spills into the Gulf, blood spills in the streets of Greece, and cash spills from terrorist wallets into the hands of willing airline agents, one wonders who can clean up this mess. We tell our children to clean up after themselves, but can we? Disciplining a child is a perilous affair, but in the end self-discipline is the challenge. Self-discipline requires introspection, but how much of it can we muster in a world careening towards 9 billion people?

Seema Agnani’s work with South Asian immigrants on housing needs charts a course for legalizing basement apartments to create affordable housing.

Sarah Rich and Nicola Twilley discuss the impact of food systems on the physical city in advance of Foodprint NYC, an event at Studio-X.

Mapping Main Street heads to Flushing for audio-video explorations of Main St. produced by neighborhood students, providing a local snapshot of the nation-wide project.

Rachel Abrams breaks down the actors, information and knowledge behind the routine experience of taking a NYC taxi, and explains how design thinking can benefit urban systems.