TOPIC
Federal Government
"The scythe of progress must move northward”: Urban Renewal on the Upper West Side
Oksana Mironova documents varied approaches to City-led redevelopment in Lincoln Square and the West Side Urban Renewal Area and calls for an evolution of contemporary rezonings to prioritize the preservation of existing communities.
Leaving the Sea: Staten Islanders Experiment with Managed Retreat
Elizabeth Rush traces the implementation of New York State-led property buyouts in three Staten Island neighborhoods and weighs the benefits and costs of this potentially important model for addressing the vulnerability of coastal communities.
The Storm That Will Be: Protecting Public Housing in the New 100-Year Floodplain
Elizabeth Rush looks at the particular challenges facing public housing authorities in high-risk flood zones and follows a design competition for a stormwater management plan in Jersey City to consider how responsive, site-specific architectural innovation can inform broader strategies for strengthening vulnerable communities.
Hard Units: A Drive through Jersey City with Brian Loughlin
Brian Loughlin, the chief architect for the Jersey City Housing Authority, takes us on a tour of recent renovations and rehabilitations, demonstrating the architectural innovation and policy acumen required to navigate federal housing programs and create sound homes and neighborhoods.
Video: A Country of Cities
From 2009-2011, Vishaan Chakrabarti wrote a series of opinion pieces here on Urban Omnibus arguing that urban density can be the answer to many of the nation's most pressing contemporary issues. He has since expanded...
The Underlying Structure: A Conversation on Law with Gerald Frug
Legal scholar Gerald Frug appeals to designers, planners, and activists to understand better the legal structures that enable and constrain urban change.
Sinking ARC
We all of course know the story of Noah’s Ark -- of massive floods sent by a disgusted God to wipe out our corrupted civilization except for Noah, who, with his family, builds an Ark to save pairs of animals to eventually repopulate the planet. The contemporary take on the story has some new twists.
Spill, Baby, Spill
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?