Latest news with #urbanDesign
Fast Company
2 days ago
- Business
- Fast Company
As Trump boosts fossil fuels, Cleveland's mayor is making climate action personal. It's working
In the depths of the COVID-19 pandemic, Justin Bibb was living in a tight, one-bedroom apartment in Cleveland, Ohio. He couldn't open his windows because his home was an old office building converted to residential units—not exactly conducive to physical and mental well-being in the middle of a global crisis. So he sought refuge elsewhere: a large green space, down near the lakefront, where he could stroll. 'Unfortunately,' Bibb said, 'that's not the case for many of our residents in the city of Cleveland.' A native of Cleveland, Bibb was elected the 58th mayor of the city in 2021. Immediately after taking office, he took inspiration from the '15-minute city' concept of urban design, an idea that envisions people reaching their daily necessities—work, grocery stores, pharmacies—within 15 minutes by walking, biking, or taking public transit. That reduces dependence on cars, and also slashes carbon emissions and air pollution. In Cleveland, Bibb's goal is to put all residents within a 10-minute walk of a green space by the year 2045, by converting abandoned lots to parks and other efforts. Cleveland is far from alone in its quest to adapt to a warming climate. As American cities have grown in size and population and gotten hotter, they—not the federal government—have become crucibles for climate action: Cities are electrifying their public transportation, forcing builders to make structures more energy efficient, and encouraging rooftop solar. Together with ambitious state governments, hundreds of cities large and small are pursuing climate action plans—documents that lay out how they will reduce emissions and adapt to extreme weather—with or without support from the feds. Cleveland's plan, for instance, calls for all its commercial and residential buildings to reach net-zero emissions by 2050. For local leaders, climate action has grown all the more urgent since the Trump administration has been boosting fossil fuels and threatening to sue states to roll back environmental regulations. Last month, Republicans in the House passed a budget bill that would end nearly all the clean energy tax credits from the Biden administration's signature climate law, the Inflation Reduction Act. 'Because Donald Trump is in the White House again, it's going to be up to mayors and governors to really enact and sustain the momentum around addressing climate change at the local level,' said Bibb, who formerly chaired Climate Mayors, a bipartisan group of nearly 350 mayors. City leaders can move much faster than federal agencies, and are more in-tune with what their people actually want, experts said. 'They're on the ground and they're hearing from their residents every day, so they have a really good sense of what the priorities are,' said Kate Johnson, regional director for North America at C40 Cities, a global network of nearly 100 mayors fighting climate change. 'You see climate action really grounded in the types of things that are going to help people.' Shifting from a reliance on fossil fuels to clean energy isn't just about reducing a city's carbon emissions, but about creating jobs and saving money—a tangible argument that mayors can make to their people. Bibb said a pilot program in Cleveland that helped low- to moderate-income households get access to free solar panels ended up reducing their utility bills by 60%. The biggest concern for Americans right now isn't climate change, Bibb added. 'It's the cost of living, and so we have to marry these two things together,' he said. 'I think mayors are in a very unique position to do that.' To further reduce costs and emissions, cities like Seattle and Washington, D.C. are scrambling to better insulate structures, especially affordable housing, by installing double-paned windows and better insulation. In Boston last year, the city government started an Equitable Emissions Investment Fund, which awards money for projects that make buildings more efficient or add solar panels to their roofs. 'We are in a climate where energy efficiency remains the number one thing that we can do,' said Oliver Sellers-Garcia, commissioner of the environment and Green New Deal director in the Boston government. 'And there are so many other comfort and health benefits from being in an efficient, all-electric environment.' To that end, cities are deploying loads of heat pumps, hyper-efficient appliances that warm and cool a space. New York City, for instance, is spending $70 million to install 30,000 of the appliances in its public housing. The ultimate goal is to have as many heat pumps as possible running in energy-efficient homes—along with replacing gas stoves with induction ranges—and drawing electricity from renewables. Metropolises like Los Angeles and Pittsburgh are creating new green spaces, which reduce urban temperatures and soak up rainwater to prevent flooding. A park is a prime example of 'multisolving': one intervention that fixes a bunch of problems at once. Another is deploying electric vehicle chargers in underserved neighborhoods, as Cleveland is doing, and making their use free for residents. This encourages the adoption of those vehicles, which reduces carbon emissions and air pollution. That, in turn, improves public health in those neighborhoods, which tend to have a higher burden of pollution than richer areas. Elizabeth Sawin, director of the Multisolving Institute, a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit, said that these efforts will be more important than ever as the Trump administration cuts funding for health programs. 'If health care for poor children is going to be depleted—with, say, Medicaid under threat—cities can't totally fix that,' Sawin said. 'But if they can get cleaner air in cities, they can at least have fewer kids who are struggling from asthma attacks and other respiratory illnesses.' All this work—building parks, installing solar panels, weatherizing buildings—creates jobs, both within a city and in surrounding rural areas. Construction workers commute in, while urban farms tap rural growers for their expertise. And as a city gets more of its power from renewables, it can benefit counties far away: The largest solar facility east of the Mississippi River just came online in downstate Illinois, providing so much electricity to Chicago that the city's 400 municipal buildings now run entirely on renewable power. 'The economic benefits and the jobs aren't just necessarily accruing to the cities—which might be seen as big blue cities,' Johnson said. 'They're buying their electric school buses from factories in West Virginia, and they're building solar and wind projects in rural areas.' So cities aren't just preparing themselves for a warmer future, but helping accelerate a transition to renewables and spreading economic benefits across the American landscape. 'We as elected officials have to do a better job of articulating how this important part of public policy is connected to the everyday lived experience,' Bibb said. 'Unfortunately, my party has done a bad job of that. But I think as mayors, we are well positioned to make that case at the local level.'
BBC News
3 days ago
- General
- BBC News
Tulips bollards in Westminster to 'protect cyclists and bring joy'
Colourful tulip-shaped bollards have sprung up in central London in a bid to separate traffic from cyclists while adding a splash of bollards made from recycled plastic have been installed to line bike lanes in Sussex Gardens, by the poppies at the Tower of London and the sunflower field scene in the Tour de France, it is hoped they will be more visible to drivers."The idea was to protect cyclists, but also to try and bring joy to the street," said Luke Tozer, director at Pitman Tozer Architects, which helped create the wands. "We road tested it, we had trucks run over it, we had cyclists hitting into them, to check that they would survive in the urban environment." Designer Alex Douglas said: "I started on this back in 2022, so it's really nice to finally see it on the streets."A ribbon-cutting ceremony was attended by the newly appointed Lord Mayor of Westminster, Paul Dimoldenberg, the BBC's Jeremy Vine and social media sensation Sigrid, the deaf cat who explores London by bike, and her owner Travis Nelson.
CBS News
21-05-2025
- Business
- CBS News
NYC Mayor Adams announces Fifth Avenue redesign plan is getting a major funding boost
Fifth Avenue, one of New York City's most iconic streets, is getting a makeover. Wednesday morning, Mayor Eric Adams announced a major funding boost to transform Fifth Avenue into a pedestrian boulevard. Adams said he hopes Fifth Avenue will rival the world's most beautiful pedestrian boulevards, like the Champs-Élysées in Paris. Renderings show what redesign of Manhattan's Fifth Avenue will look like with wider sidewalks and more greenery. Fifth Avenue Association The project is called "The Future of Fifth." Adams said it will transform Fifth Avenue from Bryant Park to Central Park into a world-class, walkable boulevard. The historic stretch runs past landmarks like Rockefeller Center and St. Patrick's Cathedral. It will feature widened sidewalks, more green space, but also fewer vehicle lanes, and no lanes for cyclists, which not everyone is thrilled about. Adams announced an additional $250 million in his proposed fiscal year 2026 budget, on top of the $152.7 million committed in 2024. The city estimates the investment will pay for itself in less than five years through rising property and sales tax revenue. Construction isn't slated to begin until 2028. Fifth Avenue Association "We're making Fifth Avenue more walkable, greener and safer. The stretch of real estate that we enjoy walking all the time from Bryant Park to Central Park, we're going to double the sidewalk space, shorten the crosswalks so that the avenue is safer to cross, green the avenue with more than 230 trees planters," Adams said. "It's going to be better for tourists, for us. Because we're going to walk by in a beautiful place, take more pictures," one tourist said. "I like the idea. More space to walk is always nice," another person said. "I think that'll make more traffic," said another.
Fast Company
19-05-2025
- Fast Company
This simple change could make NYC's subway feel safer
In recent months, the New York City subway system has seen a string of shocking and deadly incidents of violence, including several passengers who have been shoved from the platform into the paths of moving trains. A recent report finds that misdemeanor and felony assaults within the subway system have tripled since 2009. For everyday riders and visitors alike, there is now a lurking fear that their next trip on the subway could be dangerous. Many, including the governor of New York, are seeking solutions, which range from adding more police presence to increasing surveillance to installing more lighting to combatting fare evasion. But there's another approach that could go a long way to improving security and safety in the subway system. Through specific and targeted design interventions, the subway system itself could be retrofitted to reduce violent crime. This is one of the conclusions of What To Do (and Not To Do) About Subway Safety, a new set of policy recommendations from the urban policy journal Vital City. Based on input and research from criminologists, behavioral scientists, transit experts, and policy wonks, the recommendations include focusing on mental health and substance abuse among users of the system, increasing access to social workers, and using police forces more strategically. Claire Weisz, cofounder of the architecture and design studio WXY, contributed to the report with ideas for design interventions that could increase a sense of security and comfort for subway riders. These design ideas include improving sight lines within the system's underground stations, increasing visibility between passengers, and reducing dead ends and other areas that can isolate people. Rather than calling for a wide scale and expensive investment in safety infrastructure like Japanese-style platform barriers, the design ideas proposed here are lower lift interventions. The standout design idea from Weisz and WXY is the addition of highly reflective surfaces throughout subway stations. Lining ceilings, walls, and even the areas right above the edge of the platform, these shiny surfaces passively increase visibility, spatial awareness, and navigation within the sometimes circuitous underground world of a subway station. 'Mirrors or mirror-like surfaces, which could be stainless steel, in the right places can actually help people see around columns, see down hallways, see around corners, but also get a sense that I'm getting closer towards an exit, or I'm getting farther away, or here's where a platform is,' Weisz says. 'Right now, there isn't kind of intuitive wayfinding.' Reflective surfaces can also increase a sense of security. Directly influenced by the violent shoving incidents that have been happening in recent months, the subway design interventions feature a curved reflective surface just overhead of the tracks, called a soffit. This gives people standing and waiting for trains the ability to catch glimpses of their surroundings without having to look behind their backs. 'When you're standing and waiting for the subway, you can see other people,' Weisz says. The soffit also visually tightens the station interior, making it feel more compact. 'It closes down the space between the platform and the third rail on the tracks, so that you're not as open to the whole track.' The idea behind these reflective surfaces comes from the world of hotel design, Weisz says. Hotel hallways and elevators are commonly outfitted with mirrors that let people see themselves but also, perhaps subconsciously, understand that they are also going to be seen by others in this public place. It's a bit of social engineering informed by behavioral science that encourages more self-awareness and courteous behavior. The surfaces become like eyes on the platform. Adding these reflective surfaces could be a form of tactical design, improving conditions in subway stations without the need for a drastic and expensive redesign. But for a transit system with nearly 500 subway stations —and almost every one having a unique design—making widespread improvements will not be easy. 'Everything's expensive, but I do think a couple of pilots in stations that are complex would go a long way,' Weisz says. 'My hope is some of these discussions are going to bring money forth from philanthropy or from academia to do a couple of pilots that really get monitored and recorded to find out if this is changing how people feel in these spaces as they move through the subway.' Weisz acknowledges that while the shoving attacks that have been reported in the subway system are rare, they've created outsized impacts on riders' perceptions of safety within subway stations. To maintain the system's essential role in the functioning of the city, she argues, those perceptions of safety must be improved. 'Good design allows people to behave in a way that optimizes the use of public space in the system,' she says.
