Radical Urbanist
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Hey urbanists,Radical Urbanist has moved to Substack. If you want to subscribe, you can do so here: https://radicalurbanist.substack.comThanks,Paris
✊🏙 Showing love for buses; Vancouver transit booming; Musk misleads customers; Push documentary; New Zealand; California; Cuba; & more!
I think it’s fair to say that buses, for all the benefits they provide, don’t get nearly the attention they deserve — and I'm guilty of that too. Buses are the backbone of a great transit system and the workhorses that move people in cities large and small ar…
✊🏙 Cities are going green; Australian election focused on climate; legal code subsidizes driving; Sidewalk Toronto; Notre Dame; & more
It should come as no surprise to anyone that as cities continue to grow, so too is their global clout. The international system may be structured around countries, but that hasn’t stopped cities from demanding a place at the table and working together on impo…
✊🏙 Uber S-1 reveals new details; Barcelona’s superblocks; Canada warming 2x global average; Hudson Yards; Toronto; flooding; & more!
Uber’s S-1 filing was published earlier this week as it prepares to go public. I haven’t had time to go through the document yet since the end of the semester is taking up nearly all of my time, but plenty of others have. This is some of what they found:Reven…
✊🏙 NY approves congestion pricing; tech-transport’s false promises; Melbourne Apple store dead; #BlockSidewalk; overnight trains; floating cities; & more! [RU80]
New York’s state budget was signed off this week, and it included a much-debated and very necessary initiative: congestion pricing. It’s expected to take effect in 2021, but there are still a lot of decisions to be made, including what the fee will actually b…
✊🏙 Drivers strike as Lyft goes public; Facebook charged for redlining tools; lessons from Copenhagen; Auckland transit; Chinese e-bikes; private cities; & more! [RU79]
Lyft became the first ride-hailing company to go public this week. Its market cap initially jumped over $30 billion, but has fallen closer to $22 billion at time of writing. Uber will also go public in the coming months, but the images of Lyft executives and …
✊🏙 Flooding in Midwest & Africa, Elon Musk is at it again, cities taking on cars, electric buses, air pollution, climate change, & more!
We’ve been hearing for years that climate change will make storms stronger and flooding worse, but these aren’t things that will happen at some point decades down the line — these disasters are already here.Cyclone Idai hit Mozambique, Malawi, and Zimbabwe in…
✊🏙 Christchurch terrorist attack, Trump’s austerity budget, Hudson Yards, San Francisco, McMansion Hell, climate strike, & more!
I’d be remiss not to start with the tragic attack on two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand on Friday where 49 Muslim worshippers have been confirmed dead at the hands of a white-supremacist terrorist. I won’t detail the event, but you can read more on Stuf…
✊🏙 Speaker wants NYC to control subway, Airbnb buys hotel-booking service, AVs won’t happen, Musk redefines ‘self-driving,’ ocean heatwaves, & more!
Apologies if you’re fed up with hearing about New York City, but the vision for the future of transportation in the city put forward by Council Speaker Corey Johnson this past week is worthy of attention.As you may remember, last week Mayor Bill de Blasio ann…
✊🏙 Lyft’s terrible financials; NYC mayor backs congestion pricing; Chicago done with Elon Musk; scooter economics; Amazon betrays Seattle; climate; & more!
Lyft filed for IPO this week, and that provided insight into their business. They’re honest that things aren’t looking great for profitability.In 2018, Lyft lost $911 million, up from $688 million in 2017. In its prospectus, it warned investors that it may ne…
✊🏙 Berlin’s radical housing measures; Silicon Valley dystopia; public MaaS app; Hudson Yards; Auckland scooter ban; high-speed rail; & more!
While cities in North America debate whether to give more tax breaks to private developers or add low inclusionary zoning provisions, their European counterparts are taking much more significant action to preserve affordable rents and increase the proportion …
✊🏙 Amazon scraps NYC plans; Sidewalk’s full Toronto ambitions leaked; CAHSR (not) canceled; Lime; Egypt; Uber; & more!
There’s no question that the backlash against the tech industry accelerated through 2018, with growing discontent over Amazon’s labor practices, Apple’s soaring prices, and Facebook’s clear disregard for its users privacy — among other things. But this backla…
✊🏙 Green New Deal has vision; free transit momentum?; high-speed rail; Amazon HQ2 drama; housing discrimination; & more!
I'm a big fan of the Green New Deal. And so are many Americans — 92% of Democrats and 64% of Republicans, according to a survey by Yale and George Mason University.On Thursday, Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Senator Ed Markey unveiled their Green …
✊🏙 Cities MUST be for everyone; Uber doesn’t care about transit; Paris’ public housing success story; congestion pricing; greedy oligarchs; Airbnb; & more!
The death of 22-year-old mother Malaysia Goodson is tragic and still makes me want to cry every time I think about it. Malaysia fell down the stairs of a New York City subway station on Monday evening while carrying her one-year-old child in a stroller becaus…
✊🏙 Build more public housing; scooters as a public service; Uber killing transit; LGBTQ cities; EVs; socialist utopia; & more!
Across the Western world, the neoliberal period brought a disinvestment from public housing, resulting in far fewer truly affordable units being added to the housing stock, while governments asserted that private developers would meet the demand for housing. …
✊🏙 Making US transit better; Portland loves scooters; TRB highlights; WeWork; e-bikes; & more!
Cities across the United States are investing in transit projects, but too often they struggle to gain ridership or ridership continues to decline. That’s not good news for transit, but neither is it good news for our climate goals when those people are drivi…
✊🏙 Light electric vehicles are coming; shaky global housing market; future megacities; UK airport drones; US construction costs; & more!
Hugh Malkin wrote a great piece at the end of last year on the coming explosion of light electric vehicles: bikes, scooters, and other small electrified modes. In particular, he addresses the question of ownership, and how to reduce the barriers for people to…
✊🏙 NYC L train shutdown canceled; Elizabeth Warren’s housing plan; Quebec childcare; Venice arrival tax; LA’s urban forests; & more!
After three years of planning, NY Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced on Thursday that, actually, the planned 15-month L train shutdown that was due to start in April wouldn’t actually be happening. Instead, the MTA will use a method never before tested in the United…
✊🏙 Looking back at 2018; debate over social housing in UK; Bay Area exodus; Aussie transport; Amazon HQ2; and more!
I could pick out specific stories I’m watching and find fascinating from cities all over the world, from the MTA’s woes and coming L train shutdown in NYC to the transportation projects and fight against the Apple Store in Melbourne, but there are some broade…
✊🏙 Challenges facing scooters in 2019; Elon Musk’s disappointing tunnel; cycling; subways; and more!
Through 2018, dockless e-scooters rolled out in cities across the United States, Europe, and Oceania. The new mobility option brought controversy, but data shows there’s been significant uptake in many cities. What will need to be addressed and studied in 201…