MetaFilter posts tagged with cities

The Walled Cities: Keeping Out The Joneses

Effigy2000 — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 22:30:02 -0800

The first human settlements... before the bronze age, before the iron age and even probably before the stone age, didn’t happen because people liked each other’s company. "As the old saying goes, there's safety in numbers... and fortifications. "If you have any doubt about how wood, stone and later even steel walls helped shape human civilization, all you need to do is take a close look at most of our cities, especially the older ones."

Bruxellisation

Artw — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 14:22:21 -0800

Top 10 comic book cities

The Squares of the City

kliuless — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 13:11:34 -0800

Paul Romer: A Theory of History, with an Application - "His economic theory of history explains phenomena such as the constant improvement of the human standard of living by looking primarily at just two forms of innovative ideas: technology and rules." (previously, via) BONUS: UNDERSTANDING SOCIETY - What cities have in common [1,2,3,4,5] - Great structures? [1,2,3,4,5] - The new institutionalism [1,2,3,4,5] - Norms and deliberative rationality [1,2,3,4,5]

Mr. Lee's Greater Hong Kong

kliuless — Thu, 21 May 2009 16:44:18 -0800

Prelude to Federation - Like a neocolonial SEZ (or TAZ) Paul Romer, not to be confused with David, posits "less developed countries contract with capitalist nations to set up Hong Kong's for them... that we rethink sovereignty (respect borders, but maybe import administrative control); rethink citizenship (support residency, but maybe import voice in political affairs); and rethink scale (instead of focusing on nations, focus on cities—on city states like Hong Kong and Singapore)." cf. neocameralism [1, 2, 3] BONUS - New Urbanism - Taking Up Space

we have complex, messy models, yet reality is startlingly neat and simple

AceRock — Thu, 21 May 2009 15:35:53 -0800

"Zipf's Law (pdf) states that if you tabulate the biggest cities in a given country and rank them according to their populations, the largest city is always about twice as big as the second largest, and three times as big as the third largest, and so on. In other words, the population of a city is, to a good approximation, inversely proportional to its rank." Also, as cities grow, they benefit from economies of scale (pdf). For example, the number of gas stations a city needs grows in proportion to 0.77 power of population. Other measures of infrastructure also decrease, per person, as population increases. Interestingly, a very similar power law is found in nature, namely in the metabolic needs of mammals (pdf), which "grow in proportion to its body weight raised to the 0.74 power." (via)

Not surprisingly, Detroit didn't make the list.

grapefruitmoon — Tue, 12 May 2009 16:41:39 -0800

Thinking of relocating in these troubled economic times? You might want to consider checking out Forbes' list of The Most Overpriced Cities in America. The Top 5: Los Angeles, Chicago, Miami, New York, and... Providence?

How Cities Hurt Your Brain

jon_hansen — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 09:33:55 -0800

Recent research has found that living in a city may be bad for your brain. Compared with natural settings, cities over-stimulate us and impair our memory and cognitive functions.

More Than Photo Op or Foil

l33tpolicywonk — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 21:36:36 -0800

"The last eight years, in terms of engagement, [Washington] D.C. has just been a photo op for the president, or a foil," says Tommy Wells, a social worker turned D.C. Council member. Washington was never just the home of corrupt politicians, but home to over a half million American citizens. Can a city so segregated by income (my own previously) flourish with a former community organizer as President? Practice cautious optimism. On Beacon House, Leiby and Brown write:

Beacon House provides a safety net as well as a shield from the influences of the street ... "Some of them don't have a parent to give them a nutritious breakfast, help them with their homework, make sure they brush their teeth. Some mothers are just hanging on," says Stevens-Kittner, 56, who previously worked as an attorney in the Superior Court's Child Abuse and Neglect Branch. "We are surrogate parents."

DEAR COMRADE!

tellurian — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 08:38:16 -0800

Soviet Music "You are browsing a resource which is devoted first of all to the history and culture of the Soviet Union, the country which the West for a long time usually named as "The Empire of Evil", the country to which some people in the West perceive as "something big and snowy". I offer you to try to look outside the frames of usual stereotypes, to try to understand life of a unique country, with its interesting history, beautiful culture and miraculous relations between people. The music submitted on this site - is an evident sample of a totally new culture, which completely differs from all that, with what Hollywood and MTV supply us so much. This culture, being free from the cult of money, platitude, violence and sex, was urged to not indulge low bents of a human soul but to help the person to become culturally enriched and to grow above himself." I am liking for one "To be first in labour and in fight you should be a sportsman" [this link can break any second].

Swimming Cities of Switchback Sea

lunit — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 08:27:56 -0800

Swimming Cities of Switchback Sea is an exhibit by Swo on composed of seven floating sculptures made from discarded materials. Following a performance tour down the Hudson River, it is docked at Deitch Studios in NYC until October 18th.

The body of the city

Horace Rumpole — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 10:29:48 -0800

Visualizing Early Washington. A project at the Imaging Research Center of the University of Maryland-Baltimore County has reconstructed the original landscape of Washington DC before its radical transformation into a modern capital city. Be sure to view the animation either embedded in the WaPo story or (sans advertising) at the "reconstructed the original landscape" link. (via)

Life in a Northern Town

Marisa Stole the Precious Thing — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 13:33:13 -0800

Policy Exchange, the same British conservative think tank who brought you reports such as the tastefully titled The Hijacking of British Islam (previously), have released a new report, Cities Limited (pdf), which states that the only solution for people living in the North of Britain - where unemployment and poverty are high - is to abandon their homes and move south. Leader of the Conservative Party, David Cameron, minced no words in his response: "This report is rubbish from start to finish. I think the author himself said it might be a bit barmy. It is barmy. I gather he's off to Australia. The sooner he gets on the ship the better." Conservative bloggers have been very quick to distance themselves from the report, some going as far as to blame it on Liberal Democrats. Co-author of the report, Tim Leunig, a lecturer in economic history at the London School of Economics, defends his position.

The Changing Face of the Inner City

digaman — Sat, 02 Aug 2008 20:43:58 -0800

Are you a young middle-class creative type (probably white) who has chosen to live in an urban neighborhood that your parents would have shunned? Have the families that formerly lived in your neighborhood (probably not white) been pushed out by soaring rents and real-estate prices to the city fringes or suburbs? The New Republic on demographic inversion.

Traffic Scorecard

backseatpilot — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 13:23:06 -0800

The National Traffic Scorecard ranks the 100 most-congested metropolitan areas in the United States. Number one? Los Angeles, naturally. Click the "View All" links to get the full lists and a nice map. Then you can click on individual areas to get an extended description, local map, and some nice statistics.

Get yer urban exploration/dead mall fix right here

limeonaire — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 19:59:13 -0800

"Q: What the hell is this site about? This is a site about urban exploration in the Ozarks." Abandoned water slides, underground tunnels, abandoned buildings and half-demolished malls throughout Missouri were all once fair game for this blog, and remain fair game for those who post in Underground Ozarks' forums.

Urban pranks

CunningLinguist — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 10:46:00 -0800

From the Improv Everywhere people comes the Urban Prankster blog to keep track of delightful shenanigans around the world.

Place matters

decoherence — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 06:52:50 -0800

Another Paul Graham essay, Cities and Ambition. This one's one of his better ones though. His claim: each city sends its inhabitants a distinct message about how they should live their lives. New York City sends the message that you should be richer. Cambridge sends the message that you should be smarter. Berkeley sends the message that you should live better. Consequently, the city you live in has a profound effect on what you strive for, what you value, and how you channel your ambitions. Place matters; choose wisely. I think his claim is without a doubt true, but to what extent? How much does place matter, and for whom? Everyone? Or just people in certain fields? His point about writers and artists in Paris at the early part of the 20th century strikes me as astute, and also a bit scary: if you're not in the right city at the right time, you could miss your chance at greatness. There's an interesting chicken and egg problem here -- did Paris make the artists or did the artists make Paris? And what sort of message does your town or city send you?

City of the Future, Taiwan 1960s

socalsamba — Tue, 27 May 2008 10:56:44 -0800

City of the Future, Taiwan 1960s

Encyclopedia of Transportation Planning Strategies

salvia — Thu, 08 May 2008 21:04:26 -0800

Too much traffic? Can't find parking? Choking on smog? Worried about climate change? Gas prices too high, but you still have to drive? Send your city planner a link to the Online Encyclopedia of Transportation Demand Management strategies. The Victoria Transport Policy Institute was mentioned in a comment back in 2005, but not the encyclopedia, which is one of the most complete online transportation resources that I've run across lately.

Oil at the Top and Oil at the Bottom

Navelgazer — Fri, 02 May 2008 19:15:18 -0800

The world's cleanest cities and dirtiest cities.

We should all live in Manhattan

storybored — Sun, 06 Apr 2008 14:56:48 -0800

New York City is the greenest city in America. Eighty-two per cent of Manhattan residents travel to work by public transit, by bicycle, or on foot. That's ten times the rate for Americans in general, and eight times the rate for residents of Los Angeles County. New York City is more populous than all but eleven states; if it were granted statehood, it would rank 51st in per-capita energy use.... But this is not necessarily something people want to hear: In a conversation with a Sierra Club representative involved in Challenge to Sprawl, I said that the organization's anti-sprawl suggestions and the modified streetscapes in the slide show shared many significant features with Manhattan-whose most salient characteristics include wide sidewalks, narrow streets, mixed uses, densely packed buildings, and an extensive network of subways and buses. The representative hesitated, then said that I was essentially correct, although he would prefer that the program not be described in such terms, since emulating New York City would not be considered an appealing goal by most of the people whom the Sierra Club is trying to persuade

Detroit Public Schools Book Depository

ottereroticist — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 20:54:09 -0800

"This is a building where our deeply-troubled public school system once stored its supplies, and then one day apparently walked away from it all, allowing everything to go to waste...All that's left is an overwhelming sense of knowledge unlearned and untapped potential." (Via Making Light.)

Çatalhöyük, oldest city or biggest village?

Kattullus — Sat, 29 Dec 2007 17:55:37 -0800

Why humans started huddling together in cities is still shrouded in mystery but if the question is ever settled the answer will probably be found in Çatalhöyük, a settlement of five to eight thousand located in what is now Turkey that came into existence around 7500 BC. The current head archaeologist of the Çatalhöyük Project is Ian Hodder, one of the leading lights in postprocessual archaeology, who summarized his finding in a recent article in Natural History Magazine. The Çatalhöyük Project website is a treasure trove of information about the ancient settlement. Should the site's sprawling hugeness prove intimidating, I recommend starting with Hodder's introduction to the 2005 archive report. Just the photography section alone is immense, though the flickr page and illustration gallery is of manageable size. The illustrator, John Gordon Swogger, has blog archives from the 2005 and 2006 seasons and includes plenty of images with his writing. Finally, here are interactive 3d visualizations and a streaming video introduction where, among other things, you learn how to pronounce Çatalhöyük.

Is This Utopia? Are Ruins Beautiful?

salvia — Thu, 29 Nov 2007 22:56:46 -0800

Shrinking Cities (virtual and real): Analysis and Interventions. Don't miss the map of shrinking cities around the globe [PDF] or their description of urban decline in Second Life and a contest about what interventions to apply there (stay tuned). The title is from this quirky image in their press kit. Previously: 1, 2, 3.

Cool Places

spacely_sprocket — Sat, 17 Nov 2007 08:13:13 -0800

City of Sound as it describes itself, is a blog about cities, design, architecture, media, music, etc. But calling it a blog really does it a disservice. City of Sound is a category-killer; amazingly dense, thoughtful, erudite, and compelling, it begins to catalog our urban identity. A bit of reminiscent of Metropolis magazine, if it was edited by Robert Rauschenberg. If you've not visited, do yourself a favor. It is a treasure trove. This is essentially a post to a single site, (perhaps not so) cleverly disguised as something else, but City of Sound seems to this submitter as without peer. That being said, if you know of other similar sites, please share them.