Several years ago Jeff Wood at the national nonprofit Reconnecting America started compiling and sending out news stories he thought would be of interest to colleagues, friends, other bloggers, planners and policy wonks. In the beginning most of the stories were about public transportation, then he added stories about urban planning and design, and development near public transportation. Then the mix was broadened to include a array of stories about cities and urban issues, the environment and ecology, and including research papers and reports, and he listed upcoming conference and events as well.
The audience kept getting bigger, the sources kept broadening, and the mix of topics kept getting richer as this country’s fascination with cities continued to grow. And he always included a quote of the day that reflected the thoughts of urban dwellers. Today, for example, from the Guardian UK: “Virtually no country has graduated to a high-income status without urbanizing, and urbanization rates above 70% are typically found in high-income countries.”
Why are we so fascinated with cities? In 1990 just 10 percent of the world’s population lived in cities but by 2008, the urban population had increased to more that 50 percent and it continues to grow. In the United States today 29 percent of the land mass is covered by cities, but almost 85 percent of the population lives in cities and 93 percent of the economic output is produced there.
Now Jeff has his own website that serves as an archives for this study of cities. And you can read it here. (Or, you can sign up and it’s delivered to your email box daily.)
The audience kept getting bigger, the sources kept broadening, and the mix of topics kept getting richer as this country’s fascination with cities continued to grow. And he always included a quote of the day that reflected the thoughts of urban dwellers. Today, for example, from the Guardian UK: “Virtually no country has graduated to a high-income status without urbanizing, and urbanization rates above 70% are typically found in high-income countries.”
Why are we so fascinated with cities? In 1990 just 10 percent of the world’s population lived in cities but by 2008, the urban population had increased to more that 50 percent and it continues to grow. In the United States today 29 percent of the land mass is covered by cities, but almost 85 percent of the population lives in cities and 93 percent of the economic output is produced there.
Now Jeff has his own website that serves as an archives for this study of cities. And you can read it here. (Or, you can sign up and it’s delivered to your email box daily.)
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