Social / Demographics

The Polis Blog presents a huge list of "urban favorites" -- songs, movies, initiatives and places that explain or highlight the best of the world's urban areas.

January 15, 2011 - The Polis Blog

Aleppo, one of the oldest continually inhabited cities in the world, is undergoing a conservation project that includes the restoration of hundreds of houses, a new park, and rebuilding city streets and services.

January 14, 2011 - The New York Times

For many immigrants in Los Angeles, bicycling is the only viable way to get around. A group of activists is trying to make that transportation reality safer and more reliable.

January 14, 2011 - Good

Surveys show that those born between 1980 and the early 2000s want to live in an urban setting -- and not in a humongous house.

January 14, 2011 - The Wall Street Journal

Prince Charles is planning to build a 15,000-person shanty town in India, modeled after Dharavi, the Mumbai settlement featured in the movie "Slumdog Millionaire".

January 14, 2011 - Daily Mail

January 13, 2011 - Tim Halbur

Cities across the developing world are dealing more with rising obesity rates as urbanization occurs, reports TheCityFix's Jonna McKone.

January 13, 2011 - TheCityFix

RThe impact of cities is spreading beyond local and even national borders, argues Robert Neuwirth in this piece from What Matters.

January 13, 2011 - What Matters

As part of its ongoing series on Canada's aging population, the Globe and Mail looks at what is being done to adapt cities for a large cohort of senior citizens.

January 12, 2011 - Globe and Mail

Parag Khanna suggests that cities are the building blocks of humanity, and will take increasing control over the future shape of the world in the coming decades.

January 11, 2011 - What Matters

NIMBYism is obstructing the urban planning process, according to architect and New Urbanist Andres Duany. He suggests changing the public participation process to unclog the system.

January 11, 2011 - Architect

In this piece, Stewart Brand argues that squatter cities will grow greatly over the next few decades, and the world will be better because of it.

January 11, 2011 - What Matters

A study of tree cover and pregnant women suggests that women living in areas with more trees are less likely to give birth to undersized babies.

January 11, 2011 - The Oregonian

Amid talk of downsizing and abandonment, a new surge of young investors has been moving into Detroit and revitalizing its economy.

January 11, 2011 - The Detroit Free Press

Just as failing industries marked the decline of the Midwest after WWII (hence the name 'Rust Belt'), the new declining cities will be denoted by their percentage of foreclosures, found particularly in California, the Southwest, and Florida.

January 10, 2011 - International Business Times

Mayors of some of the biggest cities in the U.S. talk about what makes a city smart, and how cities can become smarter.

January 9, 2011 - Time

Anthony Flint offers this list of the top ten reasons to be nice to pedestrians in 2011.

January 8, 2011 - The Boston Globe

This video from the BBC takes a tour of a new winter festival in China in which a city of sculptures has been created out of ice.

January 6, 2011 - BBC

The U.S. Census Bureau has released a new set of formulae that dramatically change the way poverty is determined in the U.S., leaving behind the one-size-fits-all approach in use since the 1960s.

January 6, 2011 - The Washington Post

A new video features urban explorer Steve Duncan as he adventures in the abandoned subway tunnels beneath New York City.

January 6, 2011 - Wired