Happiness itself is a commons to which everyone should have equal access.
That’s the view of Enrique Peñalosa, who is not a starry-eyed idealist given to abstract theorizing. He’s actually a politician, who served as mayor of Bogotá, Colombia, for three years, and now travels the world spreading a message about how to improve quality-of-life for everyone living in today’s cities.
Popularity: 63% [?]
The Queens Museum of Art has come up with a creative way of weathering the downturn and its attendant drop in donations to cultural institutions: capitalizing on a unique piece of New York real estate.
The museum’s most famous asset is its 9,335-square-foot scale model of New York City, originally built for the 1964 World’s Fair. The Panorama of the City of New York has 895,000 structures, replicating every street, bridge and skyscraper in the five boroughs.
Popularity: 17% [?]
At the beginning of the month, Danish architect and “urban quality consultant” Jan Gehl produced the results of his nine-month study of central Sydney, Australia. The city of Sydney had hired him to produce a body of recommendations in order to improve the city’s core, both functionally and experientially.
Popularity: 30% [?]
Global warming may seem like an overwhelmingly complex problem to tackle. But one scientist thinks the answer is brilliantly simple: all we need is white paint. A lot of white paint.
Popularity: 17% [?]