David Mieksztyn
Karachi’s Unplanned Poor
Imagine everything is new, bright and shiny. Imagine this new is something that also keeps you out, pushes you away, and finds you abandoning the place you once called home. When the poor in society are pushed away from where they once were due to a combination of a lack in planning on their behalf, [...]
The Hipsterability Index
If you have thought recently ‘I wonder how hipster my city is,’ hoping that you are catering to this segment of the population, think no longer. With no better judge of hipsterability than Austin, Texas, we are provided a list of the up-and-comers supplying hipsters just the right ingredients to do, whatever it is they [...]
REO Rental Properties and What to Expect
When the Obama administration announced the REO to rental program in the beginning of February there was finally a sense of large scale action on the abysmal housing situation in America. Real-estate-owned (REO) properties, held by such federal entities as Fannie Mae, Freddy Mac and the Federal Housing Administration, will be converted into rental properties [...]
(Slum)Lord of the Inner-Ring
Across the street is a partially run down home, with the front screen door off its hinges, peeling paint all around the house, and a partially collapsed garage door. This is the site you see outside your front window every day. What you also see are the kids that leave for school every morning from [...]
Crying Over Spilled Gas, Cause it Might Cost More
Governor Rick Snyder of Michigan has decided to do what the American people do not want, increase the gas tax. First, the poll results. Reason.com conducted a poll of Americans that found that 77% of the respondents were opposed to raising the federal gas tax. There is a general distrust with the government in spending [...]
A Parking Spot to Play In
Planners and urbanists have boisterously made the case that parking lots are a nightmare in terms of land use, and with good reason behind it. Considering the amount of land a typical shopping center’s parking lot takes up, there is a lot of ‘dead’ space in our communities. But what if parking lots are truly [...]
Highway to Greenway
In Madrid, Spain, when a highway becomes noisy and pollutant, they bury it underground and put a park on top. The New York Times recently featured Madrid Rio, an urban park created on top of a once above ground highway. The article touches on other urban areas turned green as well, but Madrid Rio seems [...]
Clean The City, of Visual Pollution
An article from Good highlights the astonishing law that Sao Paulo, Brazil passed back in 2006 that aimed to clean up the city. That is, of visual pollution. The Clean City Law was a bold move to take down and manage signage throughout the major city. The video above highlights before and after shots of [...]
Don’t Worry, The Code Officer Will Handle It From Here
Code enforcement exists in Detroit, MI. No, really. But in case you ever wondered what they did (you know, to pass the time) the Detroit Works Project has an idea. Under Mayor Dave Bing, Detroit will enact a triage type strategy that targets healthy neighborhoods with code enforcement crackdowns. The idea is to protect the [...]
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