Kaid Benfield's blog
Time for a Sustainable Revitalization Agenda for America's Smaller Cities
Submitted by Kaid Benfield on Wed, 09/09/2009 - 9:07pmAndre Leroux, executive director of the Massachusetts Smart Growth Alliance, believes that New England's smaller cities hold the potential to absorb much development that could help save the region's
Boston's Asian CDC Brings Urban Vision, Fun, and Affordability to Chinatown
Submitted by Kaid Benfield on Wed, 09/02/2009 - 11:47amEvery summer, Boston’s Asian Community Development Corporation has been hosting an informal grassroots Asian film festival in a vacant lot near the city’s Chinatown Gate.
Smart growth must become more demanding, more community-oriented, and greener (literally)
Submitted by Kaid Benfield on Tue, 08/18/2009 - 10:46amIs it any wonder that neighbors continue to oppose density (oops, I meant "compact development") when what we have been giving them is lousy? We smart growth advocates have gotten lazy.
NRDC's Smarter Cities Project Wants Your Input on Sustainability Criteria
Submitted by Kaid Benfield on Mon, 08/10/2009 - 11:11amAs some of you may know, Smarter Cities is an initiative that ranks US cities on a number of key sustainability criteria as well as on overall sustainabili
Bill Hudnut on How to Fix Transportation Planning
Submitted by Kaid Benfield on Mon, 08/03/2009 - 1:35pmAs I have written before, I believe most of the issues of growth, mobility, equity and the env
Security Measures Are Degrading the Urban (and Human) Experience
Submitted by Kaid Benfield on Fri, 07/24/2009 - 11:21amSeveral times each day, a military helicopter flies over my house in Washington. It flies much closer to the ground than other aircraft, and it's seriously noisy.
Making Smart Urbanism Even Greener with LID
Submitted by Kaid Benfield on Mon, 07/13/2009 - 10:25amMy NRDC colleague Rachel Sohmer has produced a wonderful slide show illustrating how low-impact-development techniques for reducing stormwater runoff (sometimes called "green infrastructure") can succ
"Shrinking Cities": Let's Be Careful What We Wish For
Submitted by Kaid Benfield on Thu, 07/02/2009 - 11:51amReaders of a certain age will remember Joni's Mitchell's iconic anthem "Woodstock," celebrating the famous 1969 music festival (which, incidentally, she did not attend, but I digress).
Tax greenfield development, subsidize infill
Submitted by Kaid Benfield on Tue, 06/30/2009 - 8:49amI recently ran across a terrific post on T. Caine's sustainability blog Intercon extolling climate change policy to get on the smart growth bandwagon.
New numbers prove smart growth reduces CO2, cost-effectively
Submitted by Kaid Benfield on Mon, 06/22/2009 - 9:27amFor the most part, the climate change establishment - whether in government, industry, or the environmental community - has ignored the potential of land use strategies to provide significant reductio