Cities Remade
How the urban landscape is evolving
America's (Relatively) Dismal Showing at the Winter Olympics
Despite individual triumphs and memorable moments, Team USA had its worst performance in 20 years.
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MediaPunch / AP What Kids' Trauma Looks Like Across the U.S.
Race, location, and income level can determine how often children experience violence and crisis.
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Brendan McDermid / Reuters A New, Democratic Tool for Mapping City Streets
SharedStreets offers an open-source solution to help taxis, buses, pedestrians, bikers, and ride-sharing services coexist curbside.
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Elaine Thompson / AP How to Get Fewer People to Commute in Cars
As the example of Seattle shows, it helps when employers try to persuade workers not to drive.
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Jae C. Hong / AP When Welfare Decisions Are Left to Algorithms
The political scientist Virginia Eubanks worries that technology is providing “the emotional distance that’s necessary to make what are inhuman decisions.”
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Jeff Miller / Courtesy of Urban Canid Project Urban Foxes and Coyotes Learn to Make Nice
Researchers are finding that the two predators, historically enemies, may be learning to get along in the big city.
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Patrick Semansky / AP The Ecologists Turning Vacant Lots Into Labs
A research project in Baltimore is using wildflowers—and lots of data—to investigate urban ecosystems.
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Mike Blake / Reuters America's Other Housing Crisis: Undercrowded Suburbs
Many neighborhoods with single-family homes have seen little or no new construction since they were built in the middle of the last century.
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Ted S. Warren / AP Why It's So Hard to Forecast the Flu
Big-data predictions don't always line up with reality.
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Frank Franklin II / AP How Basic Economics Could Solve Manhattan’s Traffic Problems
It's simple: Charge people to bring cars onto city streets during rush hour.
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Alex Brandon / AP Food Deserts Exist. But Do They Matter?
America's healthy-eating disparities might have more to do with income and class than with geography.
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Courtesy of Kol Peterson The Great Urban Housing Solution That Has No Good Name
Call them “accessory dwelling units” or “granny flats”—small living spaces built on existing lots could help make cities more affordable.
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Chris Helgren / Reuters Cities Have to Get Creative When Uber and Lyft Won't Release Trip Data
Researchers must devise workarounds, sometimes even recording the cost and travel time of their own rides.
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Sidewalk Labs If Google Were Mayor
A sister company of the tech giant wants to help develop—and then collect data on—a waterfront neighborhood in Toronto.
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Brendan McDermid / Reuters Boutique Fitness Studios Are Remaking Urban Neighborhoods
Wellness, not drinking and dancing, now defines the character of many city blocks.
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Nikolai Nolan / Wikimedia The Uncertain Future of a Detroit Retail Icon
A local paper once described Northland Center as a “stately pleasure dome.” A half-century later, part of it is being demolished.
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Mel Evans / AP How Trump's Infrastructure Plan Could Strain America's Cities
A big investment blueprint is expected next month, and it might stretch local governments’ already-stretched budgets.
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Streetfilms Ride-Hailing Apps Are Clogging New York's Streets
The city’s traffic woes owe in part to more people choosing private transit over public.
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Joshua Gunter / AP How to Rebuild After the Retail Apocalypse
Where suburbs see dead malls, developers see condos, megachurches, and paintball parks.
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Rafiq Maqbool / AP The Myth That Urbanization Means Prosperity
Cities play different economic roles in different areas. And for developing countries, smaller might be better.
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Lynne Sladky / AP The Number of Renters Just Went Down for the First Time in 12 Years
What does this reversal mean for the American housing market?
