Tag - cities

 
 

CITIES

The newly built city of Nusantara is scheduled to become the capital of Indonesia in 2024 and aims to achieve net zero emissions by 2045.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 11, 2023
Indonesia’s new capital aims to be a net zero model city
Nusantara, Indonesia's future capital, is being built with climate solutions at its core. The city hopes to inspire others to do the same.
A tourist poses for a photograph under signs for karaoke nightclubs in the Mong Kok district of Hong Kong. The government crackdown on neon signs stems from safety and environmental concerns, but the campaign evokes the fading of the city itself.
ASIA PACIFIC / Society
Dec 11, 2023
Where did all the Hong Kong neon go?
A government crackdown on neon signs stems from safety and environmental concerns, but the campaign evokes the fading of the city itself.
Singapore is again the world's most expensive city to live in, an honor it shares with Zurich this year.
BUSINESS / Economy
Nov 30, 2023
Singapore and Zurich are the world's most expensive cities
Tokyo fell to 60th place while Osaka dropped to 70th amid a weak Japanese yen.
Tokyo retained third behind London and New York in this year's Global Power City Index (GPCI) report.
JAPAN / Society
Nov 9, 2023
Tokyo remains third in global power index despite downturn
Among other Japan cities, Osaka ranked 37th while Fukuoka placed 42nd in the index.
People walk past ginkgo trees in Tokyo's Meiji Jingu Gaien area in November 2022.
JAPAN / Explainer
Nov 6, 2023
What to know about the Meiji Jingu Gaien redevelopment plan
The project is controversial due to the potential felling of thousands of trees, loss of green space and threat to historic gingko trees.
The midway in Springfield, Massachusetts, lit up at night. Framingham, Massachusetts mayor Charlie Sisitsky said its geothermal pilot project could more than halve emissions and cut energy consumption for some properties by up to 70%.
ENVIRONMENT / Energy
Nov 2, 2023
U.S. cities expand geothermal energy to whole neighborhoods
The U.S. federal government is to back 11 pilot geothermal projects.
Sections of the forests in Colville, Washington, have already been thinned, allowing trees to grow less densely and reducing the risk for wildfire.
ENVIRONMENT / Sustainability
Oct 26, 2023
How to prevent forest fires by building cities with more wood
Not everyone is convinced mass timber will help forest health.
Visual AI allows us to see more than meets the eye when looking at cities like Tokyo.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 22, 2023
AI will show us the future of cities, if we guide the way
Visual AI can help us better see our cities, from crime rates to property values, but only human intelligence can tell the forest from the trees.
Residents watch the McDougall Creek wildfire in West Kelowna, British Columbia, Canada, last month.
WORLD / Society / FOCUS
Sep 9, 2023
Conspiracy theories falsely link wildfires to 'smart cities'
Disinformation about deadly wildfires in the United States and Canada has run rampant across social media.
Kohei Saito, a philosophy professor at the University of Tokyo who appears regularly in Japanese media to discuss his ideas, at home in Tokyo on March 16.
JAPAN / Society
Sep 7, 2023
Can shrinking be good for Japan? A Marxist bestseller makes the case.
Saito has tapped into what he describes as a growing disillusionment in Japan with capitalism’s ability to solve the problems people see around them.
Tourists walk in front of Crown and Anchor pub on Neal Street in London in 2018. Pubs are big part of British culture.
WORLD / Society
Sep 4, 2023
What’s really killing Britain’s historic pubs
With each time-honored spot that’s shuttered, another little piece of British history is lost.
A municipality worker collects garbage, most of which is plastic and domestic waste, along the shore of Jakarta.
ENVIRONMENT / Sustainability
Sep 4, 2023
Trash to treasure: Indonesian firm turns plastic into bricks
The company mixes volcanic ash, mountain stones, plastic waste and cement to make its bricks, which do not contain sand like regular ones.
A construction site where many tall apartment buildings have been constructed in recent years, in Parramatta, Sydney
ASIA PACIFIC / Society
Sep 1, 2023
Build up, not out: The high density housing push for Australian cities
With the construction industry struggling amid elevated costs and decade-high interest rates, housing affordability has become a thorny political issue.
Paris, where self-service electric scooters will be banned from Sept. 1, is about to join the few cities in the world that have opted for a ban, with many other municipalities opting for more or less strict restrictions.
WORLD / Society
Aug 29, 2023
Boon or blight? E-scooters around the world
While users hail them as eco-friendly ways to avoid gridlock, detractors consider them as an unsightly menace with the power to maim and kill.
A protest against the redevelopment of Dharavi, one of Asia's largest slums, in Mumbai. Banners read: "Remove Adani, Save Dharavi" and "First we fought the whites now we fight the thieves".
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Aug 28, 2023
Billionaire's bid to remake Mumbai slum spurs residents' doubts
Amid massive financial setbacks and allegations that political allies gave him favorable treatment, some question Adani's intentions.
A Cruise autonomous taxi in San Francisco on Aug. 10. Cruise is one of only two firms in California allowed to run paid robotaxi services around the clock.
BUSINESS / Tech
Aug 25, 2023
Robotaxis are making enemies as they go around San Francisco
Mishaps are adding to traffic and safety concerns over driverless vehicles, which zip around the city’s streets surrounded by sensors and cameras.
Residents stand in the corridors outside their homes at the Worli dairy quarters building in Mumbai. This crumbling structure houses more than 600 people.
ASIA PACIFIC
Aug 8, 2023
In Mumbai, civil servants risk safety for affordable housing
Some 600 people live in one government-owned, dilapidated block, in the same neighborhood that's home to the daughter of India's richest man.
A man makes his way through a flooded road after the rains and floods brought by remnants of Typhoon Doksuri, in Zhuozhou, Hebei province, China, on Thursday.
ASIA PACIFIC
Aug 4, 2023
China’s ‘sponge cities’ are not built for extreme flood events
China has invested billions of dollars in recent years to protect against extreme rainfall after a 2012 flood in Beijing killed 79 people.
Signs hang on a gate as people hike in the Pen y Pass at the foot of Mount Snowdon near Llanberis, Wales, in 2020. For residents of deprived urban areas, going to natural green spaces can be prohibitively expensive.
WORLD
Aug 2, 2023
Isolated from nature, U.K.'s ethnic minorities hit harder by heat
Experts say ethnic minorities will be affected most as they often live in dense, poorly insulated households near fewer parks and less vegetation.
Residents walk through misters during a heat wave in Phoenix, Arizona, on July 20.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
Aug 1, 2023
How urban heat islands add to the misery of heat waves
While grass or soil absorb less heat, asphalt and concrete can absorb as much as 95% of the sun's energy then send it back into the atmosphere.

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Akiko Trush says her experience with the neurological disorder dystonia left her feeling like she wanted to chop her own hand off.
The neurological disorder that 'kills culture'