Author: SCM

By Neal Peirce, Citiwire: WASHINGTON — There’s no sane way to say that America’s criminal justice system is “OK.” It costs over $100 billion a year; it imprisons hundreds of thousands for minor drug possession or sale; overall...

From Governing: Back in February, an architecture conference focused on “concrete modernism” met in Houston. Included on the agenda: a tour of the famed Astrodome. The 65,000-seat domed stadium, the first of its kind when it...

From Atlantic Cities: In the spring of 1968, Jane Jacobs walked into a high school auditorium in the Lower East Side and addressed a rowdy crowd opposed to the Lower Manhattan Expressway, a 10-lane highway proposed by Robert...

From Atlanta Journal-Constitution: By Tad Leithead When metropolitan regions across the country — and even around the world — look at metro Atlanta, they have reason to take note. We are home to the world’s busiest airport, one...

From Atlantic Cities: Christmas came early this year for retail giant Sears, which is weighing offers on whether to move from its suburban-Chicago headquarters. Ohio officials have put together a package of incentives worth a...

From New York Observer: Michael Kimmelman returned to the public realm for this week’s column, where he all but declared what appears to be his raison d’etre going forward: “We’ve been so fixated on fancy new buildings that...

A study from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania has found that green spaces are linked to reduced crime rates A research team has found that distressed neighborhoods where vacant lots have been...

From Brookings Institution: Drive through any number of outer-ring suburbs in America, and you’ll see boarded-up and vacant strip malls, surrounded by vast seas of empty parking spaces. These forlorn monuments to the real estate...

From Atlantic Cities: This week, CQ Press released its annual City Crime Rankings, which purports to identify the most dangerous cities in America. Though the rankings received plenty of attention, especially in the cities that...

From Atlantic Cities: Completing a major transit project is never a quick and easy process, but if any place should be able to move one swiftly through to completion, it’s San Francisco. In 1973 the city adopted a...