>> I’m now really tempted to move back to NYC now that midtown’s gonna be more pedestrian friendly than ever. Parts of Broadway are gonna be closed off to traffic, making way for pedestrian malls. “Although it seems counterintuitive, officials believe the move will actually improve the overall flow of traffic, because the diagonal path of Broadway tends to disrupt traffic where it intersects with other streets.” (via kottke)

>> In Boston Review, Catherine Tumber makes a convincing argument to focus on the potentials oft-neglected smaller cities can play in creating a sustainable future.

Smaller cities will be critical in the move to local agriculture and the development of renewable energy industries. These tasks will almost certainly require a dramatic rethinking of land–use policy, and smaller cities have assets that large cities lack. Their underused or vacant industrial space and surrounding tracts of farmland make them ideal sites for sustainable land-use policies, or “smart growth.”…

When it comes to the urban–rural divide, small–to–intermediate–size cities may offer the best of both worlds. For all the rural romanticism of the ’70s–era homesteading movement—or for that matter, the vaunted folksiness of “small–town values,”—urban life has its allure. Smaller cities are large enough to offer the diversity, anonymity, and vibrancy of urban culture, as well as levels of density that offer efficiencies of scale. They are also small enough to maintain proximity to sustainable food production and renewable energy resources.

>> Join a photo petition to convince the EPA to let California set tougher vehicle emissions standards. Sierra Club wants to see your mug — along with your car keys.

>> Perhaps to go with its satirical Kleercut campaign against Kleenex’s makers, Greenpeace has come out with a more practical guide: The Greenpeace Recycled Tissue and Toilet Paper guide.

Photo by Turkinator

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