by ronb | Sep 16, 2026 | Cities, Solutions
Railroad Park in Birmingham is featured in our Parks and Recreation episode highlighting exemplary parks and trails with fascinating backstories. It’s a 19-acre expanse of green with a manmade lake, streams and mounds that tie together the north and south sides...
by ronb | Sep 2, 2026 | Cities, Solutions
Cities today are looking to arts and entertainment, drinking and dining, and special events as a way to draw crowds back into urban centers. As with so many issues facing cities, the challenges and prescriptions are nothing new. When Ed Rendell became mayor of...
by ronb | Aug 19, 2026 | Cities, Solutions
At a time when cities are looking to remake their downtowns, many are redefining their city centers as distinct neighborhoods instead of just employment and entertainment centers. While cities have been losing families for years, a trend accelerated by the...
by ronb | Aug 5, 2026 | Cities, History
At a time when cities are routinely affected by wildfire smoke not of their making, let’s take a look at how America’s onetime steel capital took deliberate actions to clear the severe air pollution largely caused by its leading industry. Pittsburgh...
by ronb | Jul 22, 2026 | Cities
How did Charlotte come to concentrate so many cultural institutions downtown? It’s one of the more surprising stories of culture-led urban revitalization in North America. As a sleepy southern city that rose quickly in the 1980s and 1990s, largely due to...
by ronb | Jun 10, 2026 | Cities
The Beltline is a walking/biking trail that has become the place to see and be seen in Atlanta. Conceived as a transit project linking 45 neighborhoods, the Beltline follows four unused freight rail corridors in a 22-mile loop around the city center. The Beltline is...
