Friday Fun: Cities Celebrating National Birthdays across the Globe
Washington, DC Fireworks
Tomorrow is the 4th of July, and here in Washington DC we’re celebrating our national Independence Day with barbecues, parades, and fireworks. Each year, the federal holiday commemorates the signing of the Declaration of Independence in 1776, marking the birth ...
Why Africa Needs to Look to Its Cities to End Hunger
St. Lucia, South Africa Food Market
Last year, the African Union—an assembly of 54 African nations—formally committed to ending hunger in Africa by 2025. This is incredibly ambitious, considering one out of every four people in sub-Saharan Africa is undernourished. The majority of the 800 million ...
How Affordable Housing and TOD Are Coming Together in Brazil
Minha Casa Minha Vida Housing
Nossa Cidade (“Our City”), from TheCityFix Brasil, explores critical questions for building more sustainable cities. Every month features a new theme. Leaning on the expertise of researchers and specialists in WRI’s sustainable urban mobility team in Brazil, the series will feature in ...
Compact, Connected, and Coordinated: A Vision for India's Smart Cities
New services are venturing to transform the way the auto-rickshaw sector is managed in Chennai, India - to the benefit of users. Photo by Mattheui Aubry/Flickr.
Last Thursday could be a turning point in the history of India’s urbanization: the Modi government has unveiled its ambitious Smart City project, which aims to build 100 smart cities across the country. Additionally, the AMRUT program will aim to ...
To Subsidize or Not to Subsidize Public Transport: That Is the Question
TransMilenio BRT in Bogotá, Colombia. Photo by Mariana Gil/EMBARQ Brazil.
Subsidizing users’ fares for public transport may sound like a great idea, and often there are good economic reasons for doing so. In all industrialized and many developing countries, urban transport systems are subsidized with public funds in order to ...
Friday Fun: A Wave of New Smartphone Apps Makes Cycling Undeniably Easy
Mobile Apps for Cycling
With the growing number of smart phone users and urban cyclists, the rise of mobile apps for bikers should come as no surprise. These innovations can be used in myriad ways—from navigating maps to submitting pictures of local potholes in ...
Reimagining Mumbai
Mumbai, India and Smart Cities
This article originally appeared on WRI-India.org How can Mumbai become a Smart City that the nation is proud of? The recently published Draft Development Plan (DP) for Mumbai was so poorly received by various stakeholders that Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis scrapped ...
Smart Cities No Longer an Urban Legend
Ahmedabad, India Smart Cities
This article was originally published in The Economic Times. Today, Prime Minister Narendra Modi formally launches the government’s ambitious Smart Cities initiative, which aims to tackle key issues resulting from India’s rapid urbanization. In addition, the ‘Atal Mission’ and ‘Housing ...
How Transit-Oriented Development Benefits Local Economies
Nossa Cidade TOD 1
Nossa Cidade (“Our City”), from TheCityFix Brasil, explores critical questions for building more sustainable cities. Every month features a new theme. Leaning on the expertise of researchers and specialists in WRI’s sustainable urban mobility team in Brazil, the series will feature in ...
Enrique Peñalosa: Our Streets Belong to All
Enrique Penalosa
Enrique Peñalosa, Bogota’s former mayor, will come to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil on September 9  for the Mayors´ Summit. The event is hosted by WRI Brasil | EMBARQ Brasil as part of EMBARQ Brasil’s 10th anniversary celebration. Here is an exclusive interview for ...