Just City

Michael Graham/spiderbikemaps.com What If Bike Paths Looked Like Subway Maps? ANDREW SMALL   FEB 2, 2017 Think maps of bicycle lanes are too complicated? This guy’s fixed it. SHARE TWEET CityLab readers: Sometimes you scare us. Not only are you intimidatingly smart, many of you are professional experts in the topics we try to cover. Others are self-taught aficionados in urban planning or cartography—in other words, obsessive city-stuff superfans. Recommended The Four Horsemen of the Bike Share Apocalypse ANDREW SMALL JAN 31, 2017 Lyft Is Reaching L.A. Neighborhoods Where Taxis Wouldn’t LAURA BLISS JUN 29, 2018 Japan's Hello Kitty Bullet Train Is Way Too Cute LINDA POON JUN 29, 2018 That may be the case with Michael Graham, who sent CityLab an actual snail-mail letter   a few weeks back with a QR code linking us to his  Spider Bike Maps  page. His cool idea: Make maps for bike infrastructure as if the lanes,...

Commuters wait for the subway during their morning commute in New York.  Lucas Jackson/Reuters Millennials Are Happiest in Cities RICHARD FLORIDA   JUN 29, 2018 Older Americans prefer smaller and more rural places, but Millennials are happiest in cities, according to a new study. SHARE TWEET Millennials, the conventional wisdom goes, are the back-to-the city generation. But recently, some observers have argued that Millennials  are suburbanizing  like their parents did—either  by choice or out of necessity . However, according to a new study, Millennials are happiest in cities. That’s a key finding of a  recent paper  published in the journal  Regional Studies . Authors Adam Okulicz-Kozaryn, of Rutgers University, and Rubia Valente, of Baruch College, take a close look at the happiness of recent generations and at the kinds of places where they live or lived. They use detailed data from the General Social Survey ( GSS ), which...

Detroit's 1924 Book-Cadillac Hotel in Detroit underwent a tax-credit-enabled renovation in 2008.  Carlos Osorio/AP 7 Landmarks Saved by the Historic Tax Credit AMANDA KOLSON HURLEY   NOV 9, 2017 The GOP’s tax reform bill has put the federal historic tax credit on the chopping block. Here are just a few of the buildings it helped revive since 1978. SHARE TWEET Preservationists  are fighting  to save the decades-old federal Historic Tax Credit program, which was eliminated from the tax reform bill introduced in the House of Representatives on November 2. The program offers a 20 percent tax credit to developers who restore historic buildings in compliance with federal  rehabilitation standards . Without that incentive, preservationists fear that developers will shy away from rehabs, which can be more costly and complicated than building new. Instead of being reused, more historic structures could sit empty or be demolished. Chicago developer Gh...

A 21st-century rendering of Joseph Smith's 18th-century interpretation of Old Testament urban planning.   NewVistas Why Vermonters Fear This Mormon Utopia KRISTON CAPPS   JUN 26, 2018 The National Trust for Historic Preservation’s latest list of America’s most endangered historic places includes four Vermont towns set to host a vast micro-housing development based of the visions of Joseph Smith. SHARE TWEET For the last 30 years, the National Trust for Historic Preservation has put out an annual call to arms. This year’s list of the  11 most endangered historic places  in America features a typical mix of at-risk buildings, historical sites, and neighborhoods. The threats they face range from neglect to development to natural devastation. One is facing a more unusual potential disruption: encroaching utopia. The 2018 list includes, for example, the deteriorating  Mary and Eliza Freeman Houses  in Bridgeport, Connecticut, possibly the ol...

The interior of an underground survival bunker for sale in Seoul, where most residents shrug off the threat of North Korean attack.   Ian Baldessari/CityLab Seoul’s ‘War Preppers’ Are Still (Sort Of) Expecting the Worst MATT NEUMAN   JUN 13, 2018 As fears of North Korean attack wane, some residents of the South Korean capital are finding it hard to maintain their emergency preparations.   SHARE TWEET The Janghanpyeong neighborhood of Seoul, South Korea, is lined with greasy auto part stores and middle-aged men smoking cigarettes outside convenience stores. Amid the grit, the white glow of the glass-walled Chumdan Bunker System shop stands out. Inside the modern showroom, shop manager Jun-hyun Park is waiting for customers. The company sells nuclear bunkers and survival gear. A demo model—an army-green bunker with hand-crank generator, air filtration system, and chemical toilet—sits in the corner of the shop. The bunkers start at about $31,000. Th...