City Beautiful

This episode is the unlikely story of a public toll road sold to private interests for $1.8 billion dollars, the story of the Chicago Skyway.

Resources on this topic:
http://trrjournalonline.trb.org/doi/pdf/10.3141/2297-15
http://www.chicagoroads.com/roads/chicago-skyway/
https://www.wbez.org/shows/wbez-blogs/chicagos-highway-in-the-sky/b38ffc79-0a1b-4d4b-985f-c5a1225f2c10
http://www.nbcchicago.com/news/local/Chicago-Skyway-Toll-Increases-Take-Effect-in-New-Year-408833865.html
http://ibtta.org/sites/default/files/unrestricted/38250_Section1.pdf

Dashcam video provided by Paul Donovan: https://www.youtube.com/user/PaulNDonovan

Other videos courtesy of Archive.org's Moving Image Archive

Photo Sources:
- Great photographers from Flickr: Grant, Ian Friemuth, Ken Lund, Marc Buehler, Matt Buck, phvolmer, vxla
- Wikimedia Commons
- Chicago Tribune
- University of Illinois, Chicago

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Vancouver, BC is home to the longest waterfront bike path in the world. I rode all 28 kilometers while considering how long-distance paths can be used for tourism and commuting.

Resources on this topic:
https://vancouver.ca/parks-recreation-culture/seawall.aspx

Produced by Dave Amos and the fine folks at Nebula Studios.
Written by Dave Amos.
Select images and video from Getty Images.
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People need to get from origins to destinations in cities, and they do that by using different modes of transportation: cars, bikes, buses, and feet. Transportation planning makes sure people can get places safely, efficiently, and quickly.

This is part of the new "Basics" series. Three more videos to come!

This video is funded by the Cal Poly Research, Scholarly, and Creative Activities Grant program. Thanks!

Produced by Dave Amos and the fine folks at Nebula Studios.
Written by Dave Amos and Sullivan Israel.
Motion Graphics by Anagha Kulkarni and Subha Eranki.
Select images and video from Getty Images.
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Stay on top of host city road conditions with TomTom’s world championship traffic dashboard: tomtom.com/citybeautiful And to get your hands on the data, try TomTom’s Move portal — free for 30 days.

TomTom transportation dashboard: https://www.tomtom.com/traffic-index/world-championship/?utm_source=influencer-citybeautiful&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=influencer-citybeautiful-campaign&utm_content=influencer-citybeautiful-campaign-test1

Tech companies are building hundreds of massive data centers in communities around the US. Planners have to grapple with the impacts (power, water, noise) those data centers cause. How do they do it? And should they stop it?

# Resources mentioned in this video

- This video was inspired by a great article in the Journal of the American Planning Association by Justin Kollar Planning Under Preemption: State Power and Local Authority in the AI Data Center Era: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/01944363.2026.2618221

- Pew Research: Most New Data Centers in the US Are Coming to Rural Areas: https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2026/04/13/most-new-data-centers-in-the-us-are-coming-to-rural-areas/#

- Brookings: AI Data Centers and Water: https://www.brookings.edu/articles/ai-data-centers-and-water/#:~:text=A typical data center uses,of up to 50%2C000 residents
- Lincoln Institute: Water Impacts and Data Centers: https://www.lincolninst.edu/publications/land-lines-magazine/articles/land-water-impacts-data-centers/

- The Guardian: Monterey Park, California Data Center Ban: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jun/03/california-monterey-park-datacenters-ban

- Mountain State Spotlight: Lawmakers Strip Local Authorities of Data Centers: https://mountainstatespotlight.org/2025/08/03/lawmakers-strip-local-authority-data-centers/

Produced by Dave Amos and the fine folks at Nebula Studios.
Written by Dave Amos.
Select images and video from Getty Images.
Black Lives Matter.
Trans rights.
No AI.

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Urban sprawl — we’ve all seen it — the strip malls, residential subdivisions, clogged streets. But which U.S metro area sprawls the most? Is it Los Angeles, a city built around the car? Or is it another sunbelt city like Phoenix, Las Vegas, San Antonio, or Atlanta?

Resources on this topic:

Ewing, R., Pendall, R., & Chen, D. (2003). Measuring Sprawl and Its Transportation Impacts. Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board, 1831, 175–183. https://doi.org/10.3141/1831-20

Sutton, P. C. (2003). A scale-adjusted measure of  Urban sprawl using nighttime satellite imagery. Remote Sensing of Environment, 86(3), 353–369. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0034-4257(03)00078-6

New York Times: "Seattle Climbs but Austin Sprawls: The Myth of the Return to Cities" https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/22/upshot/seattle-climbs-but-austin-sprawls-the-myth-of-the-return-to-cities.html?_r=1

Media sources:
- Google Earth
- Flickr user Daniel Ramirez
- Flickr user

Social media:

Website/Tumblr: http://citybeautiful.city
Instagram: citybeautifulcity

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Kyoto is one of the most historic cities in Japan. Founded in the 8th Century, it boasts numerous shrines and temples. This video explores this history and geography of Kyoto.

Resources on this topic:

- Kyoto: An Urban History of Japan's Premodern Capital by Matthew Stavros: https://www.amazon.com/Kyoto-History-Premodern-Capital-Architecture/dp/0824838793

- Wonderful map overlay of Historic Kyoto: http://www.arc.ritsumei.ac.jp/archive01/theater/html/heian/

- Kyoto: A Cultural History by John Dougill: https://www.google.com/books/edition/Kyoto/rhMTDAAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=0

- Seeing Kyoto by Juliette Winters Carpenter: https://www.google.com/books/edition/Seeing_Kyoto/L4JK8jH2uU4C?hl=en&gbpv=0

Produced by Dave Amos and the fine folks at Nebula Studios.
Written by Dave Amos.
Select images and video from Getty Images.
Black Lives Matter.
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The subway was my favorite part of living New York. The New York subway has more stations than any other metro system in the world (472), meaning I could just pop up just about anywhere in the city and live there entirely without a car. It was great. When I moved away, I couldn’t help but wonder — why do so few U.S. cities have subways?

Resources on this topic:

How Much Does Rail Transit Cost to Build and Operate:
https://www.thoughtco.com/rail-transit-projects-costs-2798796

Urban Densities and Transit: A Multi-dimensional Perspective:
http://www.its.berkeley.edu/sites/default/files/publications/UCB/2011/VWP/UCB-ITS-VWP-2011-6.pdf

Loo, B. P. Y., & Cheng, A. H. T. (2010). Are there useful yardsticks of population size and income level for building metro systems? Some worldwide evidence. Cities, 27(5), 299–306.

Video sources:
- Videoblocks.com
- Archive.org, Prelinger Archives

Photo sources:
- Flickr user A Diamond Fell From the Sky
- Flickr user Atomic Taco
- Flickr user Canadian Pacific
- Flickr user Ian Fuller
- Flickr user Michael B
- Flickr user Michael Semensohn
- Flickr user Paul Sullivan
- Flickr user Susanne
- New York MTA
- Oregon Department of Transportation
- Trimet
- Virginia Department of Transportation

Filmed in sunny Sacramento, California.

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Little Island at Pier 55 is an iconic park built in the Hudson River in 2021. It was largely funded by a billionaire, and almost not built at all, thanks to another billionaire. The Little Island story is one of commerce, cruise ships, hurricanes, billionaires, and park acreage.

Resources on this topic:

Pantitanonta, A. (2022). Little Island: Its big journey through legal battles. Journal of Urban Regeneration & Renewal, 15(3), 262-274.

https://www.boweryboyshistory.com/2015/04/chelsea-piers-new-york-city-in-the-age-of-the-ocean-liner.html

https://atlanticliners.com/pier-54/

https://urbanomnibus.net/2014/10/the-rise-and-fall-of-manhattans-density/

Produced by Dave Amos and the fine folks at Nebula Studios.
Written by Dave Amos.
Select images and video from Getty Images.
Black Lives Matter.
Trans rights.

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In many places in the United States, residential streets were as wide as busy city streets. I understand why urban streets might need to be wide — parking, buses, traffic, and bike lanes all need the room. But why do quiet residential streets need to be so wide? Why do they need parking when all of the houses on the streets have garages and driveways? Why do they need wide lanes when most of the traffic is just cars and minivans? Why are we building residential streets as wide as big city streets?

Resources on this topic:

I based this video on my Master's thesis, which my advisor and I turned into a book chapter. You can buy the book, Retrofitting Sprawl, on Amazon:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0820345458/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0820345458&linkCode=as2&tag=cityb-20&linkId=fd656b3efd3b9143ed3a413a9e2ea148

Video sources:
- Videoblocks.com

Photo sources:
- AASHTO
- Blake Wheeler (via Unsplash.com)
- Drew DeVitis https://psudelft2015drewdevitis.wordpress.com/2015/07/12/the-woonerf-living-streets-for-people/
- Google Maps
- NASA
- Wikimedia Commons

Filmed in sunny Sacramento, California.

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Seattle's new Overlook Walk is an impressive connection between Pike Place Market and its revitalized waterfront. Is this pedestrian bridge worth the $70 million price tag?

Thanks for all of the support over the last 8 years!

Support the channel on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/c/citybeautiful

Support the channel by subscribing to Nebula: https://go.nebula.tv/citybeautiful

Other Seattle videos:

- https://nebula.tv/videos/city-beautiful-the-alaskan-way-viaduct-how-seattle-chose-the-bertha-tunnel-alternative

- https://nebula.tv/videos/city-beautiful-what-happens-after-a-city-removes-a-freeway

Produced by Dave Amos and the fine folks at Nebula Studios.
Written by Dave Amos.
Select images and video from Getty Images.
Black Lives Matter.
Trans rights.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices