City Beautiful

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In the spring of 2007, the Chicago Housing Authority demolished the last of the 28 buildings in the Robert Taylor Homes housing project. Robert Taylor Homes is one of several high profile housing project demolitions, from St. Louis’s Pruitt-Igoe to fellow Chicago project Cabrini Green. The demolitions serve as an admission that high-rise public housing wasn’t a good idea. The housing that replaced them are all low rise projects better integrated within existing neighborhoods. So why did anyone back then think it was a good idea? Why did housing authorities build these high rise projects in the first place?

Resources on this topic:

Hunt, D. B. (2001). What Went Wrong with Public Housing in Chicago? A History of the Robert Taylor Homes. Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society, 94(1), 96–123.

"Demolished: The End of Chicago's Public Housing" by David Eads and Helga Salinas. https://apps.npr.org/lookatthis/posts/publichousing/

"When Public Housing Was Paradise" by Joy Connelly https://openingthewindow.com/2011/06/13/when-public-housing-was-paradise-2/

"Elizabeth Wood, 93, Innovator In Early Days of Public Housing" by Bruce Lambert http://www.nytimes.com/1993/01/17/us/elizabeth-wood-93-innovator-in-early-days-of-public-housing.html

"A Brief History of Public Housing" by Jennifer Amy Stoloff https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Jennifer_Stoloff/publication/228789405_A_brief_history_of_public_housing/links/5643a68008ae9f9c13e05df6/A-brief-history-of-public-housing.pdf

Video sources:
- Archive.org, Prelinger Archives

Photo sources:
- Wikimedia Commons
- Flickr user Samuel A. Love
- Zahiri, N., Dezhdar, O., & Foroutan, M. (2016). Rethinking of Critical Regionalism in High-Rise Buildings. Buildings, 7(1), 4. https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings7010004

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Many U.S. cities were founded with a street grid. Why? This video describes the historic factors that contributed to the adoption of a grid. This includes influential city designs from Versailles, London, Philadelphia, New York, Chicago, and Reno.

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U.S. architect Frank Lloyd Wright proposed Broadacre City in the 1930s. It was a vision for a decentralized, low-density city that presaged the exurbs, or the most rural of the suburbs. What did Broadacre City get right, and what did it miss?

Resources on this topic:

- The Disappearing City by FLW: https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015047936219

- The Suburbanite of FLW's Broadacre City: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0096144218797923?casa_token=Ym9IPiU9YloAAAAA%3AXniSCLN0XfasavCJ2xLoH8R8ZMlJoJJlWLD483Sb_JpeZ7Ph3R9Lu83YHoJA8n7bPAKhduI-CPYU

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Written by Dave Amos.
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I live in Sacramento, and when I moved here I learned two things quickly. First, Sacramento summers are hot. Like really hot. Many days are over 100 degrees. The second thing I learned is that Sacramento is livable, even with those high temperatures, thanks to its extensive tree canopy. The trees provide shade that makes me feel about 10-15 degrees cooler, and without them I probably would’ve moved a long time ago. Shade is just one of the many many benefits trees provide in urban areas, and I’m going to count down my favorites, as well talk about what it takes to maintain a verdant urban forest.

Information gathered from these excellent websites:

The Arbor Day Foundation: https://www.arborday.org/trees/benefits.cfm

Friends of the Urban Forest: https://www.fuf.net/benefits-of-urban-greening/

Sources:

A. Wolf, Kathleen L, PhD, University of Washington (2007) City Trees and Property Values. Arborist News. 16, 4:34-36.

B. Donovan, G.H.; Butry, D.T. (2010). Trees in the City: Valuing Street Trees in Portland, Oregon. Landscape and Urban Planning 94:77-83

C. McPherson, Greg, Center for Urban Forest Research via https://www.arborday.org/trees/benefits.cfm

D. U.S. Department of Agriculture via https://www.arborday.org/trees/benefits.cfm

E. Naderi, Jody Rosenblatt, Young Suk Kweon, and Praveen Maghelal (2008). The Street Tree Effect and Driver Safety. ITE Journal on the Web. http://www.naturewithin.info/Roadside/Tree&Driver_ITE.pdf

F. Global Status Report on Road Safety (2015). World Health Organization. (https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=wV40DgAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PP1&dq=road+safety+and+speed&ots=DJSBBThVnn&sig=I3zRpXGQVhaEUoonWoi-EGPX2TI#v=onepage&q=road%20safety%20and%20speed&f=false

G. Benefits of Urban Greening. Friends of the Urban Forest. https://www.fuf.net/benefits-of-urban-greening/

H. McPherson, Gregory, James Simpson, Paula Peper, Aaron Crowell, and Qingfu Xiao (2010). Northern California Coast Community Tree Guide: Benefits, Costs, and Strategic Planting. United States Department of Agriculture. https://www.fs.fed.us/psw/topics/urban_forestry/products/2/psw_cufr790_psw_gtr228.pdf

I. Wolf, Kathy (1998). Urban Forest Values: Economic Benefits of Trees in Cities. Center for Urban Horticulture. https://www.naturewithin.info/Policy/EconBens-FS3.pdf

J. Benefits of Urban Greening. Friends of the Urban Forest. https://www.fuf.net/benefits-of-urban-greening/

K. Lovasi, Gina, James Quinn, Kathryn Neckerman, Matthew Perzanowski, and Andrew Rundle (2008). Children living in areas with more street trees have lower asthma prevalence. Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health. http://jech.bmj.com/content/early/2008/05/01/jech.2007.071894

L. New Varieties of Elm Raise Hope of Rebirth for Devastated Tree (1989). The New York Times. https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1989/12/05/303289.html?action=click&contentCollection=Archives&module=LedeAsset®ion=ArchiveBody&pgtype=article&pageNumber=64

M. Turner, Rob (2015). Nightmare on Elm Streets. Sactown Magazine. http://www.sactownmag.com/April-May-2015/Nightmare-on-Elm-Streets/


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Resources on this topic:

Rational Comprehensive Model: More info here: http://www.geo.fu-berlin.de/en/v/geolearning/watershed_management/introduction_wm/natural_resource_management_planning/how_to_plan/planning_models/rational_planning/index.html

Incrementalism: “The Science of Muddling Through” by Charles Lindblom. http://www.sims.monash.edu.au/subjects/ims5042/stuff/readings/lindblom.pdf

Advocacy Planning: “Advocacy and Pluralism in Planning” by Paul Davidoff. http://urbanpolicy.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/Davidoff_1965_Advocacy-and-pluralism-in-planning.pdf

Images copyright 20th Century Fox/Disney/don't sue me, it's fair use

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On Friday, Elon Musk tweeted:

“Adjusting The Boring Company plan. All tunnels and hyper loop will prioritize pedestrians and cyclists over cars. Will still transport cars, but only after all personalized mass transit needs are met. It’s a matter of courtesy and fairness. If someone can’t afford a car, they should go first.”

his is a shift from his original plan, where cars would be the primary vehicle traveling through underground tunnels in urban areas. That plan had received lots of criticism from transit advocates and planners. What does this planner think of Elon’s change of course? Stay tuned to find out.

Sources:

https://mobile.twitter.com/elonmusk/status/972233079342297088

https://www.boringcompany.com/faq/

Photo and video sources:
- The Boring Company
- Omaha World-Herald
- Corevette
- Mariordo
- Maurizio Pesce

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Faith-based organizations often have more land than they need. They also may want to build housing on that land to further their mission. But they aren't always allowed to. But if they could build housing, it could help end the housing crisis.

Donate to St. John's (if you like): https://www.moreformadison.org

Resources on this topic:

About the amount of church-owned land:

https://ltams.org/what-to-know-when-handling-transactions-involving-church-owned-property/

YIGBY article in Christianity Today:

https://www.christianitytoday.com/2023/09/church-buildings-size-sale-development-multiuse-empty/

Terner Center report on California's YIGBY law:

https://ternercenter.berkeley.edu/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/Faith-Based-Housing-Updated-October-2023.pdf

Florida's YIGBY law:

https://www.heraldtribune.com/story/news/local/sarasota/2025/08/04/yes-in-gods-back-yard-law-churches-could-address-housing-crunch/85411086007/

Cities and YIGBY:

https://stateline.org/2025/10/14/can-states-and-a-little-bit-of-faith-convert-church-land-into-affordable-housing/


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Written by Dave Amos.
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This idea of free mass transit is not as crazy as you might think. Plenty of cities offer free transit to students and seniors. Some systems offer free transit in designated zones or on certain routes. Others, like Seoul (2), offer free transit on days where the air is too smoggy. Only a few cities have gone all the way and done what I’m proposing: free transit for everyone, everywhere, at all times.

Sources:

A. https://www.citylab.com/environment/2018/01/seoul-takes-on-air-pollution-with-free-public-transit/550829/
B. https://www.citylab.com/transportation/2018/05/estonia-will-roll-out-free-public-transit-nationwide/560648/
C. https://web.archive.org/web/20081020214003/http://www.hasselt.be/content/content/record.php?ID=4418
D. http://www.fdot.gov/research/completed_proj/summary_pto/fdot_bc137_38_ff_rpt.pdf
E. https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/27ad/af099f77cee5a1643c896c9ce0cd89647edd.pdf

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Audio and video editing by: Eric Schneider

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Many city limits look like a tangled mess. Why? The answer is a combination of politics, taxes, autonomy, systemic racism, contiguity, and topography.

Resources on this topic:

The Most Segregated City in America: https://www.amazon.com/Most-Segregated-City-America-Birmingham/dp/0813923344

Fiscal case for annexation: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Evgenia-Gorina/publication/326867365_Fiscal_effects_of_municipal_annexation_Evidence_from_a_large_national_sample_of_urban_municipalities/links/652ef34a0ebf091c48fd4511/Fiscal-effects-of-municipal-annexation-Evidence-from-a-large-national-sample-of-urban-municipalities.pdf

Politics in annexation: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/D-Austin/publication/4889705_Politics_vs_Economics_Evidence_from_Municipal_Annexation/links/602d4769299bf1cc26d22040/Politics-vs-Economics-Evidence-from-Municipal-Annexation.pdf

Birmingham info: https://www.bhamwiki.com/w/1970s-1980s_Birmingham_annexations

https://www.nytimes.com/1986/10/10/us/growing-birmingham-irks-neighbors.html

Vestavia Hills info: https://vestaviavoice.com/news/road-to-prosperity-how-two-boundary-crossing-annexations-ves/

Interesting contract cities info I didn't get to in the video: https://ir.lawnet.fordham.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2683&context=ulj

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This video is based on the book Nature’s Metropolis by William Cronon. Check out this amazing book: https://www.amazon.com/Natures-Metropolis-Chicago-Great-West/dp/0393308731/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1534132675&sr=8-1&keywords=nature%27s+metropolis

Chicago is the greatest metropolis in the interior of North America. The region is home to almost 10 million people, 29 Fortune 500 companies, the Obamas, and the 2016 World Series Champion Chicago Cubs. There is no bigger or more influential city between Los Angeles and New York, but Chicago’s dominance was not a foregone conclusion. Why did Chicago grow biggest, bigger than competitors such as Detroit, St. Louis, Cincinnati, or Pittsburgh?

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