Quality of Life
Basics
Milwaukee Mayor Abandons Highway Teardown To Calm Irrational Fears Of Driver Class
Mayor Cavalier Johnson has set aside years of findings that highway removals help revitalize Rust Belt downtowns for the 21st century.
July 23, 2026
Talking Headway Podcast: Why Public Space Matters
This week, we’re joined by Setha Low to talk about her book, "Why Public Space Matters." We chat about using ethnography to understand space, emotional connections, and transforming the world through public space.
May 11, 2023
Talking Headways Podcast: Caretakers of the Public Realm
This week we’re joined by Andrew Jones, program director for the Uptown and Downtown Oakland Community Benefits District. We chat about urban place management, how urban spaces are taken care of, and what it takes to keep them vibrant and engaging. It's really important.
April 6, 2023
Talking Headways Podcast: Building the Right Urban Sound
This week, I'm joined by Michiel Huijsman for a fascinating talk about how to think about the positive aspect of urban soundscapes — and how everyone hears everything differently.
January 12, 2023
New York’s Mayor Adams Will Create a ‘Public Realm Czar’
The new public space czar would become the central node to oversee the different agencies that affect all public realm policies and projects, including the departments of Transportation, Parks, and Sanitation.
December 16, 2022
Going in Circles: Laws to Tame Helicopters Struggle to Take Off
Helicopters are like the weather: Everyone complains about them, but no one fixes the problem. Here's our deep dive into how all three branches of government have failed the public.
December 12, 2022
Opinion: Cities Need Covered Outdoor Dining Year-Round!
Let's open the door to innovative ideas and solutions to re-social and redefine how we share public space safely (and save the restaurant industry).
November 4, 2022
How DALL-E 2 Can Be a Valuable Tool in the Fight For Safer Streets
Activists can use these intuitive tools to show stakeholders a better future — or a dystopian one.
August 24, 2022
OPINION: We Can Have Nice Things … Once We Get Rid of King Car
Europe has great public places. A walk or bike ride from Borough Hall to City Hall across an auto-free Brooklyn Bridge would equal any of them.
June 8, 2022
Talking Headways Podcast: A Next-Generation Transportion Policy
What's next? Harriet Tregoning, director at NUMO, and Yonah Freemark, a senior research associate at the Urban Institute, talk about their report, "Charting Out a Next-Generation, Place-Based Federal Transportation Policy."
May 5, 2022
