TGIF, Streetsbloggers! Today’s newsletter brings you some multimedia to ease the transition into the weekend.
First, check out this video by YouTuber Classy Whale, who went to Arlington, Texas, which, with a population of 404,000, is the largest U.S. city with no trains, no scheduled buses, and no guarantee that the region’s on-demand microtransit service will be there when you need it.
Then, listen to a very special episode of Talking Headways, where we’re joined by Olivia Plotnick, founder of Wai Social in Shanghai. She spent the summer visiting more than 30 Chinese cities to experience different retail, the impacts of high speed rail, and the social e-commerce ecosystem. And she learned that competition has made Chinese retail sharper, the transportation space is becoming saturated with electric vehicle, and there is such a thing as “emotional consumption.”
How did parking lots swallow one of America’s hottest cities — and make it even hotter?
Centennial events downplay the violent history of one of America’s most “iconic” highways, and obscure how that violence persists to this day.
The U.S. is becoming a dying petrostate, while China leads the world in renewable energy.
