Mar 06, 2020
International Women’s Day Special 1. Can you tell us more about your career path and how you got to where you are now? I always knew I wanted to do international work, so I approached the International Centre for the Prevention of Crime to complete an internship as part of my BA. I worked under…
Jan 28, 2020
Set in the alternate future of The Training Commission — their critically acclaimed 2019 novella exploring a post-climate change, post-civil conflict America — Byrne and Burrington’s “Letter to Evie” explores the intersection of climate refugees, NGOs, and Wall Street machinations. Written in the epistolary style of their earlier work, the story springboards off the Obama…
Jan 28, 2020
“If you would lift me up, you’ve got to be on higher ground.” —Ralph Waldo Emerson In October 2012, two days before Halloween, the Hudson River rose over its banks and flooded Hoboken, New Jersey. I was one of the lucky residents whose home was spared by Superstorm Sandy’s historic surge. Despite its waterfront location,…
Jan 08, 2020
For much of the last decade, the Smart Cities movement received much attention from policymakers by offering to improve the efficiency, accessibility, and cost-effectiveness of city services by optimizing data management. But for all of these promises of radical improvements, have the proponents of smart cities actually managed to improve life in cities? Has optimization…
Oct 24, 2019
Cities are becoming increasingly unaffordable. Almost a million NYC renters are rent-burdened, with more than half of those renters paying more than 50% of their income in rent. Urban rents have been climbing faster than wages for decades, a trend that has only accelerated over the past 10 years. With that in mind, it’s not…
Jun 14, 2019
The fate of cities, whether in Africa, Asia, America or Europe, is increasingly linked to climate change. Natural disasters – heat waves, floods, drought, earthquakes, violent storms – are more frequent and costly. Told that the goal of limiting the increase in CO2 emissions by 2050, and the rise in annual average temperatures, is unreachable,…
Jun 13, 2019
Although there have been numerous efforts in the past few decades to plan, build, and operate new cities at scale, success has proven exceptionally challenging. At a minimum, such an undertaking requires an elusive mix of political will, massive funding, deep subject-matter expertise, and a strategic location. For a number of years, I was part…
Jun 04, 2019
It’s getting harder to get older in the United States, and finding an affordable place to live in the community you’ve spent years in may be next to impossible. Kids are out of the house, you are ready to retire and downsize from the expensive to maintain the single-family home that you’ve lived in. Hopefully,…
Jun 04, 2019
In an increasingly urbanizing world where cities play a pivotal role, the sustainable and inclusive development of our planet is intrinsically linked to the capability of governments to fulfill their obligations in offering equal opportunities and in protecting the basic human rights of their citizens. Considering housing and residential use can consume more than 70…
Jun 04, 2019
Developing affordable housing in Haiti is, to put it mildly, difficult. Despite a massive need for adequate and affordable housing in Haiti, few interventions have successfully addressed the housing crisis – a crisis made worse by the widespread devastation of the 2010 earthquake. After the earthquake, non-government organizations (NGOs), humanitarian aid workers, and international building…
Jun 04, 2019
French large cities are currently witnessing a steady rise of home prices. In Paris, a square meter’s average price is superior to €9,000; it reaches €4,500 in Lyon and Bordeaux. In 2017, prices rose by 8.6 percent in Paris, 7.7 percent in Lyon and 12.1 percent in Bordeaux – all while French nominal wages only…
Jun 04, 2019
Since the collapse of the housing market in 2008, demand for housing has consistently outpaced supply, leading to a dramatic increase in housing prices in many metropolitan areas – especially on the coasts. America’s mayors are deeply concerned about these rising costs. As part of the Menino Survey of Mayors—an annual survey from Boston University’s…
