Andrew Small
Andrew Small is a freelance writer in Washington, D.C., and author of the CityLab Daily newsletter (subscribe here). He was previously an editorial fellow at CityLab.
Also: How to start your own city, and Berlin rethinks its Airbnb ban.
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Keeping it real: Women have always been part of urbanism, but too often their contributions have been erased. From early women’s city clubs to contemporary community outreach efforts, the urbanist canon has remained distressingly pale and male because of a binary notion of “hard” infrastructure planning and “soft” people-oriented projects. To break down that barrier, Deland Chan, an urban studies professor at Stanford University, argues that urban planning must expand what counts as “real planning” to give credit where it’s due.
On the march: While the nation was captivated by Saturday’s remarkable teen-led gun violence protest in D.C., smaller cities across the country were marching, too. In a Twitter thread, BuzzFeed writer Anne Helen Petersen highlighted the less-covered marches across the U.S., from Anchorage to Boise to Starbuck, Minnesota. Also via BuzzFeed: March For Our Lives rallies made a huge push to register voters across the U.S.
Only four states—Vermont, Maine, Mississippi, and West Virginia—have larger rural populations than urban populations. This map comes from a recent report by the National League of Cities on how factors such as broadband access, education, and growth shape the urban-rural divide. Their analysis argues that “connectedness of places,” through infrastructure connectivity and market access, can bridge the economic gap. CityLab context: The urban-rural divide is real, but it doesn't tell the whole story.
The “Vacant City” of New York, where apartments are priced out of reach (New York Daily News)
A public historian’s first date with Sidewalk Lab’s Old Toronto map tool (LinkedIn)
All roads lead to Rome, with potholes (New York Times)
It’s time to delete Uber from our cities (Curbed)
What’s next for Washington, D.C.’s “forgotten river?” (WAMU)
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