Chic scaffolding makes its debut in front of 100 Broadway this December. Aging infrastructure may lead to increasing water prices, and funding for urban farms will help keep our waterways clean.
Coming Soon to the Sidewalks: A New Look for ScaffoldingBuilt from steel pipes and used plywood, they snake their way a million feet (or 190 miles) along New York's sidewalks and have long been considered egregious eyesores. "They're really ugly," said Robert LiMandri, the city's buildings commissioner, "but they're a necessarily evil for construction."
Why Your Water Bill Must Go UpChicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel launched a $4.1 billion initiative to replace his city's dilapidated water infrastructure last month, spinning it as a plan to create 18,000 jobs over the next decade. The rub is that by 2015, most Chicagoans would pay more than double their current water usage fees.
Breaking New GroundNevin Cohen teaches sustainable food systems, environmental policy and urban planning at the New School, and focuses on the evolution of municipal food policy. Kubi Ackerman is a research coordinator at the Urban Design Lab at the Earth Institute at Columbia University; he focuses on food systems and urbanization projects.