Filter by author » Nick Lalla

• The Daily Report

  A New Stimulus Request from Cities

  Nick Lalla | Thu, Dec 18th, 2008 | Category: Commentary | City: Philadelphia | Tags: economics, rust belt, mayor nutter, nancy pelosi, henry paulson, stimulus, bail out, retrofitting, financial crisis, john boehner, harry reid, green economics, restoring prosperity | 1

  Several attempts to include cities as a category worthy of consideration for the new breed of government financial bailout packages have been made recently. Now, a new letter from a non-profit urban revitalization group is making the rounds, collecting signers and support before trying its hand at asking for state money for ailing urban centers.

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• The Daily Report

  “Move to a small city,” Says Science

  Nick Lalla | Wed, Dec 17th, 2008 | Category: Commentary | Tags: nick lalla, list-icle, cnn.com, livability, washington, n.j., norman, ok, plymouth, mn, fisher, in | 2

  Another questionable list-icle of American city rankings has popped up on CNN.com. This one seeks to rank American cities in terms of livabilty and seems a little...lifeless.

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• The Daily Report

  Hipster Runoff Takes on Urban Design, Wins

  Nick Lalla | Tue, Dec 16th, 2008 | Category: Commentary | City: New York | Tags: authenticity, williamsburg, millennials, millennials, post-irony, post-irony, blogosphere, space, blogosphere, space, meaning, hipster runoff, urban theory jargon, hipster runoff, urban theory jargon, meaning, alts, alts | 2

  I’m shocked by every day that goes by without some pseudo-academic hipster art-star type taking the urban theory world’s reins and making the whole effort look a little sexier. Sometimes that shock turns into worry that Next American City is just a placeholder to be left in a cooler, more culture-savvy kid’s dust. Urban thought is hot and waiting patiently for someone to capitalize on it. A new post on Gen-Y blog bible Hipster Runoff indicates the process may have begun.

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• The Daily Report

  Ed Bacon: Iconic Urbanist Now Inspiring Farms

  Nick Lalla | Wed, Dec 3rd, 2008 | Category: Commentary | City: Philadelphia | Tags: philadelphia, university of pennsylvania, nick lalla, urban farming, student competition, ed bacon, kevin bacon, robert moses | 0

  The award ceremony for the 3rd Annual Ed Bacon Student Design Competition were handed out to teams of young urban planners last night, and focusing on food seemed to be the way to get the prize money. The winning entries after the jump.

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• The Daily Report

  “Big City” Bailout Request Looks Better than Reported, says Nutter’s Office

  Nick Lalla | Mon, Nov 24th, 2008 | Category: Commentary | City: New York | Tags: infrastructure, michael nutter, michael bloomberg, nick lalla, budget cuts, henry paulson, bailout, secretary of the treasury, council of mayors, office of environmental sustainability | 0

  Earlier this month Philadelphia’s Mayor Michael Nutter hand-delivered a letter to 1500 Pennsylvania Ave, addressed to Secretary of the Treasury Henry Paulson and signed by himself and the mayors of Atlanta and Phoenix. In it he asked for cities to be included alongside banks, financial institutions and automobile manufacturers as recipients of the $700 billion TARP bailout package. That afternoon, the story got top billing on the Drudge Report. Days later it got nothing but ignored and, at best, derided. So what happened? 

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• The Daily Report

  Triple Canopy Nails NOLA Mania

  Nick Lalla | Wed, Nov 12th, 2008 | Category: Commentary | City: New Orleans | Tags: new orleans, nick lalla, hurricane katrina, ray nagin, triple canopy, brian rosa, gray line, disaster tourism, september 11th, mardi gras | 2

  Stop the presses! The (um) September issue of online magazine Triple Canopy is so good...it’s worth ignoring for two months and then rhapsodizing about, a few months too late.

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• The Daily Report

  New Yorkers Found to be Breathing American Air, Mayor Gasps

  Nick Lalla | Mon, Nov 10th, 2008 | Category: Commentary | City: Chicago | Tags: new york, michael bloomberg, gavin newsom, nick lalla, philadelphia office of sustainability, richard m. daley, environmental defense fund, environmental pollution control act, preemtion, greening, mayors | 1

  On the last day of October a district court found that New York City would have to put a hold on its plan to replace its city’s taxi cabs with hybrid cars. Mayor Michael Bloomberg fired back by invoking the threat that the court’s ruling would prevent “all cities” from taking their environment and health into their own hands. I talked with some experts to see how real the threat was.

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• The Daily Report

  Reflections on “The Shape of the New American City”

  Nick Lalla | Tue, Oct 28th, 2008 | Category: Commentary | City: Philadelphia | Tags: university of pennsylvania, joe six pack, phyllis kaniss, chris mathews, shape of the new american city, piur, nationhood | 2

  This weekend I attended a University of Pennsylvaia Institute for Urban Research conference called “The Shape of the New American City.” It started with academics and city employees quietly discussing new research on urban density and market trends. It drew to a close with Chris Matthews fielding a sea of energetic questions about Sarah Palin and Joe Six-Pack. Here, I try to figure out what it all means.

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• The Daily Report

  Report from “the Shape of the New American City”

  Nick Lalla | Fri, Oct 24th, 2008 | Category: Commentary | City: Philadelphia | Tags: nick lalla, reaganomics, density, shape of the new american city, piur, douglas massey, dowell myers, saskia sassen, presidential election | 3

  This morning I went to the experts to see what the future held. What I found was some surprises from the past, a lot of questions about the future, opportunities for thought about the big election, and a new interest in Mexico City. Thoughts on the presentations of Dowell Myers, Douglas Masey, and Saskia Sassan after the jump. 

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• The Daily Report

  More to Learn from Las Vegas

  Nick Lalla | Tue, Oct 14th, 2008 | Category: Commentary | City: Las Vegas | Tags: las vegas, smart growth, nick lalla, frank gehry, newland communities, union park, branding, neoliberalism | 3

  Las Vegas — the fastest growing city in America — keeps changing in the strangest ways, and every new move gives us so much more to learn from, or at least to think about.

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• The Daily Report

  A Floating Pool Docks in Venice

  Nick Lalla | Mon, Sep 29th, 2008 | Category: Report | City: New York | Tags: | 0

  This year’s Venice Biennale for architecture includes a floating pool with a homely past of docking alongside a neglected part of the Bronx.

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• The Daily Report

  One Urban Genius

  Nick Lalla | Wed, Sep 24th, 2008 | Category: Commentary | City: Milwaukee | Tags: milwaukee, land use, twyla tharp, urban farming, locavores, macarthur genius grants, will allen | 1

  MacArthur Genius grant recipients were just announced. Save an urban farmer from Milwaukee, those working to improve cities directly were absent from the list, again.

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• The Daily Report

  Independent Lens Community Cinema screening tonight

  Nick Lalla | Tue, Sep 23rd, 2008 | Category: Report | City: Chicago | Tags: philadelphia, art, film, brett morgan, public activism, chicago 10 | 0

  Brett Morgan’s film Chicago 10 will be screened in Philadelphia tonight, followed by a public discussion of political activism in the city since 1968. 

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• The Daily Report

  America’s Best Cities for Travel: “The results are in!”

  Nick Lalla | Fri, Sep 19th, 2008 | City: New York | Tags: philadelphia, washington dc, new york, nick lalla, best cities to visit, travel and leisure | 0

  Travel and Leisure Magazine has published its findings of the traveler-rated “best American cities” for 2008, and, like most of these kinds of lists, the results mostly include being forced to take a few moments to ponder the worth of such exercises. 

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