Concrete Fancy

Concrete Fancy is all about the concrete jungle, politics, all things urban, trends, and passing fancies.

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Urban Green Spaces Are Good for Seniors’ Mental Health

Research shows that green spaces are good for the mental health of seniors, and for urban residents in general.

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Moscow To Demolish 10 Percent of City’s Housing

Moscow is about to embark on one of the largest urban resettlement programs in history, as about 1.5 million residents living in Soviet-era housing blocks could see their buildings destroyed.

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Urban Planning Shouldn’t Be Discarded

Urban planning is sometimes left out of how cities are designed, to the detriment of the people who live there. Sure, urban planning has its flaws, but it's still an important part of creating livable cities.

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Some Google Street View Cars Are Scanning for Underground Methane Leaks

More than just a tool for helping you to see areas you're not familiar with, specially equipped Google Street View cars can help city utilities detect methane leaks.

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The Crop Box: An Innovation In Urban Agriculture

Urban farming could help to bring fresh food to "food deserts" inside cities. The Crop Box could be part of that effort. Photo: Shutters...

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Dubai Prepares for Self-Driving Hover-Taxis

Dubai will soon be home to one-person hover-taxis if development continues as planned. And the'll be hitting the skies as early as July of this year.

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Brake and Tire Dust Pose a Health Threat

Scientists from the Georgia Institute of Technology have discovered another reason why cities need to reduce the number of cars on the road: brake and tire dust.

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Dealing With Traffic in the Most Congested Cities in the World

As Los Angeles continues to grow and its economy continues to improve, the problem of traffic congestion will likely get worse before it gets better.

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Repurposing Existing Spaces as Student Housing

Cities change over time, adapting to changing populations and land use. In several large Canadian cities, one common change is the influx of college students, faced with minimal or even nonexistent student housing. But how do you add housing when you don’t have anywhere to build?

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What Exactly Is A Sanctuary City, Anyway?

Although we’ve been hearing a lot lately about sanctuary cities lately, particularly after President Trump issued an executive order blocking all federal funding to said sanctuary cities, the concept has been around for some time.

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Building Beaches in Cities?

Building a beach in Detroit seems like an audacious project, but it's one of 21 Detroit-based projects that are finalists in the Knight Foundation's Knight Cities Challenge.

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Urban Heat Islands Could be the Core of Climate Change Reversal

"Cities have been at the core of many of the most transformative actions in human history, and with relatively little work, they can be at the core of combating climate change as well."

[observando]

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Nice place! I could get used to living there!

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Improving Our Understanding of Urban Undergrounds

Urban planning often fails to take into consideration the ground underneath a city. Cities grow outward or upward, or both, and rarely below ground unless they need a subway system or underground walkway. But according to some researchers, that’s a mistake.

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Uber Working with Cities to Ease Traffic Congestion

Uber is forcing us to rethink the ways in which we move around in urban environments. With that in mind, they’re actually teaming up with municipalities around the world to help analyze traffic data.

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PTSD is More Common in Poor Neighborhoods Than In the General Population

"Recognizing the problem is the first step, and while further studies can help to pinpoint the causes and effects of the problem, in the meantime it is undoubtedly worth it to invest in wider access to mental health care in these underserved parts of our communities."

[thedustyrebel]

Blind Idealism Is Deadly

The High Line, NYC More photos: Barbara Kruger, Public Art, The High Line

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Couldn’t have said it better myself