Solarpunk Urbanism

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A community to discuss solarpunk and other new and alternative urbanisms that seek to break away from our currently ecologically destructive urbanisms.

Henri Lefebvre, The Right to the City — In brief, the right to the city is the right to the production of a city. The labor of a worker is the source of most of the value of a commodity that is expropriated by the owner. The worker, therefore, has a right to benefit from that value denied to them. In the same way, the urban citizen produces and reproduces the city through their own daily actions. However, the the city is expropriated from the urbanite by the rich and the state. The right to the city is therefore the right to appropriate the city by and for those who make and remake it.

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The Uniquely American Epidemic of Traffic Deaths (bettercities.substack.com)

submitted 1 year ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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Interesting article with some great linked research and practical solutions to the issue of traffic deaths.

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[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

It's more than just the abundance of cars, it's also the absolute non-existence of any other transportation mode being supported. That's also why we struggle so hard with DUI; in the US, if you're not driving, you're as good as fucking stranded. That's not entirely true, you could gather your chutzpah and hike or bike however many miles with shitty, dangerous, or non-existent pedestrian infrastructure, or you might be lucky enough to be able to catch a bus or an Uber, but it's not like Europe or Japan where everything's dense enough that walking is actually practical. How real is it? Well, I've had three European and two Japanese exchange students and they've all said that the biggest culture shock was the loss of independence that came with suddenly being dependent on a car to go and do anything. That complete car dependence means that we have to have looser restrictions on our drivers so that people can go about their daily life. It means that we've got a lot of people driving who probably wouldn't if they had some practical alternative; folks who probably treat it like a chore and aren't as engaged with it as they should be.