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This is terrible journalism:While [donating $1 billion to protect forests] is certainly notable, Bezos's commitment to protecting the environment serves as a stark reminder that much of his legacy and largely untaxed fortune was built by companies that have staggering carbon footprints. Amazon's carbon emissions have grown every year since 2018, and last year alone, when global carbon emissions fell roughly 7 percent, Amazon's carbon emissions grew 19 percent.Economic activity is (for the time being) carbon-intensive. Amazon constitutes a huge and (especially during the pandemic) growing portion of the US economy. There's nothing said here to suggest that Amazon is unusually inefficient (from an environmental perspective); the author is really just complaining that Amazon is a large and growing part of the economy. (Horrors! They even had the gall to keep the economy going during the pandemic, when other companies did the green thing and shut down, bless their empty coffers...)Obviously there are all kinds of climate policies that should've been passed long ago that would help to reduce the carbon intensity of the economy (carbon taxes, more investment in green energy & research, etc.). Our lack of those needed policies is the fault of politicians, voters, and the companies that lobbied against them. Blaming other companies that are simply involved in ordinary economic activity, by contrast, makes little sense.I think we all realize it'd be silly to blame, say, New York City for having a large carbon footprint. Sure, it contains a lot of people, and so inevitably has a large carbon footprint in absolute terms. But if NYC didn't exist those people would just live somewhere else -- and possibly somewhere much less carbon-efficient than a dense city can be. But isn't blaming ordinary large companies for their carbon footprints misguided in much the same way? No evidence tends to be offered to suggest that they're any worse proportionally than their smaller competitors, so it really seems like they're just being blamed for being large and successful (something that we could also say of NYC).

We know that lobbyists have the power to influence politics. But not all lobbyists are working on behalf of corporate interest groups. Sometimes, city officials actually hire lobbyists to represent the interests of their constituents in the state legislature.

Why would cities do this? This is what New York University political science professor Julia Payson explores in her paper, "The Partisan Logic of City Mobilization: Evidence From State Lobbying Disclosures." She finds that local governments are more likely to depend on lobbyists when there are partisan and ideological mismatches with their state legislators.

Nigeria's shantytowns are more functional than its centrally planned gated communities.

Ein Bericht über den Workshop "Radical Cities & Rebel Democracies" des éngagée-Magazins, in Zusammenarbeit mit der Hochschule für Gestaltung Karlsruhe (HfG), 7. August 2018, Bundeszentrale für Politische Bildung (bpb) Bonn verfasst von Hendrik Erz Zu einem wahren "One Size Fits All"-Begriff ist es verkommen, das Konzept der Postdemokratie. Seit Colin...

Cities have the agility to lead the transition to circularity and already have a body of good practice to show.

Republican-controlled Huntington Beach has sued the state government to stop enforcement of state housing mandates.

On 29 April 2023, Sudan's Federal Ministry of Health reported that the death toll from clashes between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces had risen to 528, with thousands injured. The consequences ...

Philadelphia has budgeted nearly $2 million for the project.

One important lesson that emerged from the pandemic is that governments are not able to provide all the services that urban citizens need in a crisis situation. For Southeast Asia, this is critical because local governments, especially, have a lack of expertise, capacity, and financial resources in disbursing assistance to urban citizens. Therefore, many community-based … Continued

Financialization of housing has been an issue since at least the 1980s when technology improved information and efficiency in finance markets. This in turn enabled large scale international flows of funds. But it became much more obviously an issue after the Global Financial Crisis and the introduction of Quantitative Easing in many countries which led … Continued

The mini-series “Our Land” by the International Republican Institute showcases how Ukrainian cities are facing the full-scale invasion of their country, standing their ground, and undertaking reconstruction. Through conversations with mayors, community representatives, and local residents, the series tells the stories of five cities across different corners of Ukraine.   From government officials to municipal workers […]
The post The Mini-Series “Our Land” About Ukrainian Cities Under Attack appeared first on International Republican Institute.

Abortion issues come before two other state Supreme Courts—in Arizona and Wyoming—this week as well.

Across the country, ghoulish cities have outlawed teenage trick-or-treaters.

Athens's storied breakthroughs in philosophy are but one example of how cities have often been the sites of pivotal advances throughout history.

In a major shift, new housing in California now outpaces population growth. We look at what kinds of housing are being built where—and potential implications for affordability and future population patterns.