Paris to Pedestrianize 500 More Streets

Paris. (Pixabay License).

Every day at The Overhead Wire we sort through over 1,500 news items about cities and share the best ones with our email list. Each week, we take some of the most popular stories and share them with Urban Milwaukee readers. They are national (or international) links, sometimes entertaining and sometimes absurd, but hopefully useful.

Lack of state capacity: David Schleicher and Nicholas Bagley argue that many discussions about the capacity of government to do things has been focused at the federal level, but the root of the problem is at the state and local levels. State and local governments provide most services people rely on and build most infrastructure. As such, reforms should target these levels of government rather than only federal policy. (David Schleicher and Nicholas Bagley | Niskanen Center)

States push to shift road funds: As the federal government shies away from funding active and green transportation, a few states have joined together to promote more sustainable transportation policy. States like Colorado and Minnesota have already been working on solutions to increases in vehicle miles traveled in their highway expansion policies while others that aren’t part of the initial network are still working on individual plans that work towards local goals. (Jeff McMurray | Associated Press)

More roads go pedestrian: Paris residents voted to make 500 more streets in the city pedestrian only in a low turnout election. Traffic in the city has been cut in half since the current party came to power at the turn of the century and several votes have been taken related to urban quality of life issues including higher parking charges SUVs. 10,000 parking spaces will be removed that are in addition to 10,000 removed previously. (Michaela Cabrera and Clotaire Achi | Reuters)

Battery fires spark opposition: A recent fire at a large scale battery grid at Moss Landing California is being used as ammunition against other battery storage projects around the country by renewable energy opponents. The plant was completed before several updates to safety standards, but the long term public health and environmental damages are still unknown. (Jael Holzman | Heatmap)

Brooklyn complex put together like Lego: An affordable housing project in Brooklyn used 60 foot pre-built units that took just two weeks to assemble into a building. The pre-fabricated parts reduced construction time 8 months. The building is extremely energy efficient and follows passive house designs. The project was new to the construction crew, but experts believe the process will get even faster as people become more familiar with the process. (Adele Peters | Fast Company)

Quote of the Week

He was fairly sincere that you’re just not supposed to do that. He was brainwashed that we should only have grass. When we didn’t immediately comply, he started creating all these narratives around us that we were crazy.

-Homeowners Janet and Jeff Crouch discussing in Noema Magazine how their HOA’s attorney wrote them to put their lawn back after planting a biodiverse garden.

This week on the Talking Headways podcast, we chat with Yoni Appelbaum about his book Stuck: How the Privileged and the Propertied Broke the Engine of American Opportunity.

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