Founded in 1882, the American Public Transportation Association (APTA) works to "serve the public interest by providing safe, efficient and economical transit services." Their members include public bus, rapid transit, and commuter rail systems, along with various private organizations that provide support services for these systems. First-time visitors to the site may wish to look over some of...

Several decades before Ernest Hemingway came to Paris to spend some quality time with Gertrude Stein near the Jardin de Luxembourg; there were a multitude of other American artists inspired by the City of Lights. Paris was, without a doubt, the art capital of the 19th century, and as Henry James remarked in 1887 "when to-day we look for 'American art' we find it mainly in Paris." Staff members at...

In many urban areas around the United States, certain neighborhoods have few, if any, traditional financial services available for local residents. This intriguing report, produced by the Urban Institute Metropolitan Housing and Communities Policy Center (for the Fannie Mae Foundation), explores the alternative financial service providers (such as check-cashing outlets) that some 56 million adults...

This website was created by the Courtauld Institute of Art, a British institute created for the study of Western art. The website is "designed to be explored," and with over 40,000 images and a network of over 500,000 links, there's a great deal to explore. Because of the vast amount of content, visitors might find it helpful to first check out the link at the bottom of the page, entitled "About...

Protest movements in cities are often thought of as being generally directed towards corrupt leaders, social injustice, the treatment of the homeless, and other timely issues. Rarely does one think about an artistic statement that calls into question the nature of gated communities, but that is exactly the idea behind the latest action taken by the group known as “Heavy Trash”. The coalition...

Many policy analysts and urbanologists are interested in the role that cultural institutions play in cities, and this report from the RAND Corporation explores the interaction between these institutions and the different cities in which they are located. Released in March 2007, this 124-page report was authored by Kevin F. McCarthy, Elizabeth Heneghan Ondaatje, and Jennifer L. Novak. After...

Racial Balance Shifts as 'White Flight' Subsides [Real Player] http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=92744947&ft=1&f=1015 How Willie Kathryn Suggs Changed the Harlem Real-Estate Market http://nymag.com/realestate/features/48328/ In Thousands of Images, a Photographer Builds a History in Harlem [Free registration may be...

Panel suggests 100 Ways Buildings Can Be Greener http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/02/science/earth/02green.html?ref=todayspaper HUD Announces the first Recovery Act Green Retrofit Grant for Multi-Family Housing http://portal.hud.gov/portal/page/portal/HUD/states/new_york/news/HUDNo.2010-01-12a Urban Green Council [pdf] http://www.urbangreencouncil.org/greencodes/ Cities Go...

The Preservation Green Lab at the National Trust for Historic Preservation aims to connect historic preservation with growing interest in sustainability nation-wide. With this goal, the organization has created the Atlas of ReUrbanism, a series of interactive maps that present data about urban buildings in an engaging fashion. Aimed at urban developers, residents, activists, and journalists, the...

How have cities grown over time? Answers to this important question are provided in visual form via the Lincoln Land Institute's Atlas of Urban Expansion. This resource "provides the geographic and quantitative dimensions of urban expansion and its key attributes in cities the world over." Visitors to the site should start their own exploration by looking at "Making Room for a Planet of Cities," a...