By Carlos F. Ugalde Twenty years ago, the idea of an unmanned vehicle operating in our roads was simply preposterous. Besides the apparent impossibility of developing such technology, the largest concern was- and continues to be- the safety of pedestrians and passengers. How can we allow a machine to make its own choices in unpredictable road settings! Despite this apprehension, experts predict that about 54 million autonomous vehicles, more commonly known as “driverless cars,” will be operating by 2035, and “nearly all of the vehicles in use are likely to be self-driving cars . . . sometime after 2050.”
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By Henry Parr Since March of this year, the Ebola virus has led a particularly destructive path in the West African countries of Sierra Leone, Guinea, and Cote D’Ivoire, taking more than 4,000 lives. As fatalities continue to rise, including the first recorded American death this past week, news media outlets have dedicated more coverage to the epidemic and its potential to spread. Public health analysts, however, are not certain of the threat the virus poses to American cities.
By Amanda Grannis As a new school year begins, New York City public school teachers, school nurses, and guidance counselors will work under a new contract. The teachers’ union, the United Federation of Teachers (UFT), approved the nine-year, $5.3 billion contact this past June, agreeing to an 18% pay raise, as well as a back pay agreement of nearly 8% for each individual teacher’s annual salary.
By Jared Gans Mayor Bill de Blasio has voiced concern over the affordable housing dilemma and has announced his plan for 200,000 subsidized units to be built or preserved over the next decade. However, he has yet to explain how this will happen. Miriam Peterson, Sagi Golan, and Nathan Rich, three young architects and fellows from the Institute for Public Architecture, have come up with a plan to effectively eat away at this seemingly arbitrary and impossible target number.
By Carlos F. Ugalde On January 2014, upon his inauguration as mayor, Bill de Blasio announced his intention to adopt a road traffic safety program, known as Vision Zero, aimed at eradicating all traffic fatalities in New York City by 2024. In 2013, New York City had one of the highest traffic mortality rates in the United States cities with 286 traffic-related fatalities. Swedish policymakers were the first to institute this type of strategy in 1997. Consistent with the Swedish plan, de Blasio’s Vision Zero prioritizes human life and safety over economic efficiency, setting aside core principles of cost-benefit analysis.
By Henry Parr This past summer, New Yorkers were shocked to read that a new development on the Upper West Side of Manhattan was given the green light to build separate entrances for its market-rate condo owners and affordable housing renters. The “poor door” was likened to racially segregated bathrooms of the pre-Civil Rights era and the strict class divisions depicted on the show “Upstairs Downstairs.” While a new poll shows that 78% of New Yorkers are opposed to the poor doors, policy experts are divided on the issue.
By Chris Bosch The popular “e-cigarette” devices are facing increased regulatory scrutiny in cities across the United States. The OC Register reported that the most common move by cities is adding e-cigarette language to smoking bans that are already on the books. The Los Angeles City Council did just this in March, when it prohibited e-cigarettes in public places where smoking was already banned. Boston, Philadelphia, New York, and Chicago are also part of this ever-growing movement, which now includes about 100 cities in California alone.
By Alex Cárdenas Smart-phones and apps increasingly simplify common daily activities – Uber aims to do nothing different. Uber and other similar apps form a newly defined system of transportation network companies (“TNCs”) that allow passengers to connect with drivers via online platforms in order to request traditional taxi-type transportation service. These tech alternatives to cab and limo services, which are rapidly appearing in many U.S. cities, present state and local governments with new issues of regulation and oversight.
By George Huber It’s increasingly difficult not to think of George Orwell whenever the government discusses its data collection and plans for the future. In a January speech, President Obama expressed his hope that the National Security Agency would stop collecting call records in bulk, and a recent New York Times article detailed his administration’s new legislative proposal to overhaul the phone records program. The proposed legislation, however, may not go far enough to ease many concerns about the government’s data surveillance.
By Nicole Beletsky Though the ideal may be carbon-neutrality, as highlighted by Web Urbanist’s coverage of plans for Masdar City in Abu Dhabi, “cap and trade” programs demonstrate one method to reduce carbon emissions without significant economic harm.