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Category Archives: Blog

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June 15, 2015

Hey All! Thanks for keeping up with The Overhead Wire and The Overhead Wire in your RSS feeds or by checking back in to the website.  Many of you are using the RSS instead of getting the daily email and that’s awesome.  As many of you know, for nine years I’ve put together The Overhead


The Next Big Tech Hub?

June 3, 2015

With the tech-driven growth that many places have seen, cities all over the US are trying to become the next big tech hub. Cities are trying to woo developers, incentivize start-up development, or become the next city with Google Fiber. However, Chattanooga, with its superfast fiber-optic broadband network, knows that high speed Internet isn’t the


Building Livable Cities for Our Aging Population

May 11, 2015

Cities, for the most part, are built for the young and the mobile. For the elderly, cities can be hostile environments. Walk signals don’t last long enough for them to make it through the crosswalk, pavements are uneven, and lighting is insufficient. This is an urgent problem that will need to be addressed. By 2030,


How Two-Way Streets Can Improve Cities

April 29, 2015

To improve the livability of neighborhoods, cities often turn to methods like building bike and pedestrian infrastructure or adding trees. However, one of the easiest and most affordable ways to improve cities might be to simply get rid of one-way streets. One-way streets became prevalent when cars were being introduced to the American public, as


San Francisco’s New Luxury Bus Service

April 19, 2015

There’s a new private service in San Francisco offering luxury bus rides to downtown from a few select neighborhoods. For $6 each way, Leap buses have free wifi, usb ports, and sell coffee and fresh juice on board during commutes. Leap is just one of a slew of new startups that are providing luxury or


City Building Games Can Help Illuminate Planning Issues

April 9, 2015

For those who are fans of the SimCity games, there’s a new game that’s taken the city building genre by storm. Cities: Skylines, by the Finnish game development company Colossal Order, was released last month, and it’s quickly become one of the top city building games. While there’s nothing in particular that’s is completely new


A List of April Fools’ Articles

April 2, 2015

St. Louis Ballot Initiative Would Break City Into 42 Municipalities, nextSTL Code Free Zones Proposed by FEMA, Restless Urbanist DC Mayor Muriel Bowser Announces New “Funiculator” Initiative, Greater Greater Washington Bridge Reconstruction Just April Fools’ Joke, City Says, Streets.MN US Government Announces Campaign to Save Historically Bad Places, Project for Public Spaces SF Mayor Ed


Egypt’s Plan for a New, Purpose-Built Capital

April 1, 2015

Egypt’s housing minister Mostafa Madbouly has announced a plan to build a completely new capital city, possibly as soon as within seven years. Cairo, which has a population of 20 million residents and is expected to continue growing, is overpopulated and polluted. The new city is expected to help alleviate some of that congestion and


The Cost of Street Parking Spaces

March 24, 2015

Cities are adding bicycle lanes to streets with heavy bike traffic as a means of improving safety, but the process is constantly being hindered by strong opposition from the businesses along the streets where the lanes are proposed. Most small businesses with street parking spots are reluctant to give them up for parking lanes out


How Accurate, Accessible Arrival Info Can Affect Ridership

March 17, 2015

The US continued its trend of increasing transit ridership last year, despite the dramatic drop in gas prices. While numbers varied widely across cities, the total number of transit trips in the country increased by 1% relative to 2013. Some of the increases in ridership were attributed to growths in transit service, while others were


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