The organization 100 Resilient Cities has funded 'chief resilience officers' in 66 cities worldwide. It's helping four California cities prepare for 'stresses and shocks' including earthquakes, sea level rise, and even poverty.
"'Resilience' refers to cities’ ability to weather and recover from discrete 'shocks,' such as earthquakes, and chronic 'stresses,' such as poverty and the predicted effects of climate change. California has become Ground Zero in the resilience movement."
"Once defined, 100RC encourages each city to set its own priorities, by identifying its most pressing threats and the strategies needed to avoid or recover from them. Likewise, cities identify initiatives already underway and might reframe then as resilience-building efforts. 100RC bases its approach to resilience on the “City Resilience Framework,” drafted in a multi-year process by ARUP. The framework is accompanied by an index of 200 indicators of urban resilience."
"Regardless of how much support or funding they have, CROs may not be around long enough to witness the fruits of their labors (or to witness the non-events that will take place when cities weather disasters). 100RC hopes that cities will continue to fund CRO positions after two- or three-year grant periods. But cities are not obligated to do so. For that reason, the project has been criticized as encouraging cities to 'make plans to make plans.'"
FULL STORY: California Cities Join Global Urban Resilience Movement

What ‘The Brutalist’ Teaches Us About Modern Cities
How architecture and urban landscapes reflect the trauma and dysfunction of the post-war experience.

‘Complete Streets’ Webpage Deleted in Federal Purge
Basic resources and information on building bike lanes and sidewalks, formerly housed on the government’s Complete Streets website, are now gone.

The VW Bus is Back — Now as an Electric Minivan
Volkswagen’s ID. Buzz reimagines its iconic Bus as a fully electric minivan, blending retro design with modern technology, a 231-mile range, and practical versatility to offer a stylish yet functional EV for the future.

U.S. Miles Driven Rose by 1 Percent in 2024
Americans drove a total of 3.279 trillion miles in 2024, but per capita VMT stayed the same.

Seattle Recorded Zero Bike Deaths in 2024, per Early Data
The city halved the number of pedestrian deaths compared to 2021.

Study: London ULEZ Rapidly Cleaning up Air Pollution
Expanding the city’s ultra low-emission zone has resulted in dramatic drops in particle emissions in inner and outer London.
Urban Design for Planners 1: Software Tools
This six-course series explores essential urban design concepts using open source software and equips planners with the tools they need to participate fully in the urban design process.
Planning for Universal Design
Learn the tools for implementing Universal Design in planning regulations.
City of Albany
UCLA Lewis Center for Regional Policy Studies
Mpact (formerly Rail~Volution)
Chaddick Institute at DePaul University
City of Piedmont, CA
Great Falls Development Authority, Inc.
HUDs Office of Policy Development and Research