Postcards
Blowout Two highways in Washington state are leaking. According to the San Jose Mercury News, the highways were repaired with used rubber from recycled
- Blowout
Two highways in Washington state are leaking. According to the San Jose Mercury News, the highways were repaired with used rubber from recycled tires and began leaking toxic fumes that threatened nearby waterways, including the Columbia River. The roads were closed and the rubber removed at a cost of about $1 million.
- It’s better than one of those snooty galleries
A Portland, Maine, artist’s latest work has been declared fit for the Hartford, Conn., sewers. Bradley McCallum’s recently closed exhibit, “The Manhole Cover Project: A Gun Legacy,” is going to be reopened — cover by cover — on the streets of one of Hartford’s most violent areas, appropriate since the covers are made from 11,194 melted-down guns that were confiscated by or surrendered to city authorities since 1992. Each of the 228 manhole covers is inscribed with the words, “Made from 172 lbs. of your confiscated guns.” Hartford is the city where Sam Colt introduced firearms more than a century ago.
- Udderly innocent
Mrs. O’Leary’s cow is off the hook. A new research paper, “Did the Cow Do It? A New Look at the Cause of the Great Chicago Fire,” points the finger at Mrs. O’Leary’s neighbor, Daniel “Peg Leg” Sullivan, as the real culprit. According to the paper’s author, Dick Bales, Sullivan might have been in the barn attempting to steal hay for his own cow when he accidentally set the blaze, which killed 300 people and leveled more than three square miles in the city in 1871. At the time the fire began, Bales opines, Mrs. O’Leary was snug in bed and not milking the cow.
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Three U.S. cities to adopt Bloomberg Philanthropies Mayors Challenge-winning project to combat climate change
Bloomberg Philanthropies has announced that seven global cities, including three in the United States, will be adopting Stockholm’s Biochar Project, which turns plant waste from parks and homes into a charcoal-like substance that residents can use in their yards to help combat climate change. The project was the winner of the 2014 Bloomberg Philanthropies European […]
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10 cities ideal for hybrid or full-time telecommuters seeking an outdoor lifestyle
When the pandemic was first realized, cities emptied out, highways were suddenly devoid of cars and storefronts shuttered overnight. The assumption in many communities was that it would last for a few months and then everything would return to normal—those who’d left would return to their office jobs and apartments. But these two years later, […]
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Take American City & County's budgeting survey
With the recently passed infrastructure-related legislation by the federal government, local administrators across the United States are poised to make historic investments into their communities. Given the generational precedence of this action, we’re curious about the state of local budgets—what expense lines are increasing the fastest year-over-year? In what area has federal funding been the […]
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Six cities and counties will take stock of underutilized assets in Rethinking Revenue incubator
The Government Finance Officers Association in collaboration with various organizations including Urban3 and the Sorenson Impact Center has been spearheading a forward-looking approach to public financing, the Rethinking Revenue Project, an investigation of the foundational structure of government revenue and underutilized assets, for about a year now. A new initiative launched by the collaboration is […]