Recent Posts by Anne
In the 21st century, a seemingly global prosperity masks an unequal distribution of benefits. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the world’s cities, where extreme wealth can exist next door to concentrated poverty. In some cities, like those in South Africa, ...
Big ideas can forever alter the fate of cities when they are written into cement, steel and stone. When St. Petersburg, Russia, was created in 1703 by Peter the Great, he envisioned the new capital as an emblem of a modern ...
Positive change happens in cities, but it’s often lost in a sea of bad news about air pollution, rising costs of living, traffic jams and inequality. When we launched the WRI Ross Prize for Cities in February 2018, we aimed ...
Warwick Junction is a finalist for the WRI Ross Prize for Cities. Warwick Junction’s maze of stalls, arches and bridges can elicit wonder in any first-time visitor to South Africa’s largest marketplace. The area’s nine distinct markets are wedged between ...
SARSAI is a finalist for the WRI Ross Prize for Cities. Chaos often reigns on the streets of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania’s capital. Minivans, cars and motorcycles careen along half-finished roads without markings, sidewalks or traffic lights. Pedestrians walk ...
Eskişehir Urban Development Project is a finalist for the WRI Ross Prize for Cities. Many cities are looking for a new future after the decline of traditional manufacturing industries. From the American Rust Belt to Europe’s industrial heartlands, mayors are ...
SWaCH is a finalist for the WRI Ross Prize for Cities. Pinky Sonawane spent her childhood gathering garbage on the streets of Pune, India. She’d join her mother in pulling plastic bottles, cans and cardboard from roadside dumpsters, selling ...
Metrocable is a finalist for the WRI Ross Prize for Cities. Medellín, Colombia, used to be the murder capital of the world. With the explosion of the global drug trade in the 1980s, crime burgeoned, plunging the city into ...
Urbanization is changing the face of the planet – for better and for worse. City populations, GDP and investment are increasing exponentially. At the same time, carbon emissions are rising, more and more people are living in slums, and air pollution ...
The WRI Ross Prize for Cities seeks to answer the question every city wants to know: How do you achieve lasting, large-scale, positive change in your city? This week, applications for the inaugural $250,000 WRI Ross Prize closed and the ...
Every other Sunday, thousands of people spill onto otherwise auto-clogged city streets across India. For a few hours, the roadways are theirs – to walk, cycle, skate, practice yoga, CrossFit, even Zumba. Open streets days, known locally as Raahgiri Days, ...
In climate negotiations, as elsewhere, the question of money takes center stage. How will existing and future commitments be paid for, and who will invest in potentially capital-intensive infrastructure projects? Estimates vary depending on a range of factors, but aggregating ...
By 2050, the global population is expected to soar beyond 9 billion people, 66 percent of whom may live in cities. Accompanying this stunning pace of urbanization will be a complex web of challenges related to consumption, pollution and water and energy stresses. Recently, ...
Innovative business models can turn entire industries on their head – just ask retail executives how Amazon has changed their world, mobility companies about Uber, or music magnates about Apple’s legacy. How we shop, move, and enjoy music is fundamentally ...
The 18 Latin American Cities currently signed onto the Clean Bus Declaration of 2015 are sending clear signals to the market about their commitment to transitioning their bus fleets to low or zero emission buses. The time to transition is ...
