Recent Streetsblog USA posts about Air Quality

City Pitches in for Yankee Stadium Parking

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What could be worse than replacing neighborhood parks with private parking decks, built with the specific intent of increasing car trips by the tens of thousands through a community already suffering from so much disease-causing pollution that its nickname is "Asthma Alley"? How about forcing afflicted residents to help foot the bill? That’s what could […]

Support Builds for Carbon Taxes Over “Cap and Trade”

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The Independent reports that European CO2 emissions are rising not falling, casting doubt on the EU’s touted Emissions Trading Scheme: Europe’s big polluters pumped more climate-changing gases into the atmosphere in 2006 than during the previous year, according to figures that show the EU’s carbon trading system failing to deliver curbs. Critics said the data […]

Hey, Wanna Buy a Minicar?

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General Motors would like you to like them. No, really. That’s why, at the New York International Auto Show yesterday, they revealed three new concept minicars aimed at the urban market. Called the Groove, the Beat and the Trax, they’re new skins for the same basic guts found in a Chevy Spark or Daewoo Matiz […]

Auto Worship Still a Sign of the Times

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 When the Supreme Court held this week that the Environmental Protection Agency does, in fact, possess the latitude to protect the environment, the New York Times called it "a victory for a world whose environment seems increasingly threatened by climate change." "It is a vindication for states like California that chose not to wait for […]

Congestion Relief: It’s About Your Health

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Yesterday’s New York Times editorial on transportation policy makes a strong case for linking concerns about traffic congestion to concerns about health. It’s worth looking at the full text of All Choked Up, the report from Environmental Defense that the paper references when arguing that in order to achieve his goal of a sustainable city, […]