All Writings

Civic space is more than land set aside for leisure. It is the stage on which public life unfolds.

In the grand machinery of American government, federal dollars often seem like the oil—flowing silently, invisibly, sustaining the...

It was the middle of the day, and I happened to be at the fire station when the call came in—a fire alarm. Nothing in the initial report...

We often convince ourselves that democracy is safe so long as we keep its trappings: voting, legislatures, courts. But the true strength...

There’s a quiet contract between citizens and the state. We go about our daily lives—working, raising families, checking the weather with...

This spring, Mt. Lebanon and Dormont are embarking on something simple but transformative: creating a shared Active Transportation Plan ....

In the hills and hollows of Southwest Pennsylvania, the remnants of an earlier American century still stand—steel trusses, redbrick mill...

By reclaiming its streets, reshaping its air, and reimagining the very experience of movement, Paris has performed something bordering on a civic miracle.

There is something paradoxically modern and ancient about Earth Day. Conceived in 1970 amid the maelstrom of American cultural and...

Pittsburgh’s transit system is at a crossroads — and the stakes go far beyond buses and schedules. Our region can’t grow, attract jobs, or compete without a transit network built for today’s economy. Pittsburgh Regional Transit needs a strategic realignment — and those who benefit most from it must step up and invest.