The urban landscape of Hong Kong

Johnny Harris (Vox) has filmed a great series of short-videos that helps us understand the urban landscape of Hong Kong. In one of these videos, Johnny talks about how one of the most unaffordable housing markets in the world is driven by government's land-use regulations. The videos also cover the decline of Hong Kong's neon nightscape and even how feng shui shapes the city skyline. There is also a very informative one about the changing relationship between Hong Kong and China. You can check the list of videos below.

Quote of the Day: progress

Sean Illing: What would you consider the most dangerous idea in human history?

Tyler Cowen: The idea of progress. ... Well, we're all for progress. It's easy to say the most dangerous idea is evil or racism or genocide or murder, but those ideas tend to persist only when they're packaged with some notion of progress. Progress, for all of its good, brings us new technologies and threats against which we can't deter, environmental problems, biodiversity loss, and so on. That we cannot avoid believing in progress may also prove to be our undoing.

This is from an interview T. Cowen gave to Vox.

How Barcelona is taking city streets back from cars

The team at Vox have produced some interesting videos on urban-related topics. I've posted a few of them here in the blog before. This one below covers the urban planning in Barcelona, which uses superblocks as a means to build more liveable and inclusive urban environments in parts of the city.

This video is actually from 2 years ago but I only saw this video last week (thanks to the recommendation of  Telmo Amand, who was my high-school geography teacher!)

The high cost of free parking

Nice video by Vox and the Mobility Lab team on how parking requirements shaped American cities. Via Jeff Wood

How congestion pricing works in London and how it could soon work in NYC

New York city is closer than ever to adopt congestion pricing. This could be a major change in how they address their transportation challenges and fund public transport. A team at Vox made an informative video about this, and they asked the sharp Nicole Badstuber (Twitter) to explain how congestion pricing works in London. London started charging private vehicles to enter the city center in 2003. Last month they enacted the London’s ultra-low emission zone, which adds another charge for most vehicles manufactured before 2015.

Our biggest cities have existed and died before

Ta-Prohm, Cambodia, used to be the largest population settlement before the industrial revolution. Nowadays it is one of the most impressive ruins in the world.

"In reality, our biggest cities have existed and died before. This one did. It just happens over a longer period of time - the rain falls, the roots grow and nature eats what we built. The best technology of that time wasn't enough." Geat video by Joe Posner (Vox)