A Q&A with John Williams, who studies the historical links between the built environment and racial injustice in U.S. cities.

Joe Biden is providing America with inspiring and strategic climate and economic leadership.

Over 70% of the American public favors Biden’s stimulus plan and I suspect a similar number will support an infrastructure bill that will rebuild our roads and restore employment.

New York has the potential to be a model for how cities around the country can employ bicycling to improve environmental conditions and quality of life for residents.

Making New York City a more accessible place for mothers enhances the economic and social status of women, especially single mothers and female heads of households. This not only reduces the economic burden of childcare but also improves the job prospects of motherhood.

An effective transportation system is to the sustainable city what a well-functioning circulatory system is to a healthy human being. New York City has developed along the path of its subway system.

“We have conflated mobility with access, but mobility is not the same as access. The best solution to a transportation problem is to not have to travel. The city itself was invented as a solution to a transportation problem. We have cities so we don’t have to travel.”

While it would be nice to see a mass transit financing solution included in an effort to rebuild the nation’s depleted highway trust fund, a nation that refuses to tax itself to repair deteriorating roads and bridges appears unlikely to provide funding for mass transit. Still, no effort to increase energy efficiency and reduce greenhouse gases can succeed without enhanced mass transit.