The Best of Guardian Cities
10+ most popular Guardian Cities articles, as voted by our community.
Stories, news, analysis and debate on the future of cities and urban life all over the world, from the @Guardian
Guardian Cities on Biking
A cyclist's guide to biking the city
The Illustrated City: Urban cycling is good for health, the wallet and the environment – but is still not without its risks
Guardian Cities on Ecology
Concrete: the most destructive material on Earth
After water, concrete is the most widely used substance on the planet. But its benefits mask enormous dangers to ecology, to health and to culture itself
Guardian Cities on Ecommerce
Are the hyper-specialist shops of Berlin the future of retail?
One shop sells nothing but buttons, another sells only liquorice, and another is ‘the world’s first textile butcher shop’. In the age of Amazon, it seems the way to thrive is to specialise
Guardian Cities on Future Cities
The case for ... cities where you're the sensor, not the thing being sensed
Imagine your smartphone knew everything about the city – but the city didn’t know anything about you. Wouldn’t that be ‘smarter’ than our current surveillance dystopia?
Guardian Cities on Future Of Cars
‘People are happier in a walkable neighborhood’: the US community that banned cars
A new housing development outside Phoenix is looking towards European cities for inspiration and shutting out the cars. So far residents love it
Guardian Cities on Nature
‘We need trees’: green vision struggles to take root in Europe’s cities
Planners want to plant trees to tackle climate crisis but often face a hostile urban environment
Guardian Cities on Outdoors
Copenhagenize your city: the case for urban cycling in 12 graphs
Danish-Canadian urban designer Mikael Colville-Andersen busts some common myths and shows how the bicycle has the potential to transform cities around the world
Guardian Cities on Sharing Economy
The unexpected beauty of China's bicycle graveyards
For the past 18 months many cities in China have been flooded by millions of dockless share bikes. Those that block pavements or apartment entrances have been removed by authorities to vast storage areas. Viewed from afar they create compelling and mysterious patterns – but also represent waste on an enormous scale
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'It’s a miracle': Helsinki's radical solution to homelessness
Finland is the only EU country where homelessness is falling. Its secret? Giving people homes as soon as they need them – unconditionally
The case for ... making low-tech 'dumb' cities instead of 'smart' ones
High-tech smart cities promise efficiency by monitoring everything from bins to bridges. But what if we ditched the data and embraced ancient technology instead?
The three-degree world: the cities that will be drowned by global warming
The UN is warning that we are now on course for 3C of global warming. This will ultimately redraw the map of the world
Asia is home to 99 of world’s 100 most vulnerable cities
Indonesia’s capital Jakarta – plagued by pollution, flooding and heatwaves – tops risk assessment ranking
«Of the 100 cities worldwide most vulnerable to environmental hazards all but one are in Asia, and 80% are in India or China, according to a risk assessment.»
'We all suffer': why San Francisco techies hate the city they transformed
Amid a homelessness crisis, sky-high rent and a surplus of rich people, insiders bemoan the effects of their own industry
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