Cities – EURA

Cities

24/05/2024

#63 Abolition of the income tax surtax for financing Croatian municipalities and cities

Surtax on income tax was introduced in Croatia in 1994. The main reason was to provide local authorities with more fiscal space in the acquisition of revenue. Cities with more than 40,000 inhabitants were given the authority to determine the surtax ...
16/05/2024

Start with Children – Bratislava Summit 2024

Every May for the next three years, the Bratislava Summit will gather mayors and city officials, experts, philanthropies, and mission-driven businesses to share success cases of shaping cities for children to thrive. The event is organised by the City of Bratislava and the Metropolitan Institute of Bratislava. Speakers include Gil Penalosa, Ankita Chachra, Jan Gehl, Anna Dworakowska, Amanda M. Burden, Erion Veliaj, among others. The event will take place in the Old Market Hall
 in Bratislava, between 28–29 May 2024. Tickets available at the official website.
30/06/2023
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#55 Cities and artificial intelligence

Generative AI is a form of artificial intelligence (AI) that produces content based on patterns it observes in large datasets. Although AI has been in use extensively in many settings (e.g. in scientific work and in the classroom), excitement and concern around AI seemed to reach a crescendo at the beginning of 2023. For instance, teachers began sharing reflections on the implications these language models ...
24/04/2023
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#53 Voluntary merger of municipalities and cities in Croatia

In many countries, policymakers are focussing on administrative-territorial reforms in order to improve the effectiveness of local governance. Some have reduced the number of municipalities through mergers. A voluntary merger is when central government provides the legal framework for the merger but leaves local authorities to negotiate and propose new boundaries. This is a "bottom-up" process and ...
30/03/2023
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#52 Solidarism and the city: let a thousand publics bloom

Swedish democracy is heading towards grimmer days. The political direction of the new conservative government of 2022, supported by the radical nationalist “Sweden democrats” sprung out of a neo-Nazi-party in the 1990’s, has a knife tip aimed towards migrants and multicultural society. Many fear that the main attack is against our egalitarian welfare model ...
28/02/2023
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#51 New perspectives for energy in cities

According to UN Habitat, urban areas consume 75% of total energy consumption and are responsible for around 70% of the greenhouse gas emissions. This is because all of the major urban infrastructures are highly energy-dependent: water supply, treatment and waste water disposal, transportation and communication infrastructures, intricate webs of food and material supply, waste disposal, and energy supply itself...
08/02/2023

Cities Forum 2023 – Upcoming

The 5th edition of Cities Forum will be held in Torino, Italy from 16 to 17 March 2023. The event brings together key urban stakeholders at European, national, regional and local levels who are committed to a green and just future of cities. Discover what’s next in sustainable urban development...

11/04/2022
Photo of Le Anh Long for Blog Post

#42 Hope in cities

Thursday, February 24, 2022, I lay in bed unable to sleep. Two days before, Russia announced that it would recognize the independence of two pro-Russian Ukrainian territories and this morning, the invasion of Ukraine began. I was at a loss. Speaking to others – friends, relatives, students, and colleagues – it was clear that I was not alone. Fear, sadness, uncertainty, frustration, anger… the emotions roiling inside of us were legion. This was not new: It brought me b...
28/03/2022
Photo of Pietro Elisei for Blog Post

#41 Contemporary cities

The great recession (2008) and the Pandemic (2020) have redefined the balances and economies of European cities, but we could easily scale this consideration globally, however, in this conversation I will stay within the EU borders. The first crisis at least had the advantage of being progressive and of affecting only the demand side, the second instead hit us like an asteroid. The crisis induced by Covid tri...