The case for the $6 parking meter

- Parking in cities is a nightmare. Now, experts are proposing a radical, market-driven solution.

City supermarkets shrink to fit

- The convergence of major food chains zeroing in on the urban landscape presents a host of challenges, including having to work with less real estate.

Threat from Asian beetle expands beyond cities

- A new study has documented for the first time that the Asian longhorned beetle is not content to merely munch on urban trees but that the nonnative insects can thrive in forests, confirming scientists’ fears about the possible scale of the destruction from an outbreak that has already claimed tens of thousands of trees in Worcester. (Photo: Jennifer Forman Orth/MDAR)

OPINION: The locavore’s dilemma

- ALL THAT is grassy is not green. There are many good reasons to like local food, but any large-scale metropolitan farming will do more harm than good to the environment. Devoting scarce metropolitan land to agriculture means lower density levels, longer drives, and carbon emission increases which easily offset the modest greenhouse gas reductions associated with shipping less food.

(The Boston Globe/Istockphoto;Heather Hopp-Bruce/Globe Staff Illustration)