WASHINGTON — Recent news story:   a religious minority seeks to construct a building to conform with its faith and architectural traditions.   The majority, of a different faith, denies permission.   Sounds like Switzerland?   In fact, this story comes from the other side of the Atlantic.   Amish residents of Morristown, New York, [...]

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WASHINGTON — When I traveled abroad as an American Marshall Memorial Fellow in October 2008, I discovered something most people wouldn’t notice. The notion of an attorney with his partner, a dog guide, draws attention on both sides of the Atlantic.   I recall one individual claiming that disability law, policy, or concerns have no [...]

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U.S. President Barack Obama and leaders of the rest of the G-20 won’t arrive in Pittsburgh for the summit until Thursday, but there’s plenty of excitement in the air already. A flurry of last-minute road resurfacing projects wrapped up over the weekend. The first protest marches on Sunday went off without a serious hitch. For [...]

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President Obama’s plan to invest $13 billion in inter-city high speed rail has drawn excited praise from urbanists and environmentalists, and skepticism from conservatives. Liberals tend to argue that high-speed rail will take cars off the road and planes from the sky, while encouraging development of central cities. Conservatives tend to argue that Americans are [...]

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Earlier this month, civic leaders in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (a part of GMF’s Transatlantic Cities Network) officially kicked off a two-year participatory regional visioning project. The aim of the project will be to draft a set of concrete goals €“ a “to-do list” €“ for the greater Pittsburgh metropolitan area, a 30-county region that spans four [...]

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