American Cities Discovering The Many Benefits Of Investing In Parks

From Philadelphia to Seattle, American cities are banking on parks and public spaces to drive social and economic progress. “Parks may not seem particularly urgent compared with the latest gangland murder epidemic; but the effort in Chicago to improve and expand them has, neighborhood by neighborhood, delivered long-term rewards. A few downtown showpieces, like the urbane Riverwalk and glamorous Millennium Park, have reaped immense financial windfalls for the city. Barack Obama’s presidential library in Jackson Park promises to become a major new attraction and help rejuvenate that part of the South Side.”

While ISIS Was Busily Wrecking Mosul, It May Have Uncovered The Lost Hanging Gardens Of Babylon

Of the Seven Wonders of the ancient world, the Great Pyramid of Giza survives to this day and the fate of five others is documented. But what became of the Hanging Gardens of Babylon has remained a mystery; some scholars aren’t certain they even existed. But ISIS’s destruction of a shrine on the ancient site of Nineveh may have revealed the key to that mystery. Or perhaps not. The connection involves a chain of historical references that may not hold up – but Noah Charney explains that chain and how it might be plausible.