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Divided by the river Volga, the western Russian city is home to a secret museum of wooden architecture, an ‘exotic’ commuter cable car, lilac-scented wind and flight of stairs so long it’s almost impossible to count
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In Ghana’s capital, cars, motorbikes and minibuses jostle for road space during a daily descent on the city centre. With air pollution killing thousands every year and Accra’s population set to double within 20 years, can the city find a solution?
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Underneath the streets of the capital lies a hidden labyrinth of Victorian sewers. We’re going down 20 metres and back 150 years
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The global craze for exploring secret, closed-off city spaces is escalating – as are the risks some thrill-seekers are willing to take. So what’s the appeal? There was only one way for Stephen Moss to find out ...
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Delaying repairs to save money and dehumanising your tenants ... Adam Forrest becomes a virtual landlord and learns some interesting – and depressing – lessons
the big picture
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To mark this year’s UrbanPhotoFest theme of ‘photography, memory and archive’, our readers shared old pictures and memories of cities around the world
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This is humankind's 'great urbanisation'. We must do it right, or the planet will pay
Dimitri Zenghelis and Nicholas SternThe world will never again build cities as rapidly as it does this century. If we are serious about limiting global warming, tackling air pollution and promoting innovative, resource-efficient growth, there is a narrow window of opportunity -
Motor City Detroit built the automobiles, oil capital Houston fuelled them and Los Angeles was carved up by freeways in their honour. Yet now all three cities are pushing walking, cycling and the use of public transport. So does this mean America’s love affair with the car is finally waning?
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The Staten Island landfill once received 10m tonnes of waste annually. After 9/11, it unexpectedly became a burial site. Now its ‘trash mountains’ are being turned into a public park – but where does that leave New York’s waste problem?
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Después de Hábitat III: un futuro urbano más fuerte deberá basarse en el derecho a la ciudad
Ada ColauCiudades ágiles e innovadoras están mejor posicionadas que los gobiernos nacionales –rehenes de la inercia del siglo pasado- para enfrentarse a grandes retos globales, pero la lucha debe empezar ahora, afirma la primera mujer alcaldesa de Barcelona
in depth
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Exclusive Sadiq Khan tells the Guardian he will carry out ‘the most thorough research on this matter ever undertaken’ amid widespread concern over rising housing costs and gentrification
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get involved
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With the finding that 40% of illegal dumping in England takes place in the capital, we asked readers to share photos of fly-tipping in their neighbourhoods
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From Austin’s howling coyotes to Amsterdam’s cycling etiquette and Abu Dhabi’s taxi drivers, readers share their experiences of settling in a new city
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From lost buildings to transformed neighbourhoods, share your pictures and memories of the changing landscapes of cities with GuardianWitness
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From filling billboards to mapping a whole city, readers and their experiences have played a huge role in the development of Guardian Cities. But what stories are we missing, and how can we improve? Share your ideas and suggestions
in pictures
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As a huge crater opened up in the Japanese city of Fukuoka, we take a look at the largest urban sinkholes – from Guangzhou to Guatemala City
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‘We take rusty old junk and we put love into it.’ The old Motor City has a unique style in bicycles these days: from fat wheels and fake fuel tanks to stretched cycles with powerful sound systems – and even a family-sized BBQ
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In his project Familiar, designer Luca Picardi examines existing marketing material for new developments in North Europe – from London to Malmö, Hamburg to Helsinki – to highlight their striking similarities. If you’ve seen one …
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Photojournalist Lauren DeCicca met three Thai families who have created makeshift homes from abandoned aeroplanes in a vacant lot in east Bangkok
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Photographer Christian Sinibaldi was granted unprecedented access to the corridors of Vatican City. Over several months he gained the trust of those who work there, got to know the city’s inner workings, and captured scenes which are rarely seen by outsiders
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These photographs showing the construction of landmark London buildings and infrastructure projects are taken from Collage: The London Picture Archive
most viewed
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Thirty years on from The Smiths’ only UK No 1 studio album, how do the band’s legendary evocations of 1980s Manchester compare with life in the city today? There’s only one place to start …
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The truth about property developers: how they are exploiting planning authorities and ruining our cities
Oliver WainwrightAffordable housing quotas get waived and the interests of residents trampled as toothless authorities bow to the dazzling wealth of investors from Russia, China and the Middle East -
The heavyweight world championship showdown between Muhammad Ali and George Foreman electrified a city full of pride and promise in the early years following independence – and then the money ran out …
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What is life like in Mali’s ‘city in the middle of nowhere’? Guardian photographer Sean Smith recently spent a week there, meeting everyone from Timbuktu’s chief muezzin to its only DJ
Unfinished bridge reveals broken state of North Korea's alliance with China