[URBAN NOTE] Six city notes: design, Grenfell, London, Chennai, Damascus, Istanbul, Izmir, Beirut

[rfmcdonald]

• VICE describes the pressing need to design cities in ways such that city living is less stressful for inhabitants.


• This heartbreaking GQ article describes the Grenfell Tower catastrophe through interviews with rescuers and the rescued alike. What a horrific tragedy.


• Chennai, and wider Tamil Nadu, risks going through the experience of Detroit and its automotive industry migrates away. Bloomberg reports.


• Open Democracy takes a look at how Russian soldiers in Damascus interact with the Syrian locals.


• Inhabitants of Istanbul, it seems, are migrating to less expensive and more liberal Izmir down on the Aegean coast. Al-Monitor reports.


• Parties featuring West African music are thriving in Beirut, brought back to Lebanon by Lebanese migrants. Al-Monitor reports.