[URBAN NOTE] Five cities links: Basel, Montréal, United Kingdom, black America, Duisburg

[rfmcdonald]

• CityLab looks at the streetcar system of the Swiss city of Basel, which extends over national frontiers into France (Alsace) and Germany (Baden-Württemburg).


• Global News suggests retail vacancies along rue Sainte-Catherine in Montréal reflects the impact of online shopping.


• CityMetric suggests that the secondary cities of Britain, i.e. cities that aren't the cosmopolis of London, are underperforming by the standards of their western European peers.


• Fast Company examines how and why black entrepreneurship is taking off in the Southern cities of Memphis, Atlanta, and Alabama's Montgomery.


• Politico Europe notes that the German city of Duisburg, painfully transitioned from its industrial Ruhr past, has become a major node in China's New Silk Road initiative.