Josh Stephens is the editor of the California Planning & Development Report, an independent newsletter covering land use and policy.
While the middle class sought the refuge in the suburbs in the 1960s and 1970s, it turns out that the crime they were fleeing had nothing to do with density, race, or even blight. Mother Jones magazine suggest that it was all because of lead.
Saturday, April 13, 2013 - 5:38pm PDT
I can't remember the last time I left the house and gave a moment's though to whether I'd be warm enough, or whether I needed to bring an umbrella. Meanwhile, half the East Coast is underwater. Friends on Facebook have posted status updates about "hurricane envy," and the tales of destruction, disruption, heroism, and all-night parties gush in like tidal surges.
Friday, November 2, 2012 - 9:36pm PDT
How much is a hipster worth to a city? Is she worth more when she's building an app, or when she's writing a blog? Is a hipster with a walrus mustache and a mean whiffle ball pitch worth more than one who wears a sarong and practices aerial yoga? How many of them can dance on the pull tab of a PBR?
Friday, July 27, 2012 - 8:37pm PDT
This week the American Planning Association proudly released the results of a recent poll entitled
Planning in America: Perceptions and Priorities, which it commissioned indicating that Americans are overwhelmingly supportive of community planning. Given the state of national politics, it's no wonder that Americans are reserving their passions for local issues. Boss Tweed and Mayor Quimby are looking like angels by comparison.
Some of the results are beyond obvious -- such as the fact that 77% of Americans "agree that communities that plan for the future are stronger" -- while others could, if heeded, foretell profound changes for the profession.
Friday, June 15, 2012 - 4:03pm PDT
LOGAN AIRPORT, Boston – I’m on my way home from the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy’s Journalists Forum , an annual event, co-sponsored by the Harvard Graduate School of Design and the Neiman Foundation, in which journalists from around the country convene to discuss, jointly, the fate of our industry and the fate of American cities.
Tuesday, April 24, 2012 - 9:07am PDT
I am writing this missive from the living room of a Starbucks. Not that you'd care where I'm writing from. Except this time it's relevant.
Here on Montana Avenue, in Santa Monica, I'm joined by other folks who are also on their laptops, recovering from yoga, or just biding their time. The guy sitting at my table just sold a pilot to Fox. That's nice for him. A few weeks ago I sat next to Hillary Swank here. She's not hurting either.
But others aren't so lucky. To its credit, Starbucks seems to want to do something about it.
Tuesday, October 18, 2011 - 1:00pm PDT
To its minimal
credit, Borders Books & Music always had a a few shelves where the works of
Jacobs, Mumford, Kunstler, Whyte, Florida, and others resided.
But, judging by the
financial and aesthetic bankruptcies of, respectively, Borders and many American cities,
it seems that copies of Life and Death (or anything else) weren't exactly flying out the door. If
the public's understanding of urban economies even began to rival its
fascination for gossip, self-help, and vampires, Borders never would have
arisen in the first place.
Wednesday, July 20, 2011 - 9:39am PDT
California State Treasurer Bill Lockyer would be better off dead.
Hang on. Let me explain.
I wish no harm to the treasurer. I'm willing to assume that he's a decent fellow and a dedicated public servant. Yet, as he walks among the living, even he abides by the whims of human frailty. At least one legislator, and more than a few other civic leaders, in the Bay Area seems to think otherwise.
Friday, April 15, 2011 - 2:43pm PDT
Most trends are fleeting, some of them mercifully so. Some last no longer than a Lady Gaga wardrobe change. But urbanism is still, by and large, a leisurely exercise, so it's no wonder that planners still embrace fashions on a nearly generational basis. It often takes that long just to see if something works. Or not.
So, while Gaga would inspire us to attach telephones to our heads and light our bustiers on fire, planners who ascribe to the principles of smart growth are still rhetorically swaddling cities in the urban equivalent of flannel. For better or worse, this age may finally be coming to a close. Don't cry, Monster.
Wednesday, March 2, 2011 - 8:47am PST
For some lucky candidates, tomorrow’s election will have a storybook ending. Unfortunately for anyone who understands architecture, planning, and land use, that storybook will, in many cases, turn out to be The Fountainhead.
The train wreck of ideologies that is emerging this election season is too much for anyone to categorize.
Monday, November 1, 2010 - 11:15am PDT
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