Community / Economic Development
Starting Up Small
Though typically centered in bigger cities, this piece from Business Week looks at the best small cities to locate startup businesses in every state.
Boston Neighborhoods to See Rail-Related Upgrades
New stations for the Fairmount rail line in Boston has made its surrounding neighborhoods targets for redevelopment by community organizations, which may rebuild up to a dozen properties.
HUD Homeownership Program Shows Promise
An ambitious HUD program promoting homeownership in troubled neighborhoods is, by some accounts, "one of the more intelligent things HUD has done in its history."
"Communiversity": A Bond You Can't Break
College towns fare relatively well during a recession due to the stable, highly skilled work force colleges offer their communities.
Staten Island Rail on the Drawing Board
A year-long study of the proposed West Shore Light Rail finds that the borough could draw nine stations and about 13,000 riders traveling within Staten Island or to Manhattan.
Not Quite the Urban Utopia
When Andres Duany planned the village of Cornell, he built in walkability, density, and mixed-use. The outcome, however, falls short of the New Urbanist vision; driving is the norm and retail is scarce. What happened?
Sustaining the New Urbanism
New urbanists ponder how they can adapt to the new economic climate and avoid the fate of their predecessors.
Rebirth Through Art in Abandoned Detroit
This piece from NPR looks at what artists are doing in Detroit to snatch up abandoned homes and convert them into community centers and art spaces.
Unappreciated Cyclists In Sausalito
Marin County has a reputation to live up to. In this column, Sausalito does just that in its treatment of hordes of cycling tourists who rent bikes on Fisherman's Wharf, pedal across the GG Bridge to have lunch in Sausalito, and return on the ferry.
New York's 'Slaughtered Neighborhoods'
Likening the impact of the economic crisis to a dirty bomb or a "second 9/11", Tom Engelhardt takes the reader on a tour of what remains of his once-vibrant New York neighborhood.
Draft Master Plan Released in New Orleans
A new master plan for New Orleans has been released. Controversy is expected on the highly anticipated plan as public input is gathered.
Duany on Restoring New Orleans
Andrés Duany observes that American planners and architects are misunderstanding New Orleans by thinking of it as an American city rather than a Caribbean one.
Clean Coal Stimulus Funds Put To Work In Indiana
Duke Energy hopes to tap $3.4 billion of stimulus funds to build the nation's first clean coal plant, burning the coal in a gaseous form and storing the CO2 emissions. It already has received federal funds to build the $2.35 coal power plant in IN.
A New Paris, as Dreamed by Planners
Nine-month study commissioned by President Nicolas Sarkozy aims to transform Paris and its surrounding suburbs into the first sustainable “post-Kyoto" city.
Habitat Tears Down Shrinking City's Houses
Habitat for Humanity, known for building low-cost, affordable houses, has taken to deconstructing homes in Saginaw, MI. Reselling the materials and building smaller homes in their stead make more sense than rehabilitating an old house, they say.
Maxed Out on Billboards
The city of Waco, Texas, imposes limits on new billboards--hoping to reduce its overall inventory with a "cap and replace" strategy.
The 'Loin's Grunge and Grime Now Historic
Stocked with architectural gems but fraught with crime, San Francisco's Tenderloin district has long been debated as a possible historic site. The debate is now over, as it was recently named to the National Register of Historic Places.
Catering to Oakland's Enclaves
A one-size-fits-all urban landscape doesn't mean that different ethnic neighborhoods don't find ways to personalize them. A UC Berkeley graduate student investigates how cultures perceive space.
Redesigning City Design
President Obama has promised to give cities a new image, one as the engines that drive the economy and whose issues are intertwined with those of the suburbs. This article looks at some of the big ideas shaping the new city.
Planner's Predictions Uncovered
Fifty years ago, Kenneth E. Norwood placed a time capsule and his predictions for Burbank, CA in a newly constructed bridge. According to the planner, monorails and "multi-unit garden apartments" were the waves of the future.
Pagination
Urban Design for Planners 1: Software Tools
This six-course series explores essential urban design concepts using open source software and equips planners with the tools they need to participate fully in the urban design process.
Planning for Universal Design
Learn the tools for implementing Universal Design in planning regulations.
Heyer Gruel & Associates PA
JM Goldson LLC
Custer County Colorado
City of Camden Redevelopment Agency
City of Astoria
Transportation Research & Education Center (TREC) at Portland State University
Camden Redevelopment Agency
City of Claremont
Municipality of Princeton (NJ)