Exclusives

BLOG POST

Visiting Planning Schools: What (Not) to Do

The fall is high season for school visits from prospective students. I am a great believer in doing this remotely—while some greenhouse gases are generated by a Google search it is far less than a plane ride to a distant campus. I suggest visiting schools only after you have been admitted (and not even then if you don’t have a really crucial question that can only be answered on site). However, if you can’t bring yourself to even apply to a school in a place you’ve never visited, and promise to buy carbon set asides, a tour may be worth it. The following tips can help you make the most of the school.

October 6 - Ann Forsyth

FEATURE

REVIEW: My Kind of Transit: Rethinking Public Transportation in America

Far from a boring treatise on the need for public transit, My Kind of Transit is an appeal on behalf of the emotional factors that make most transit repulsive and a select few forms enjoyable and uplifting.

October 5 - Tim Halbur

BLOG POST

Planning for the Anthropocene by Candlelight

The 2009 <a href="http://www.niagarafalls2009.ca/english/index.htm">Canadian Institute of Planners conference in Niagara Falls</a> ended on a remarkable note. A talented speaker and unforeseen circumstance converged brilliantly to demonstrate both the nature of the crises we are facing, but also the resilience we will need to address them.

October 4 - Michael Dudley

FEATURE

Creating Neighborhood Capital from Strip Malls

Strip malls are in virtually every American city, but they're rarely an important part of those cities. Ava Bromberg says they can be. Her idea is to turn strip malls into community-owned hubs that generate capital within their neighborhood and keep it there.

October 1 - Nate Berg

BLOG POST

Rethinking Lower Manhattan: What If?

Since its founding in the mid 1990s, Alliance for Downtown New York has long been one of the world's leading business improvement districts. This non-profit organization has presided over the reinvention of New York's historic Financial District as a thriving 24-hour live/work district, while retaining a respectable share of the city's financial services sector. The Alliance built a network of Wi-Fi hotspots that lit up nearly every major public space in the district - not just outdoor locations like Bowling Green and City Hall Park, but also indoor atria like the Winter Garden and 60 Wall Street.

September 30 - Anthony Townsend

BLOG POST

"Dreams From My Father," A Planner's Perspective

I recently read President Obama’s autobiography, “Dreams From My Father.” It is well written and insightful. Obama uses personal stories to explore issues of identity, race, class, politics, power, and what it means to be ‘United Statesian.’ Let me share some observations about transportation and land use planning issues mentioned in the book. <img src="http://bayareashows.today.com/files/2008/06/dreams_from_my_father.jpg" alt="Dreams from my Father" title="Dreams from my Father" width="182" height="305" />

September 28 - Todd Litman

FEATURE

Time for HUD to Rethink Rental

HUD needs to rethink its emphasis on home ownership and refocus on rentals, argues John Kromer of the Fels Institute of Government.

September 28 - John Kromer

BLOG POST

A Middle Ground In The Bag Wars

The San Jose City Council is considering a proposal to ban plastic bags and most paper bags in supermarkets, out of concerns about the greenhouse gases used to manufacture them and about the waste from discarded bags. But this policy might create as many environmental problems as it solves. In a city without disposable bags, shoppers who seek to buy large amounts of groceries will have to drag around an army of nondisposable containers. For drivers, this is not a big deal. Susie SUV can always find space for dozens of nondisposable bags in her truck. And because Susie’s bags can stay in her truck forever, she will always be able to make impulse purchases without difficulty.

September 24 - Michael Lewyn

FEATURE

Let's Teach Children Planning

Planners often encounter ineffective public participation because of the fact that citizens often are not taught planning skills in school, says Michael A. Rodriguez.

September 24 - Michael A. Rodriguez

BLOG POST

Ow! That hurt! Or: The Start of Planning School, Year Two

Forgive me Olmsted, for I have sinned. I have strayed. I have coveted. I have had doubts. I have thought about kicking urban design to the curb like a mangy puppy.

September 21 - Jeffrey Barg

FEATURE

A Ride on Dubai's New Metro Rail System

The new Dubai Metro rail system recently began operations in the desert city. Christopher Corbett, an American planner who's been living and working in Dubai, takes us on a visual tour.

September 21 - Christopher Corbett

BLOG POST

The Social Life of Traffic

Traffic is essentially "an engineering issue," says author Tom Vanderbilt. "But there's also a layer of culture." That layer of culture determines, to a large extent, how traffic can become a problem. This idea is explored in Vanderbilt's 2008 book <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0307264785?ie=UTF8&tag=planetizen&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0307264785" target="_blank" title="Traffic, by Tom Vanderbilt - on Amazon">Traffic: Why We Drive the Way We Do (and What It Says About Us)</a>, a <a href="/books/2009" target="_blank" title="Planetizen Top Books 2009">Planetizen Top Book</a> of the year. He recently expanded on that idea for a discussion about traffic put on by <a href="http://www.zocalopublicsquare.org/" target="_blank" title="Zocalo Public Square">Zocalo Public Square</a> in (where better?) Los Angeles.

September 18 - Nate Berg

BLOG POST

Accessibility-Based Planning

Should society encourage parents to <a href="/node/40737">drive children to school</a> rather than walk or bicycle? Should our transportation policies favor driving over walking, cycling, ridesharing, public transit and telecommuting? Probably not. There is no logical reason to favor automobile travel over other forms of accessibility, and there are lots of good reasons to favor efficient modes, so for example, schools spend at least as much to accommodate a walking or cycling trip as an automobile trip, and transportation agencies and employers spend at least as much to improve ridesharing and public transit commuting as automobile commuting.

September 17 - Todd Litman

FEATURE

SPECIAL REPORT: A Lobbying Free-For-All

Thousands of special interest groups are competing to influence the new transportation bill. Reporter Matthew Lewis sheds light on the most significant players, in an extensive report from the Center for Public Integrity.

September 17 - Matthew Lewis

BLOG POST

"A Paradise Built in Hell" Offers Lessons in Disaster Planning

In her new book, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Paradise-Built-Hell-Extraordinary-Communities/dp/0670021075/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1253033030&sr=8-1">A Paradise Built in Hell: The Extraordinary Communities That Arise in Disaster</a>, journalist and essayist Rebecca Solnit describes a phenomenon that is rarely mentioned in the context of disaster preparedness: the spirit of caring -- even joy -- that can emerge in the face of calamity.

September 15 - Michael Dudley

BLOG POST

Stress and the city, part 2

Not long ago, I posted on what makes some cities more stressful than others. (See <a href="/40441" target="_blank">http://www.planetizen.com/node/40441</a> ). In that post, I remarked that the ideal objective indicia of stress (resident surveys on crime, illness, etc.) often do not exist for most cities.

September 14 - Michael Lewyn

BLOG POST

An Interview with the Chinese Premier

This interview below with the Chinese Premier offers a preview of the challenges and opportunities that will unfold at the December 2009 UN Climate Conference (see <a href="http://en.cop15.dk/?gclid=CI-ImOyB8JwCFYwwpAodNSUfjQ">http://en.cop15.dk/?gclid=CI-ImOyB8JwCFYwwpAodNSUfjQ</a>) Here is the interview, <a href="http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/opinion/2009-09/14/content_8687301.htm">http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/opinion/2009-09/14/content_8687301.htm</a>

September 13 - Matthew E. Kahn

BLOG POST

A Low Cost Way to Learn About the Future of China

During my first week in China, I have spoken to dozens of people and toured all over Beijing. I even have a map listing the locations of all of the McDonalds in Beijing. Spatial theorists need to write down a model to explain how a uniform distribution of McDonalds is what we observe. While I am quite happy to be here, this is not a low cost trip. The flight over was literally a pain in the neck. I'm in trouble with my wife

September 13 - Matthew E. Kahn

BLOG POST

China and Climate Change

In my first week here in Beijing, I have spoken to a number of scholars here about climate change. A few observations; 1. China's scholars are thinking about climate change mitigation but I haven't met many talking about adaptation.

September 10 - Matthew E. Kahn

BLOG POST

A First Trip to Beijing

I have lived in Boston, Chicago, London, Los Angeles, New York and San Francisco but I have never seen anything like Beijing. Over the next two weeks, I'm giving a series of talks at Tsinghua, Peking University and the Lincoln Institute, and the CASS. While I was little surprised to see Mao's face on all of the money and to not be able to access my blog, I have been very impressed with everything I see and I see glimpses of a future "green city".

September 7 - Matthew E. Kahn