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The Planetizen News Brief

22 November 2007 - 7:00am
Smart City Radio

The Planetizen News Brief is a weekly rundown of some of the most interesting and important news and issues of the past week.

The Planetizen News Brief airs every week on the nationally-syndicated radio program "Smart City", which is broadcast in cities across the U.S. Learn more about Smart City and listen to archived shows.

Full Transcript

What may be the country’s least anticipated ranking has just been announced, and with it has come a flood of criticisms and attacks. Released this week were the 14th annual “City Crime Rankings” – more commonly recognized as the listing of the quote most dangerous cities in America. As could be expected, representatives from the cities high up on the list are not too thrilled to be there. But they’re more unhappy about the fact that the list was created in the first place. Detroit Michigan is ranked as the country’s most dangerous city this year, reclaiming the title from last year’s dis-honoree St. Louis, Missouri. CNN reports that Detroit police have released a statement blasting the ranking for using crime statistics out of context. The American Society of Criminology agrees, calling the list an irresponsible misuse of the FBI’s crime data on such crimes as burglary, theft, robbery, aggravated assault, rape and homicide. The FBI is also on the offensive against the ranking, which it says does not take into account the major differences between cities and their social situations.

Meanwhile in California, the state attorney general is considering a plan that would make it a crime to ignore the environment when cities make and approve plans. Attorney General Jerry Brown is on a path to ensure that the threats of climate change are considered and accounted for as cities and counties plan their land use. If they don’t, he says, lawsuits will follow, arguing that municipalities are not complying with the California Environmental Quality Act. The Oakland Tribune reports that Brown is serious about this issue, as he has already sued one California county for not including the consideration of greenhouse gas emissions in its general plan update. No further lawsuits have been filed, but Brown says that if the climate continues to be ignored, somebody’s getting sued.

And finally, in downtowns across the country, cities are employing a method to help revitalize the areas and help them to become more economically sustainable. They are doing this by what some are calling “business incubation” – where cities use tax incentives and other methods to lure in new businesses to their downtowns. The target businesses are typically small, entrepreneurial efforts and the cities make available to them small office spaces with cheap rents, according to the New Jersey Herald, where business incubation is taking off in the town of Newton. The idea behind it is that by making the downtown attractive and affordable to small businesses, they will stick around after they get on their feet and find some success. Though the project has just begun, many are expecting Newton, New Jersey to be the next successful business incubator.

Stories discussed in this week's Planetizen News Brief

'Most Dangerous Cities' List Released, Met With Criticism

Land Use Planning And Climate Change May Be Linked In Lawsuits

Retail Incubation Growing In Downtowns

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There's no transit to take and there's nothing to walk to. It couldn't be more obvious to planners how big a piece of the picture this is -- development patterns predicated on profligate energy consumption.
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