Op-Ed

Planners from around the country have already descended on the Gulf Coast region, beginning a series of charrettes to shape the future of land use and community development in the devastated region. Yet are the local residents -- especially those who need the most help -- ready to make plans? Leonardo Vazquez argues that more careful, long-term planning is needed to ensure that current residents and refugees alike are given the stake and voice they need in the rebuilding efforts.

Two months after Katrina, what have we learned? Graham Stroh analyzes Katrina's disaster management lessons on law enforcement, communication and social infrastructure.

What are the necessary ingredients for successful Transit Oriented Development (TOD)? Bruce Liedstrand, Planner for Liedstrand Associates, lists the ten fundamental, common-sense elements of TOD.

Can property owners succeed where regional planners have failed? David Renkert argues that private property owners are in the best position to create, implement, and manage land use regionally, which could evolve the role of planners into liaisons between empowered property owners and the greater public.

If happiness comes in supersizing a home, and if this doesn't interfere with somebody else's life, then should we be concerned about what it will mean to fuel consumption and the environment? Sriram Khé, Associate Professor of Geography at Western Oregon University, asks why we have a fascination with such large houses when we don't even use half the space.

Ken Snyder, Director for PlaceMatters.com, argues that improvement in planning can only come from bringing democracy and accessible technology into the decision-making process. Cities around the country have successfully utilized these techniques, argues Snyder, and it's time for other planners to follow suit.

Should New Orleans be rebuilt? Whose fault was the flooding? Jason Henderson, Assistant Professor of Geography at San Francisco State University, and a New Orleans native, warns the citizens of his home city that rebuilding all is a bad idea, and that the flooding was an act of public policy failure, not nature.

Thomas Campanella, co-editor of The Resilient City: How Modern Cities Recover From Disaster, contemplates the case of New Orleans. Very few cities actually die, but could New Orleans be one of them? What will it take to ensure its survival? And even if it survives, will the city ever be able to regain its original character?

How can cities plan for the unplanned, or those crises that cannot be precisely anticipated? Considered in the context of the recent tragedy in New Orleans, Aseem Inam compares disaster management in large urban metropolises and sheds light on how and why some planning institutions work better than others in difficult conditions. Can bureaucracy and institutional culture actually improve responses to urban crises?

The reason so many lives are in jeopardy from Hurricane Katrina is a result of our extreme dependence on cars and the lack of planning for public transportation, both for regular use and for emergencies, writes John Renne, a professor at the University of New Orleans, evacuated just days before the hurricane hit.

How do we retrofit America's sprawl to prepare for a post-oil world? Wally Siembab proposes a strategy of 'smart sprawl' -- retrofitting suburbs of any density so that residents can shop, obtain services and work all within a mile or two of their home.

Cities aren't in decline. The way population change is "measured" by the Census Bureau leaves much to be desired, writes Carol Coletta in this week's Op-Ed. But even if cities were in decline, a city's population is no longer tied to its economic success. What is ironic about these estimates and the misleading story of decline that has been spun around them is the fact that cities no longer have to grow big to grow wealthy. For the first time, according to research from CEOs for Cities, a city's population is no longer tied to its economic success.

Ric Stephens has compiled a list of some of the wackiest -- yet at times quite realistic -- urban planning words, in a vocabulary he has dubbed 'Plannerese.' This week's Planetizen Op-Ed includes a selected glossary of the terms, in addition to 'A Modern Fairy Tale in Plannerese,' which looks at a typical planning issue through the humorous lens of planning jargon.

Many criticize the idea of charging money for the use of roads, which are widely considered a public good. Yet inspiration for an equitable solution to this dilemma may be found in an ancient law that dispenses justice in a simple traffic conflict, writes Oded Roth in this week's Op-Ed.

The recent ruling by the Supreme Court to uphold the use of eminent domain was seen as an endorsement of professional planning. But this is not true, writes Sam Staley in this week's Op-Ed. The Court's decision upheld the process -- but not good planning.

Without policy reform to increase the use of revenue-generating programs like congestion pricing, the new federal Highway Bill is bound to hurt America's highways, in part due to a failure of federal spending prioritization, writes Ryan Prince in this week's Planetizen Op-Ed.

Claims that the threat of gentrification are grossly exaggerated belie a fundamental misunderstanding of the real threat, the real victims, and the real consequences of inner-city redevelopment.

Should the social virtues of urbanism and new investment in cities get washed out in the hue and cry over gentrification? John Norquist, CEO of the Congress for the New Urbanism, examines the viability of inner-city development trends in this week's Op-Ed.

What does the architecture of the Star Wars universe represent? Jack Skelley offers an analysis of the various archetypes on display in the latest Star Wars movie.

If we as planners don't do better in defining ourselves, we risk being seen as irrelevant and superfluous, writes Leonardo Vazquez. Do planners assure their own powerlessness by ignoring those in power?