Berkeley

UC Berkeley

A Plan to Revolutionize Biking in Berkeley

The city of Berkeley, California released its new Bicycle Plan in October. The plan includes a cycletrack network that would look right at home in Denmark.

November 3, 2016 - Systematic Failure

California Environmental Law Continues to Frustrate Bike Planning (for Now)

Help is on the way. The law that requires the governor's planning office to devise an alternative method for measuring vehicle traffic for environmental compliance will also take up where an earlier law that exempted bike lanes from CEQA left off.

April 16, 2016 - Los Angeles Times

Berkeley Releases Resilience Plan

Berkeley's Resilience Strategy is one of the first in the nation, and one of the first work products of the Rockefeller Foundation's 100 Resilient Cites network.

April 7, 2016 - Berkeley Patch

Cities Try To Figure Out How To Be 'Resilient'

The organization 100 Resilient Cities has funded 'chief resilience officers' in 66 cities worldwide. It's helping four California cities prepare for 'stresses and shocks' including earthquakes, sea level rise, and even poverty.

March 28, 2016 - California Planning & Development Report

Second Largest Bikeshare in U.S. will be Bay Area's by 2017

Bay Area Bike Share will grow from 700 to 7,000 bikes by 2017 after the expansion proposal was approved by a unanimous vote of the Metropolitan Transportation Commission. It is a regional, not a city program, though most usage is in San Francisco.

May 30, 2015 - Metropolitan Transportation Commission

Bay Area Bike Share Poised to Grow from 700 to 7,000 Bikes

The regional system would expand to the the East Bay cities of Berkeley, Oakland and Emeryville. Bikes would be added in San Jose and San Francisco.

April 4, 2015 - San Francisco Chronicle

Early Returns for the 'goBerkeley' Market-Pricing Parking Experiment

A three-year pilot program of market-pricing for parking in the university town of Berkeley, California is already revealing surprising realities about parking demand in the city.

February 24, 2015 - Systematic Failure

East Bay BRT Project Receives $81 Million in Federal Grants

Don't confuse East Bay Rapid Transit with Bay Area Rapid Transit: one's a bus, the other heavy rail. But calling it a bus does not do justice to what will be the Bay Area's first bus rapid transit (BRT) line composed primarily of dedicated lanes.

November 13, 2014 - San Francisco Chronicle

Campaign 2014 Results: Bay Area Transportation, Land Use, and Soda Tax Measures

Votes exceeded the two-thirds threshold to pass two vital transportation funding measures in San Francisco and Alameda counties. In Berkeley (which passed the nation's first soda tax) and Menlo Park, voters resoundingly reject anti-growth measures.

November 6, 2014 - San Francisco Chronicle

Anti-Growth Measures Adopting Pro-Growth Language to Survive

John King has reason to believe a cultural shift toward taller buildings and mixed-use neighborhoods is underway in the Bay Area. How? The language used by opponents of those causes.

October 2, 2014 - San Francisco Chronicle

Vancouver Skyline

Are We Approaching Peak Land Use Control?

With an increasing reliance on development regulations and requirements on land owners to satisfy policy goals, are we approaching an unsustainable point in land use controls?

September 8, 2014 - Reuben Duarte

Parking Sign

A Primer on Innovative Parking Regulations

Writing for Smart Growth America, Neha Bhatt provides a survey of innovative parking regulation and management strategies in cities around the country.

August 26, 2014 - Smart Growth America

Permeable Pavement

Downtown Berkeley Getting the Permeable Pavement Treatment

The city of Berkeley is undergoing a pilot installation of permeable pavement for a road calming project by Berkeley High School. The pilot has better storm water drainage, a smaller carbon footprint, and less maintenance than traditional asphalt.

August 13, 2014 - Berkeleyside

How Streets and Social Justice Intersect

A look at how streets affect health, social interaction, and economic development by Marissa Reilly, a Berkeley-based urban planner and Lillian Jacobson, a master’s candidate at MIT.

August 13, 2014 - UrbDeZine

Community Gardens as Harbingers of Gentrification

Lauren Markham examines the value of community gardens to the bottom lines of developers—because one person's blighted back yard can easily become another person's veggie garden marketing pitch.

May 30, 2014 - The New Yorker

Real-Time Multi-Modal Way-Finding—Displayed in the Public Realm

The TransitScreen service has been around since 2012, but it’s latest product, real-time displays of all modes of transportation, can display in the public realm, providing a whole new level of interaction with the city.

April 15, 2014 - Fast Co. Design

Image of an electric bike

What do you Get when you Cross "Car Share" with "Bike Share"?

Electric Bike Share! The new program is set to launch in famously hilly San Francisco and across the bay in Berkeley next spring. Unlike the region's bike share which just launched August 29, it will be administered by the non-profit City Car Share.

September 3, 2013 - The Daily Californian

'High-End' Berkeley Micro-Apartment Proposal Receives Chilly Reception

A five-story, 60 ft. building proposal in Berkeley, Calif. that would house 70 'high end' micro-apartments ranging from 307 to 344 sq. ft. was presented to the city's Zoning Adjustment Board, but commissioners and neighbors were not impressed.

August 29, 2013 - Berkeleyside

The Great 'What If': Cities Engage the Unbuilt

A spirit of reflection seems to be in the air across America this summer. Exhibitions in Chicago, the Bay Area, and Los Angeles catalog major projects that were never built and allow visitors to imagine what might have been.

August 17, 2013 - The Architect's Newspaper Blog

Progressive Incoherence in 'Radical' Berkeley

Everybody's a progressive in Berkeley, right? As recent struggles over land use make clear, it depends on what you mean by "progressive."

August 5, 2013 - Dissent

News from HUD User

HUD's Office of Policy Development and Research

Call for Speakers

Mpact Transit + Community

New Updates on PD&R Edge

HUD's Office of Policy Development and Research

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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.