Community Outreach

Pioneer Square, Seattle

Seattle Residents Wary of Urban Greening Efforts

Parts of the city desperately need more trees, but some residents worry about the long-term effects of tree planting in neighborhoods.

August 15, 2019 - Crosscut

The Bronx

What Hip-Hop Can Teach Cities About More Inclusive Planning

Hip-hop artists are vocal about critiques of their neighborhoods, but are planners and architects listening?

September 26, 2017 - GreenBiz

A Guide for Everyday People to Activate a City's Waterfront

One community advocate's step-by-step guide to activating hidden public waterfront space.

December 20, 2016 - Modern Cities

APA 2016 award

Community Engagement Highlights from APA 2016

As I do every year at the APA National Conference, I did my best to catch as many community engagement sessions as possible. Here are highlights, takeaways, and the common threads I noticed this year.

April 14, 2016 - Dave Biggs

Pershing Square

Los Angeles Searches for Improvements to the Much-Maligned Pershing Square

A series of public outreach events are being held in Pershing Square to determine how to make the park more engaging. Live music and fewer physical barriers to entry are among the ideas suggested.

May 17, 2015 - LA Downtown News

Planning Better Bike Infrastructure with Wikimaps

Fairfax County, Virginia is taking an innovative approach to crowdsourcing feedback on how to improve bicycle infrastructure around transit stations.

April 16, 2015 - Greater Greater Washington

Come Together Locally for Smarter Growth

Connecting competence to organized support is key to reversing the Sisyphean cycle of urban placemaking.

March 31, 2014 - Better! Cities & Towns

A collaborative art project

10 Lessons in More Engaging Citizen Engagement

With cities seeking to involve diverse voices in city-making to get beyond “the usual suspects,” Vancouver urbanists Brent Toderian and Jillian Glover examine how cities in their region are finding new ways to increase civic participation.

March 5, 2014 - Brent Toderian

Strong Communities Are Founded on Civic Engagement

Kelly Morphy provides tips and strategies on improving civic engagement - the key to healthy communities and desired outcomes.

October 18, 2012 - Better Cities & Towns

How to Resuscitate a Foundering Transit System

Stephen Lee Davis investigates a campaign by Baton Rouge community groups to revive its bus service as it teetered on the brink of collapse.

May 20, 2012 - Transportation for America

In Oregon, Students Seek Key to a Sustainable City

Roughly 600 University of Oregon students will take part in the university's Sustainable Cities Initiative, which pulls together students of architecture, planning, law, journalism and business to make a plan to fix downtown Salem.

August 26, 2010 - New York Times/Greenwire

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

Top Books

An annual review of books related to planning.

Top Websites

The best of the Internet—since 2002.

Top Apps

Planning apps for a brave new world.

Top Schools

The definitive ranking of graduate planning programs.

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.