Education

A guest column on the Saporta Report offers a reminder of the many critical public needs that compete with transportation funding for state dollars.

January 27, 2015 - Saporta Report

At this time of year, many prospective graduate students are asking themselves if they should apply to planning programs. This is a good question. Planning is a diverse field and it can be hard to figure out if it will be the right fit.

November 26, 2014 - Ann Forsyth

With the Millennial boom in many urban centers, many cities are looking for ways to retain young families rather than losing them to the traditional suburban exodus. One columnist dares to ask: Do cities even need kids?

August 20, 2014 - The Washington Post

With increasing skepticism and conflict towards planners and planning projects, we must ask ourselves: Is the power and politics now vested in "community participation" undermining the planning profession?

June 10, 2014 - Reuben Duarte

Emily Badger examines the role of housing segregation in obstructing the promise of Brown v. Board of Education.

May 19, 2014 - The Washington Post - Wonkblog

As the north side of Chicago has gentrified, many Chicago schools' test scores have improved- evidence that if a city neighborhood attracts enough affluent families, its schools will become more attractive as well.

January 24, 2014 - Michael Lewyn

Tom Sanchez (Virginia Tech) and I decided to offer a free course to a global audience. The response has been phenomenal with more than 17,000 people participating. Learn about what the globe has to say about technology in cities.

April 27, 2013 - Jennifer Evans-Cowley

Segregated schools are an enduring problem in urban America. But with young affluent (often white) professionals flocking to cities, and enrolling their children in public schools, a historic opportunity exists to create diverse schools.

April 18, 2013 - The Atlantic Cities

Large casino resorts in Atlantic City and Connecticut take a hit, as new, smaller and local casinos, attract gamblers from the surroundings areas. New York state officials are paving the way for more casino proliferation, despite some skepticism.

October 27, 2012 - The New York Times

As a childhood Whitney Houston fan and former owner of her Greatest Hits cassette tape, her death revived memories of a 13 year old summer camper standing atop a twin bed belting out The Greatest Love of All into a hairbrush microphone. I never really paid much attention to the lyrics until news reports of her death relentlessly played the song--“I believe the children are our future. Teach them well and let them lead the way.” The 13-year old in me always liked that Whitney was singing about my generation, but beyond that, I didn’t quite understand the message. And it wasn’t until last month when I listened to the lyrics and I get it now.  It is our responsibility to prepare our children for their roles in building and shaping our world, our cities, our neighborhoods.

April 11, 2012 - Melissa Hege

Ben Hecht contemplates the currency of the digital age and how it will transform the cities we live in.

March 14, 2012 - Living Cities

What is the relationship between car travel and health outcomes in the United States? Ariel Godwin and Anne Price challenge the claim that more time in the car decreases your health by looking at the impacts of education, income, and employment rates.

January 16, 2012 - Anne Price

With 79.7 percent of its residents with a bachelor's degree or higher, Palo Alto, home to tech giants Facebook and Hewlett-Packard, is the most educated city in California, reports Joanna Lin for California Watch.

November 16, 2011 - California Watch

As the British Government shelves the project to build and rebuild schools across the nation, Rowan Moore, architecture critic at The Observer and Rick Jones, teacher and journalist consider the effect building design has on learning.

July 24, 2010 - The Guardian

Earlier blogs have explored books and journals for finding out about the basics of planning history. In this blog I add to this by listing a just few of the places it is important to recognize as a planner. It is of course difficult to make such lists but students ask for them with some frequency. Of course, places are one thing and planning processes quite another--and in planning process is very important. Upcoming blogs will deal with plans and processes. 

July 3, 2010 - Ann Forsyth

Tomorrow morning, I'll don a long black robe, a funny-looking hat and an atrocious brown hood to cap off an adventuresome journey through planning school. Almost two years ago, I decided to leave a healthy career in journalism to enter a field that, by contrast, might still have careers a decade from now. It's been 21 months of angst, overwork, undersleep, and hours-long battles with American FactFinder. And it's been completely, totally worth it. Here are a few of the best lessons learned from two hard-fought years of planning education.

May 16, 2010 - Jeffrey Barg

As planners, we try to live the urban lifestyle, minimize our carbon footprint, and even grow our own vegetables.  I once saw a colleague wearing a button which read “Riding transit is sexy.” Lose the car, bike or walk to work. Hey, if you’re adventurous, you can even take the bus. But this is easier said than done. I’ve lived in New Haven, Boston, Philadelphia, and now Miami. And as every year passes, I find it more and more challenging to cling to my planning ideals. 

May 10, 2010 - Melissa Hege

Efforts to desegregate schools in the 1970s weakened neighborhood ties. Now, a return to school assignments based on where children live could make communities stronger.

February 22, 2010 - Crosscut.com

“Not that I condone fascism, or any -ism for that matter: -isms in my opinion are not good. A person should not believe in an -ism; he should believe in himself. I quote John Lennon: ‘I don’t believe in Beatles, I just believe in me.’ A good point there. After all, he was the walrus. I could be the walrus. I'd still have to bum rides off of people.” —Ferris Bueller

January 5, 2010 - Jeffrey Barg

My classmate was up in front of everyone, flapping and flailing, pleading his case and getting shot down at every turn. It was a bit like watching a train wreck in slow motion. It was also kind of like looking in the mirror. I’m just more than halfway through a planning school studio project working on the beautiful (no, really) Lower Schuylkill River in Philadelphia. They’ve teamed up about 15 planner/urban designers with about 45 landscape architects, who, as I mentioned last time, are reasonably bonkers. That was about a month and a half ago; since then, I’ve begun to think maybe I’m the one needing a room with padded walls.

November 9, 2009 - Jeffrey Barg