PlaceShakers
Carzilla: How Huge SUVs and Trucks Hurt Pedestrians and Walkable Communities
Ever wonder where the supersizing of cars is going to end? Kaid Benfield dives deep into the subject and suggests five actions we can take to get to a safer spot in the road.
Serpentine Maze: Pop-Up Parks in the Pandemic
If the combined effects of winter's cold and the pandemic has you bummed, check out this community-building exercise in the frozen North.
Announcing an Antidote for Planning Uncertainty: A Pandemic Tool Kit for Local Governments
A new toolkit shares 22 actions governments should take to get the economy restarted, including the regulatory or policy tools needed to implement the actions.
A Pirate Looks at . . . Seventy?
Reflections on a long career, a great interview, and six sssentials for greener, healthier communities via Kaid Benfield, one of the founders of Smart Growth America
Lessons from the Pandemic: Housing, Retail, Broadband
Second in a series of conversations about what comes next in local government policies and processes, this time between Geoff Koski and Ben Brown on housing, retail, and broadband
After the Plague: Go Big or Go Backwards?
Among unwelcome lessons of COVID-19 is growing evidence of what was already broken in politics and business. Ben Brown looks at making bold changes in order to improve the lives of the left out and left behind.
Shelter in Place: Working in a Time of Isolation
Need some work-at-home tips from a veteran? Hazel Borys has eight to consider.
Code Score: A New Aid for Aligning Policy and Vision With Outcomes
A compendium of benefits of walkable urban places, put together by Hazel Borys and Kaid Benfield.
Code Hackathon: What Can Go Wrong With Form-Based Codes?
Top problems with form-based codes, and how to fix them.
A New Path to Code Reform
The Users’ Guide to Code Reform leads planners through the code reform process, providing tools for governments lacking the capacity to develop a full form-based code. Susan Henderson and Matt Lambert hit the high points.
Jeff Speck’s Step-by-Step Guide to Making Better Urban Places
The new Walkable City Rules by Jeff Speck is an excellent book that can help your city become more hospitable to humans. Urban thinker Kaid Benfield reviews.
Affordable Housing Finance: Show Me the Money
Ben Brown continues his weekly blog series in lead-up to the day-long exploration at CNU Savannah, "Affordability: The Intersection of Everything."
Climate Change: Making the Most of Failure
Whatever the cause, a smackdown from Mother Nature seems inevitable. But Scott Doyon says that doesn't mean we can't still advance and persevere.
The Sidewalk to Hell is Paved with Good Intentions
When the vision's all right but the outcomes are all wrong, zoning's often the problem. And the public realm is left holding the bag.
Plotting a Persuasive Story? Better Have a Happily Ever After
All stories are purposeful. They’re meant to entertain or inform or inspire to action. If you're a storyteller for a placemaking initiative, Ben Brown says you'd better have a happily ever after.
Civic Space: Creating Community
What moves us about great public space is its ability to convene community. To provide an accessible place of solace and celebration. It’s not about the buildings, or even the streets. It’s about the experience. Susan Henderson on Savannah's squares.
CNU Climate Summit Highlights
Growing set of tools measures the impact of urban form on climate. Hazel Borys reviews highlights of the CNU Climate Summit held last weekend near Washington, D.C.
Place Attachment as a Tool for Shaping Change
We fight for what we love. When we’re connected in affection, we’re both more inclined and more empowered to organize.
When Coffee Came to London (Not a Starbuck's Story)
Walkability makes markets! Scott Bernstein tells the Lloyds of London story from the urbanist's perspective.
A Hurricane Response Lesson: Disrupt the Cycle of Futility
How do we disrupt the cycle of rebuilding things exactly as they were before—if slightly hardened—after increasingly powerful weather events?
Pagination
City of Rochester
Boston Harbor Now
City of Bellevue
HUD's Office of Policy Development and Research
Mpact Transit + Community
HUD's Office of Policy Development and Research
City of Birmingham, Alabama
City of Laramie, Wyoming
Colorado Department of Local Affairs
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.