Halloween

View of Burj al Babas, Turkey, abandoned development of French-style chateau homes.

What Abandoned Places Teach Us

Abandoned cities and other forsaken human-built sites are haunted by the mistakes city leaders and builders have made over centuries.

October 20, 2023 - Reader's Digest

Children in Halloween costumes at a crosswalk with officer offering bowl of candy

Opinion: Make Halloween Car-Free

Forget razor blades in apples. Henry Grabar argues the biggest threat on Halloween is much more mundane.

October 17, 2022 - Slate

Trick or Treat

Halloween a Deadly Reminder of the Failures of U.S. Traffic Safety

When it comes to pedestrian safety, Halloween has never been so frightening.

November 1, 2021 - Bloomberg CityLab

Skyscrapers and Architects

When Architects Dress Like Buildings

The 1931 Beaux-Arts Ball immortalized the architects who participated by dressed like famous buildings. Will a 2019 version of the event achieve a contemporary version of the same fame?

October 31, 2019 - Chicago Tribune

Trick or Treat

The Deadliest Day for Young Pedestrians

Children are three times more likely to be killed by a driver on Halloween than another day of the year. It's worse for kids between the ages of 4 and 8.

October 31, 2019 - The Washington Post

Trick or Treat

A Planner's Halloween: Unsafe Streets, Haunted Cities, and Clever Costumes

This year's top Halloween costume: a public service announcement to drive safely on Halloween.

October 31, 2018 - James Brasuell

Trick or Treat

Conquering Fears of Public Space on Halloween

The scariest thing about Halloween is that it illustrates just how un-neighborly many communities are and how averse to pedestrianism they are on the other 364 days of the year.

October 31, 2017 - Josh Stephens

Halloween

Halloween Costumes for Urban Planners — 5th Edition

Looking for fun halloween costume ideas? Look no further than Planetizen for the latest halloween costumes.

October 31, 2016 - Jennifer Evans-Cowley

7 Costumes for the Most Contemporary Form of Transportation: Hoverboards

Depending on your opinion, hoverboards are some combination of expensive, annoying, or futuristically cool. Maybe these costume ideas will help you sort out your feelings on the matter?

October 31, 2015 - Fusion

How to Pick the Perfect Urbanist Halloween Costume

The editors at CityLab got creative in conjuring up some urbanism-themed costume ideas. They'll even help you decide which works for you.

October 31, 2015 - CityLab

Halloween Fire Fighter

Halloween Costumes for Urban Planners - 4th Edition

The fourth edition of our comprehensive list of amazing Halloween costumes for urban planners.

October 30, 2014 - Maayan Dembo

The Globe's Eeriest Ghost Towns

Apparently ghost towns aren't only found in America's Old West and at former nuclear test sites. Lifestyle website Thrillist has collected seven of the world's creepiest ghost towns.

October 31, 2013 - Thrillist

Jack O Lantern

The Geography of Horror

In honor of Halloween, the Geographic Information System (GIS) software company ESRI has mapped the locations of more than 200 of the top-rated horror films of all-time.

October 31, 2013 - ESRI

A Monstrous Price Tag for the World's Most Expensive Hallway

One of the first portions of the World Trade Center PATH station has opened beneath West Street in Manhattan. The 100-foot-long pedestrian passageway provides a taste of Santiago Calatrava's design and what a seemingly unlimited budget can buy you.

October 31, 2013 - Next City

The Killer Buildings of Film and Fiction

Haunted houses are benign. If you want real evil, suggests Keith Eggener, look to the sentient houses in fiction and film that are "born bad". From Poe to Siddons, he explores examples of "architecture gone terribly wrong".

October 31, 2013 - Places

San Diego's Planning Department Brought Back from the Dead

This week, San Diego's City Council voted to resurrect the city's moribund Planning Department. A government-wide reorganization and energized leadership seem certain to ensure the department won't become a zombie.

October 31, 2013 - The San Diego Union-Tribune

Mapping America's Scariest Place Names

Jonathan Hull, a 37-year-old graphic designer from Salt Lake City, has assembled an horrific catalog of America's "demonic, hellish, and Satan-flavored" appellations.

October 31, 2013 - The Atlantic Cities

A Ghastly Example of "Bike-Washing"

Could a 1,300-mile bike path along the length of the proposed Keystone XL pipeline quell the concerns of environmentalists? A "tongue-in-cheek" design put forth by SWA group doesn't appear to have won admirers on either side of the debate.

October 31, 2013 - Bloomberg

America's Top Neighborhoods for Trick-or-Treating

Once again, the fine people at the real estate web portal Zillow have assembled their top 20 cities for trick-or-treating. This year they've gone one step further and identified the top 5 neighborhoods in each city for enterprising candy collectors.

October 31, 2013 - Zillow

Halloween House

The Best Places in America to Enjoy Halloween

After much anticipation, Richard Florida has published his extremely scientific (no joke) 2012 Halloween Index, which identifies "the metros best primed for trick-or-treating and Halloween revelry."

October 31, 2012 - The Atlantic Cities

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Top Books

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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.