Exclusives

BLOG POST

Myth and Reality About European Sprawl

Some commentators argue that sprawl is an inevitable result of affluence, based on European development patterns. These pundits tell a simple story: European urban cores are losing population and becoming more automobile-dependent - just like American cities. So if Europe can’t beat sprawl, neither can America.

May 13 - Michael Lewyn

BLOG POST

End Powerpoint Abuse

We’ve all been subject to them – the endless powerpoint presentations that extol the worst aspects of animated text and mind-numbing bullet points. While Edward Tufte has written about the <a href="http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/11.09/ppt2.html">horrors of powerpoint</a>, I see it as just a tool and like any tool it can be used wisely or poorly. After all, David Byrne, the former Talking Heads front man, makes <a href="http://www.davidbyrne.com/art/eeei/index.php">art with powerpoint</a> so it can’t be all bad. But one thing struck me at the American Planning Association’s (APA) conference two weeks ago: some sessions would have been much better if the powerpoint presentation (or abuse thereof) didn’t get in the way. In actuality, some of the best presentations I attended didn’t use powerpoint at all.

May 12 - Scott Page

BLOG POST

Economic Principles Still Apply

It turns out that the “law of demand” (the tendency of higher prices to reduce consumption) and the principles of urban economics (that improved accessibility increases land values) still apply. If we are smart, we can use these to help solve problems and benefit consumers.

May 7 - Todd Litman

BLOG POST

People Like Cars, And There's Not Much You Can Do About It

With climate change on the mind of the world's policy makers, the auto-oriented design of our cities has been singled out as a major culprit -- and understandably so. Cars burn a lot of fossil fuel, so getting people to walk, bike and use public transportation more would help cut down on pollution and green house gases. But how to get people out of their cars? The key, many agree, is to redesign cities. Right now cities are designed for people moving around in their cars, so it's unreasonable to expect people to use any other means of transportation. But give them a city that's planned for walking, biking and public transit -- and it could be a whole new ballgame.

May 7 - Christian Madera

BLOG POST

Yes or No: Evaluating Public Transit

On the bus this morning I was handed a survey asking me to detail my satisfaction with the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority's public transit system. As a daily bus commuter, I was more than happy to spend my two cents, but I'm a bit skeptical that those two cents will really do anything.

May 5 - Nate Berg

BLOG POST

Two kinds of sprawl

Once every few semesters, I teach a seminar on "Sprawl and the Law." On the first day of the seminar, I ask students what "sprawl" is. After getting a variety of answers, I reveal the truth: most definitions of sprawl involve one of two separate definitions: "Where we grow"- Sprawl as movement from the core to the fringe of a region. "How we grow"- Sprawl as development oriented towards drivers as opposed to nondrivers.

May 5 - Michael Lewyn

FEATURE

Inside the American Community Survey - A Non-Planner's View

May 5 - Ishmael Sanchez

BLOG POST

A City The Car Built?

When talking to people about Los Angeles, one comment I often here is that L.A. was the first city to be built around the automobile. This statement certainly makes sense when you look at the current landscape of Los Angeles – with its freeways and strip malls and crowded parking lots – and lack of a widespread rail transit infrastructure when compared to other dense American cities. The problem with this statement is that it’s not really true. While the car has definitely left its impression on the region, Los Angeles could actually be considered a textbook example of a city built around transit – albeit one that no longer exists.

April 29 - Christian Madera

BLOG POST

Finishing the Exit Project in Planning

My recent posts have provided advice on the exit project or thesis in planning: how to <a href="/node/29520" target="_blank">get started</a>, write a <a href="/node/29949" target="_blank">proposal</a>, <a href="/node/30572" target="_blank">manage</a> one’s committee, and <a href="/node/29121" target="_blank">troubleshoot problems</a>.

April 29 - Ann Forsyth

BLOG POST

Building Green in Los Angeles

Last Tuesday was a big day for me and an even bigger Earth Day for the City of Los Angeles. After 18 months of meetings, focus groups, workshops, conference calls, briefings, and a lot of collective putting together of heads the City Council unanimously passed a landmark green building ordinance. Three hours later it was signed into law by the Mayor.

April 29 - Walker Wells

BLOG POST

The Case for Density in Sustainable Cities

One of the many signs that green development and design is reaching a tipping point toward becoming business-as-usual, is the quantity of articles and writings on the subject in what might be considered "mainstream" land development publications. Case-in-point is the current Issue of Urban Land, the Green issue. This attention is a good thing, despite the growing need to ensure that developments that play the green card, truly do walk the talk.

April 28 - Brent Toderian

BLOG POST

Live From Vegas: Millennial Planners, Activist Planners, & The CE Soap Opera

<img src="/files/u4/20080428-apa-0667.jpg" alt="Las Vegas Strip" title="Las Vegas Strip" hspace="5" vspace="5" width="320" height="240" align="right" /> I'm at the Paris Hotel on the Vegas strip for the 100th annual American Planning Association (APA) <a href="http://www.planning.org/nationalconference/">conference</a>, which started Saturday, and runs through Thursday, May 1. The conference offers 300 sessions and 60 mobile workshops to the approximately 5,000 participants. And it's going to be a crowded week, if the 30-minute line for coffee this morning in the Paris boulangerie is any indication. Infrastructure matters; Planners should be politically active.

April 28 - Chris Steins

FEATURE

A Reminder to the City: Neighborhoods Are Building Blocks of Civic Life

Neighborhoods -- their habits, their participants, and their values -- are what create and define value in a city and in a home. Cities need to embrace this fact if they want to preserve values and retain residents.

April 28 - Charles Buki

BLOG POST

Bandwidth-Oriented Development

<img src="/files/u4/20080425-cable-map.png" alt="Submarine Cable Map, courtesty of Telegeography (http://www.telegeograph.com)" title="Submarine Cable Map, courtesty of Telegeography (http://www.telegeograph.com)" hspace="5" vspace="5" width="243" height="179" align="right" />So how do you permit and build a 4,000-mile undersea communication cable system? And why do we care?

April 26 - Chris Steins

BLOG POST

Insuring Good Cities, One Mile At A Time

<div> I once was consigned to a table full of business school students at a land-use conference at UCLA. Trying to be a good sport, I offered the only idea that I'd ever had about business: car insurance charged according to miles driven. I posited that since risk and mileage were more or less correlated, it only made sense that people who drove more and incurred more risk should pay more. <img src="/files/u1299/Karl_Marx.jpg" width="120" height="130" align="right" /> My tablemates stared back at me as if I had just issued a rousing recitation of Das Kapital.

April 23 - Josh Stephens

BLOG POST

The Real Meaning Of The "American Dream"

Both supporters and opponents of the sprawl status quo often refer to suburbia as “The American Dream.” One sprawl-defending organization even calls itself “The American Dream Coalition.”

April 23 - Michael Lewyn

BLOG POST

The Link between Density and Affordability

Since its launch, one of the three primary goals of Vancouver's <a href="http://www.vancouver-ecodensity.ca/">EcoDensity Initiative</a> has been to use density, design and land use to strategically assist with the City's growing challenges around affordability. Over the course of the long public dialogue, we've heard many comments and questions on the relationships between density, supply, type of housing and affordability, and it’s been a very hot topic.

April 22 - Brent Toderian

BLOG POST

Is Baghdad Going Feral?

One of the most influential pieces of contemporary urban theory I've ever read was a short monograph by Richard Norton entitled "Feral Cities", which <a href="http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0JIW/is_4_56/ai_110458726">appeared in the Naval War College Review</a> in 2003. Norton described feral cities thusly: "Imagine a great metropolis covering hundreds of square miles. Once a vital component in a national economy, this sprawling urban environment is now a vast collection of blighted buildings, an immense petri dish of both ancient and new diseases, a territory where the rule of law has long been replaced by near anarchy in which the only security available is that which is attained through brute power."

April 22 - Anthony Townsend

BLOG POST

Planning Juno

Many viewers may not fully appreciate movies as a visual story-telling medium, but that fact came home to me dramatically the other night while watching “<a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0467406/">Juno</a>,” the off beat, smart and funny film that just snagged a best screenplay Oscar. The deliberate use of architecture and public spaces, in particular, was quite effective although you probably won’t find these references in plot summaries or synopses.

April 21 - Samuel Staley

FEATURE

Will the American Institute of Certified Planners Live By the Principles it Promotes?

The continuing education program of the American Planning Association's American Institute of Certified Planners has stirred much controversy amongst members, educators and officials. Many agree the system's flaws need to be addressed. But where is the public discussion?

April 21 - Leonardo Vazquez, AICP/PP