Community / Economic Development

Toronto Moss Park

Redevelopment Plans and Gentrification Concerns for Toronto's Moss Park

Urban renewal of the 1960s built large amounts of public housing in the formerly industrial neighborhood of Moss Park in Toronto. Now, the neighborhood and its eponymous park have become home to some of the most impoverished people in the city.

September 3, 2016 - Toronto Star

Banc of California Stadium

Los Angeles Wants to Use Housing Money to Boost MLS Soccer Stadium

Critics say the HUD program is meant to fund more direct anti-poverty measures, like affordable housing—not office, retail, and attractions.

September 1, 2016 - NextCity

West Sacramento Bridge District

A New Financing Tool for California: Enhanced Infrastructure Finance Districts

Enhanced infrastructure finance districts allow regional cooperation on infrastructure investment and economic development.

August 31, 2016 - Linda Day

Vacant Home, Cleveland

Are Rent-to-Own Homes Predatory?

On the promise of ownership, rent-to-own landlords make tenants pay for repairs. And on the lower end, homes often come with code violations built in. This market's legal grey spaces distinctly echo 2008.

August 31, 2016 - New York Times

Gentrification

Mapping Gentrification and Displacement in California

The Urban Displacement project produces not only a detailed portrait of gentrification and displacement in California, but also a comparison between the state's two mega regions: the San Francisco Bay Area and Southern California.

August 30, 2016 - UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs

Nextdoor, the Social Media Platform for Neighbors, Makes Changes to Reduce Racial Profiling

How Nextdoor responded to racial profiling on its platform should serve as an example to other forms of social media.

August 29, 2016 - Fusion

Air Pollution from Natural Gas Industry in Pennsylvania on the Rise

With a 32 percent increase in natural gas drilling in the Marcellus Shale in Pennsylvania, it is no surprise that emissions are increasing as well, particularly sulfur dioxide. However, the increase was dwarfed by decreases from the power sector.

August 27, 2016 - The Allegheny Front

Pittsburgh at Night

Rust Belt Revival: Pittsburgh's New Economy

When Uber announced this month that it would test-run its fleet of self-driving cars in the Steel City, many probably asked, "why Pittsburgh?" Unlike other post-industrial places, it's been incubating a 21st-century economy.

August 26, 2016 - Salon

Sea Level

The Danger of Buying By the Sea

Zillow has released research on how many of the nation's homes may be underwater (literally) by the year 2100. Florida, Hawaii, New Jersey, and Louisiana are at the highest risk.

August 26, 2016 - Zillow

Earned Income Should Not Replace Public Funding for Community Development

Our plan was to seek out community-based organizations trying to back away from developer fees, pursuing recent implications that smaller organizations should consider leaving development work to more efficient, larger ones. We found none.

August 26, 2016 - Shelterforce/Rooflines

Sacramento

Sacramento Rising: Mayor-Elect Darrell Steinberg's Vision for Sustainable Communities

Mayor-Elect Steinberg enters City Hall as a leader with a unique opportunity to enact sustainable infill policies he championed in the California Legislature.

August 26, 2016 - The Planning Report

Sharon, Vermont Utopian City Design

A Developer's Plan to Build a Mormon Utopia in Vermont Hits Opposition

Plans drawn up for a new, futuristic 20,000-person community in Sharon, Vermont, based on town plans originally conceived by Church of Latter Day Saints founder Joseph Smith, have hit a roadblock with locals and the church itself.

August 26, 2016 - Inverse

Far Rockaway

New York Ready to Focus Revitalization Efforts in Far Rockaway

A Politico article describes the Far Rockaway neighborhood as still reeling from the effects of Superstorm Sandy and a history of underinvestment. The city is ready to launch a $91 million redevelopment effort to change all that.

August 25, 2016 - Politico New York

Echo Park

Los Angeles' Neighborhood Integrity Initiative Presents Demands to City Leaders

Last week, leaders of the initiative to curb development in L.A. surprisingly presented Mayor Eric Garcetti with an ultimatum: Agree to their list of demands by August 24, or they will take the issue to the March 2017 ballot.

August 24, 2016 - The Planning Report

Boyle Heights

East Los Angeles Community Groups Prove that Community Planning Matters

The landscape of community development in Los Angeles today differs vastly from even a few years ago. Two groups in East L.A. are developing solutions to accelerating gentrification and displacement and a compounding affordable housing crisis.

August 24, 2016 - The Planning Report

Brooklyn

Op-Ed: Stay Expensive, New York—It Helps the Rest of the U.S.

Here's a controversial assertion: expensive, desirable cities are doing everyone else a favor by forcing people to move.

August 24, 2016 - Bloomberg View

Moscow, Russia

Moscow's Erratic Shift Towards a Walkable City

Moscow's Mayor has pushed an agenda to beautify the city, create social spaces, and make the city more walkable, but critics see the move towards walkability as more of a forced march.

August 23, 2016 - Foreign Policy

The Bronx

Poor Urban Planning and the Birth of Hip Hop

An architect known as the Hip-Hop Architect explains how the planning decisions of the 20th century served as muse and breeding ground for the multi-million-dollar industry of hip hop.

August 23, 2016 - Fader

Toledo

'Rust Belt Chic' Not Enough to Attract Millennials in Some Cities

The city of Toledo, Ohio provides a case study in how the best intentions of attracting degree-holding Millennials can come up short.

August 22, 2016 - Toledo Blade

Suburban Woes Follow After Companies Depart for Cities

It's not bad enough that the Northeast is losing population to the South and West. As companies decamp from the suburbs, pristine communities, many where apartments are outlawed, are seeing a steady decline in housing values.

August 22, 2016 - The Atlantic

FREE Course: Walkable City 1: Why Walkability?

After describing his path towards focusing on walkability as the essence of good planning, Jeff Speck marches through his five principal reasons for making more walkable places.

Reinventing Malls: Planning Alchemy—Turning Gray Fields Into Gold

The course focuses on the opportunities and imperatives that shape reinvention of mall sites.

Transportation Planner I

KFH Group Inc.

Director, Strategy and Research

Greater Baltimore Committee

Senior Planner

Eagle County Government

Top Books

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100 Most Influential Urbanists

The who's who of urbanism, according to Planetizen readers.

Urban Planning Creators You Should Know

A short list of voices on social, video, and podcasting platforms.