Community / Economic Development
Tel Aviv Expands its Smart City Leadership Role
This month, during the Smart City Congress, Hila Oren, CEO of Tel Aviv Global, announced an agreement with Tel Aviv to mentor, train, consult, and escort Indian city officials in their processes to become Smart Cities.
Urban Revitalization Through Highway Teardowns
Alana Semuels, staff writer for The Atlantic, examines highway teardowns beginning with the San Francisco Embarcadero in 1989 to see how they have worked in terms of revitalizing poorer areas or restoring the urban fabric that they destroyed.
New Call for Choice Neighborhood 'Planning and Action' Grants
The latest round of funding for the Choice Neighborhoods program adds a new component—"Planning and Action Grants."
Businesses in Brooklyn Opening at Twice the Rate of Previous Decade
A Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce report offers compelling evidence of the borough's ongoing transformation.
Analyzing the Impacts of Choice Neighborhoods Grants
A new study examines the question of how to achieve neighborhood transformation through the Choice Neighborhoods federal grant program.
For Economic Stabilization Amidst Suburban Poverty: Maximize the Earned Income Tax Credit
The diffuse structure of suburbs makes it more efficient, according to this Brooking Institution post, to invest in individuals rather than places to fight poverty.
Los Angeles Declares Shelter Crisis Ahead of El Niño
Facing winter storms and flooding, the city of Los Angeles is opening public buildings as temporary shelters for the homeless. Mayor Garcetti also has the option of declaring a state of emergency around the 26,000 people without housing.
A Planner's Perspective on Brazil's Water Crisis
With water shortages in São Paulo making headlines around the world, Brazil is rethinking its approach to water infrastructure. Arup's Pablo Lazo gives his perspective on the various entities that are acting for change.
Walkability: Good Money After Bad
"We're investing in walkability," always sounds like an encouraging tagline from local governments...or does it?
'Threading the Needle' of Environmental Sustainability and Social Justice for Cities
This blog is part of the World Resources Report (WRR) series. The WRR looks at cities as drivers of economic and social opportunity, and simultaneously as areas with concentrations of poverty, environmental degradation, and inequality.
Anchorage to Provide Permanent Housing for the Homeless
Newly elected Mayor Ethan Berkowitz has unveiled a new plan to end homelessness in Alaska's largest city, Anchorage. It focuses on providing permanent housing over the next three years for 300 adults who are living on the street and in camps.
Anchorage Releases Draft Land Use Regs for Marijuana
Commercial marijuana operations to be restricted to industrial areas.
The Regulations Making Philadelphia a Beer Lover's Paradise
Cities and neighborhoods looking to locate and support breweries and brew pubs should look to Philadelphia as an example of a beer-friendly regulatory environment.
When Can Economic Advocacy Succeed in City Hall?
Marc Doussard of University of Illinois guest blogs on his new work in the Journal of Planning Education and Research, available with open access through Dec. 15, 2015.
Melting Pots and Shrinking Islands
Brooklyn-based artist Ekene Ijeoma newest piece shows what parts of New York City are affordable to different people across the spectrum of salaries in the form of crystalline islands called "wage islands."
Guidebook: Lowering Barriers to Urban Farming
Urban agriculture has long been a staple of sustainable urbanism—in theory. Can policy changes help it become much more than that? This guidebook offers tactics and policies that planners can use to promote urban farms.
On the Life Cycle of Suburban Malls
Using Greenwood, Indiana as an example, Eric McAfee discusses how the value of individual suburban malls depreciates over time. Shiny new shopping centers compensate for inevitable vacancies in older ones.
Designated Zones to Protect New York Manufacturing
Without designated industrial zones, New York manufacturing companies risk losing their facilities to the residential development market. The de Blasio administration has promised some zoning protections for industrial enclaves.
Five Ways to Measure the Need for City Parks
While standardized metrics for determining the number of and place for city parks cannot replace more fine grain analysis, they can be useful tools. Park planner Clement Lau writes about five park-need metrics, including a couple of the newest.
Are Small Towns the Next Arts Districts?
As rising costs expel artists from urban cores, some small towns are positioning themselves as unlikely magnets for creative expression.
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.
KFH Group Inc.
Greater Baltimore Committee
Eagle County Government
The Architects Foundation
University of Cincinnati Online
The Pocatello Development Authority
The Urban Renewal Agency of the City of Pocatello
