Community / Economic Development

The nation of Iraq is building itself anew after the last of the US troops evacuated six months ago, but experts are saying that their wealth, which has created an invasion of shopping malls around the country, is subsidizing the public agenda.

July 5, 2012 - The New York Times

So says the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, releasing a new report that says this all-too-common strategy rarely pays off.

July 4, 2012 - The Boston Globe

Tehran is known for being congested and polluted, but Elyana Javaheri credits mayor Mohammad-Bagher Ghalibaf for making the Iranian capital more livable.

July 4, 2012 - This Big City

Richard Close, a member of the Oversight Board supervising the dissolution of the Los Angeles Community Redevelopment Agency, discusses the challenges of defining 'enforceable obligations' and the legal battles he anticipates in the coming year.

July 3, 2012 - The Planning Report

In order to save Coney Island from dwindling unemployment rates and high poverty levels, developers rezone the 46-year-old amusement park, but the plans may never actually leave the paper.

July 3, 2012 - The Brooklyn Bureau

Will Doig considers the growing pressure cities face to build a marketable identity, and why that's a particular challenge for generally livable cities.

July 2, 2012 - Salon

Since the mid-1970s, Detroit’s riverfront has been transforming from a depressed industrial area into a bustling district for families and businesses.

July 1, 2012 - Detroit Free Press

One brazen entrepreneur from Detroit is looking to raise funds to bring his "zombie theme park" concept to life, Sarah Cox reports.

June 29, 2012 - Curbed

David Steel explains how Buffalo's zoning code not only makes it impossible to build the type of neighborhoods people love, but also guarantees that low density development pays less taxes.

June 29, 2012 - Rust Wire

Workers making up the 'creative class,' a term first coined by author Richard Florida, continue to grow and prosper, generating trillions in wages. What cities in the U.S. have the largest creative economies?

June 29, 2012 - The Daily Beast

Often downplayed of their role in both planning efforts and in the economy, tribal governments are working collaboratively with other local governments in Oklahoma to help build and maintain roads.

June 29, 2012 - Tulsa World

Young activists Emaleigh and Ainé Doley take matters into their own hands to clean up their neighborhood street in run-down Germantown.

June 29, 2012 - The Philadelphia Inquirer

Nate Berg takes a look at the seven biggest cities to have filed for bankruptcy in the last two decades, the largest of which officially broke the bank as of yesterday.

June 28, 2012 - The Atlantic Cities

Brent Toderian, recently the planning director for Vancouver, was interviewed by Denmark's Sustainable Cities about technology and planning. Toderian was contrarian when it came to technology's ability to save the world.

June 28, 2012 - Sustainable Cities

Eric Fidler observes how residents of a Washington, D.C. neighborhood fight against the granting of a liquor license to a proposed restaurant, using the emotional health of school children as part of their argument.

June 28, 2012 - Greater Greater Washington

June 28, 2012 - John Wilbanks

As the global recession continues to hit the global economy, shopping centers take on two distinct development patterns in developed and developing nations.

June 28, 2012 - Retail Traffic

As new research data on cities pours in daily, interesting patterns emerge regarding income, green space and urban growth. Like people in their genetic make-up, are cities fundamentally all the same?

June 28, 2012 - The Economist

To some, "the suburbs" mean bland neighborhoods outside of a vibrant city life. But demographic and land-use changes are making Lakis Polycarpou and others rethink the definitions of "urban" and "suburban."

June 28, 2012 - POLIS

Richey Piiparinen says that in one obvious way, gentrification isn't a problem in the Rust Belt (that being housing prices, which are comfortably low pretty much everywhere). A true intermingling of racial and ethnic groups is happening, he argues.

June 27, 2012 - RustWire