Community / Economic Development
The Unbelievable Mass of Walmart
When Walmart comes to your town and wants to build a SuperCenter, you may not understand the sheer magnitude of the entity that it is. This helpful infographic explains how huge the world's largest retailer really is.
How Planning is Like Growing Tomatoes
An organic system is rarely the sum of its parts. Nothing demonstrates this as clearly as sinking your teeth into a store-bought tomato, writes Ben Brown.
Columbia Pike Streetcar is the Better Design
According to Miles Grant, "the streetcar is a relative bargain purely on the basis of direct cost per estimated user, not even including the external costs of sprawl and pollution that new and improved highways engender."
Redevelopment Project Across from Wrigley Field
According to Tribune staff reporter Ameet Sachdev, "owners of the Chicago Cubs bought property across the street from Wrigley Field from McDonald's Corp. for $20 million, expanding their opportunities to redevelop areas around the stadium."
Santa Monica OKs Urban Forest Master Plan
The plan is believed to set a precedent for urban forestry management. It includes a Street Tree Designations component, created in response to one failed attempt to replace non-native palms with other types of trees.
High-Speed Rail Project Faces Opposition
In California, a recent poll, according to Charles Chieppo, brought bad news stating that 53% of the states voters approved a $9.9 billion bond three years ago, but of those polled, 64% support a re-vote, and 59% would vote no if they had the chance.
Tiger III Grant Funds Awarded to Streetcar Project
In Cincinnati, Ohio, the "shovel-ready" Streetcar project has been awarded 10.9 million dollars in grant funding, according to Jenny Kessler, to "restore the project to its original aim of connecting the Uptown and Downtown employment centers."
Placemaking With Zip Lines
Chuck Wolfe admires the creative thinking which has reinvented the dramatic setting between two Italian hill towns.
Folding Bikes Gain Popularity in Brazil
Maria Fernanda Cavalcanti, a resident of Brazil, writes that folding bicycles "...have been catching the attention of urban cyclists everywhere."
NYC Gets to Work on "Green Zoning" Rules
New York has created new zoning rules, now officially under review for approval, that combat the current zoning's sometimes impeding effect on green building.
Debating Urban Transit Tax Credits
New Jersey's Urban Transit Hub Tax Credit provided $1.5 billion in incentives for 13 projects, garnering mixed opinions over the past two years. Intended to build communities a half mile from transit, some question if it even works.
Is Smart Growth a United Nations Plot?
Tea Partiers, anti-smart growthers and Wendell Cox all agree: Agenda 21, a United Nations program adopted in 1992, contains dangerous ideas that if implemented could damage economic growth and cement world government control over the U.S.
Envisioning a Less Suburban Long Island
The Long Island Index, a project to gather and present data about Long Island, has been studying the exodus of young people from their community. Now they're trying to do something about it with a new vision for the island.
Brooklyn Developers Embark On Race Into The Sky
Long the sole preserve of Manhattan developers, Brooklyn is now the setting for its own race to the sky. Two developers are planning to break ground next year on residential buildings that will loom nearly 100 ft over any of their predecessors.
LA Artist Reopens Derelict JC Penney As Art Complex
An LA based artist is about reopen a 100,000 square foot disused JC Penney as an arts complex in West Houston. The former West Oaks Mall anchor had been vacant for two years before becoming the focus of the new rehab concept.
Manhattan's Far West Side Rises From Olympic Disappointment
A vibrant neighborhood is rising on Manhattan's far west side, where the Stadium and complex would have been built as proposed by the New York's bid to host the 2012 Olympic Games.
Washington DC Imagines Itself Without Transit
Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority is celebrating its 35th anniversary and is finding ways to ascertain exactly what the agency has brought to the region.
LA City Council Moves Closer To River Centric Development
The Los Angeles City Council last week approved an update to the Los Angeles River Implementation Overlay to encourage good quality river centric development and begin removing some of the concrete that covers the river and its banks.
Even or Odd? Rome Restricts Car Use
With pollution levels becoming dangerous in Rome, Italy, the government is taking a hard line on driving. In late November, only cars with even-numbered license plates were allowed to drive in the city, with odd plates the next.
What Is Christmas Without the Department Store?
Robert David Sullivan writes that the Main Street America department store is a holiday tradition, a grand public crossroads for celebrating the season.
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.
City of Fort Worth
planning NEXT
Mpact (founded as Rail~Volution)
City of Camden Redevelopment Agency
City of Astoria
City of Portland
City of Laramie
