Community / Economic Development
Improving Cities By Degrees
Carol Coletta explains how improving education, lowering VMT and alleviating poverty by as little as 1% each could mean billions of dollars for cities.
Farming Settles into the City
The idea of urban farming has gone from fringe to functional, with backyards plots and small infill operations teeming across North America. Lloyd Alter takes a look at the trend.
Want Your TOD To Work? Add Parking
A panel of experts at a ULI Los Angeles came together to talk best practices for transit-oriented development. Their recommendations include better security, improved connectivity, and yes, more parking.
Student Planners Remake Toronto
Toronto's former chief planner Paul Bedford asked his students at Ryerson University to present 100-year plans to re-imagine Toronto.
Preservationists Concerned About Visual Blight from Streetcars
Portland has them. So does Charlotte. But in the nation's capital, streetcar overhead wires are under fire from historic preservationists.
Act Now to Create a Successful Detroit
This op-ed from The Detroit Free Press looks at ambitious goals for the city ten years into the future, and argues that citizens will need to start acting soon to turn those dreams into reality.
New Orleans' Recovery Lessons for Haiti
Nearly five years after Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans, the bungled recovery effort offers lessons to Haiti and Chile as they recover from more recent natural disasters, according to this piece from Allison Arieff.
Residents Get More Say in Redevelopment
A scandal over bonuses and the recession leads to change in project to redevelop Southeast San Diego, but some critics want to see more construction, not just kumbaya.
Highway Trust Fund Bailed Out With $19.5 Billion 'Reimbursement'
One of the most significant pieces of legislation for transportation was last month's job bill that contained essential transportation provisions, including extension of the transportation act, $19.5 Billion to HTF, $4.6 billion to Buy America Bonds.
Land Use, Transportation and the World Cup in South Africa
Nate Berg reports on the effects of the upcoming World Cup in South Africa. Will the stadia be built on time? And what will be the impact on after they're built?
Comeback Cities
Paul Grogan headed LISC for 13 years in the 1980s and 1990s, and it's been 10 years since his influential book, "Comeback Cities", was published. How has Mr. Grogan's "blueprint for urban revival" held up, ten years on?
Chicago's $1.3 Million Experiment in Democracy
In a Chicago Tribune op-ed, Alderman Joe Moore explains why he is letting residents decide how to spend his $1.3m ward budget, through the first Participatory Budgeting process in the US.
Creative Class Breathes New Life into Empty Spaces
The recession has left many real estate properties empty across the country. In Los Angeles, some of those empty spaces are being revived by the city's artists.
Success in San Francisco Alleyways
This piece from The Examiner looks at the alleyways of San Francisco and how they have become activated in recent years.
Las Vegas Residents Want Out
A recent survey from UNLV suggests that 40% of the residents of the Las Vegas metropolitan area would prefer to leave the state.
Chicago's $1.3 Million Experiment in Democracy
In a Chicago Tribune op-ed, Alderman Joe Moore explains why he is letting residents decide how to spend his $1.3 ward budget, through the first Participatory Budgeting process in the US.
Infrastructure the Limiting Factor for Local Food Movement
The local food movement is growing in popularity, but a lack of related agricultural and processing infrastructure is holding back its spread.
The De-Evolution of a Suburban Gated Community
Inside this gated community in the L.A. suburb of Hemet, the recession is taking a tough toll and making life difficult for the families that had moved there for quiet calm.
A Toolkit to Improve the Slums of Brazil
Brazilian slums represent huge segments of the country's urban population, especially in Sao Paulo. Upgrading them into economically sustainable segments of the city is a challenge, but a new toolkit offers a path to success.
Looking for an Economic Niche in St. Louis
This piece from The St. Louis Post-Dispatch looks at how the city is trying to coerce itself into the new idea- and innovation-based economy.
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.
City of Rosemead
Rutgers University, Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy
One Hundred Miles
University of Michigan School for Environment and Sustainability (SEAS)
Hunter College, City University of New York (CUNY)
The Architects Foundation
City of Cambridge
Montrose County
The Pocatello Development Authority
