Community / Economic Development
Can Planners Learn Something From Computer Programmers?
Unconferences, a type of informational gathering among open source software developers, could provide a model for the planning community.
UK Goes Vegas With 'Supercasino'
A license has been granted to the city of Manchester to host the United Kingdom's first "supercasino" -- a 5,00 square meter gambling and hotel complex similar to Las Vegas casinos. However, many in the UK are worried about resulting social problems.
Detroit Rising
A cadre of architects, planners, and designers descended upon Detroit for the 9th annual University of Michigan Detroit design charrette. The focus: a more livable and inhabited downtown for the country's most maligned, but up-and-coming cities.
Gehry's Grand Scheme For L.A.
Can Frank Gehry's plan for Downtown L.A.'s Grand Avenue transform it into the cultural center civic leaders have been chasing for decades?
California's Job Growth Explodes Inland
Since 1990, inland California counties have contributed five times the job growth as coastal counties. Southern California's Riverside and San Bernardino counties accounted for 510,000 of the 1.1 million jobs added by the inland regions.
Super Bowl's Economic Impact Questioned
Economic development experts debate whether the event's host city will walk away a winner.
Hooray For Hollywood's Urban Renaissance
After decades of being victim to urban blight and decay, the world famous locale is experiencing a wave of redevelopment aimed at wooing back tourists and attracting new residents.
The World's Most Intelligent Communities?
For the second year, no U.S. city has made the list of the world's top Intelligent Communities, as select by the Intelligent Community Forum, a global think tank.
A Home In The 'Hood
Cheap rents draw many young people into less fashionable neighborhoods -- sparking gentrification -- though sometimes the trade-offs can be more than bargained for.
Rust Belt Community Adopts 'Smart Decline' Strategy
The City of Youngstown, Ohio has decided to give up on reviving its industrial era population, and set about the process of shrinking the city down to a size more in line with its economy.
Governments Subsidizing 'Server Farms'
Amid a flurry of subsidies in other states offered to companies like Microsoft and Yahoo!, Google plans to open a $600 million data center in Lenoir, North Carolina, population 17,000. The city will offer a generous tax break and a state grant.
Housing Boom Revitalizing Small Town America
As more seniors and empty nesters seek to reclaim the downtown lifestyle of their youth, small towns across America are experiencing a second chance at economic vitality.
Unified New Orleans Plan Gets Green Light
Recovery czar Ed Blakely lays out his five-point plan for the city's comeback as residents endorsed a plan for rebuilding the city's neighborhoods.
The Winding Road To Shipping Port Reuse
The long and convoluted tale of the demise of a container port and the planned rebirth of a piece of Brooklyn waterfront.
Comments On Social Interaction And Sprawl Report
In the face of an "inaccurate claim" that city neighbors are less friendly than their suburban counterpart, Robert Steuteville of New Urban News provides comments on the University of California study "Social Interaction and Urban Sprawl".
Town's Recreation Tourism Bid May Sacrifice Environment
The town of Ogden, Utah, hopes to beef up its economy by promoting itself as an outdoor recreation capital. But some in the community fear that the tourism campaign may further encourage exploitation of the area's decreasingly pristine environment.
Adult Business Moves Into Historic Building To Make Love Not War
The old San Francisco Armory, which has sat empty for more than three decades in city's Mission district, has found a new use, but local residents aren't exactly excited about this latest chapter of the neighborhood's gentrification.
Proposed Florida Panhandle Airport Causing Controversy
Supporters of the proposed $300 million Panama City-Bay County International Airport -- including the well-heeled St. Joe company -- talk of economic development. Opponents call the facility the "Airport to Nowhere."
Dracula's Castle For Sale
The family in Bucharest, Romania that owns Bran Castle -- famous for its connection to the 15th century medieval ruler who inspired "Dracula" -- plans to sell the fortress to local authorities for $78 million.
Vancouver's 'Living First' Policy Has Put Business Last
While Vancouver's downtown residential population has exploded, the housing boom has crowded out commercial office space, to the detriment of the city's 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.
Eagle County Government
Harvard University Graduate School of Design
Nashville Planning Department
The Architects Foundation
University of Cincinnati Online
The Pocatello Development Authority
The Urban Renewal Agency of the City of Pocatello
Journal of the American Planning Association
