Exclusives

BLOG POST

<p> This morning over at Atlantic Cities, <a href="http://www.theatlanticcities.com/politics/2012/08/has-london-mayors-office-been-too-successful/3024/">Richard Florida aptly refuted</a> an <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/the-northerner/2012/aug/16/abolish-london-mayor-boris-johnson">opinion piece by Kevin Meagher</a> that appeared in the Guardian last week advocating for doing away with the position of Mayor in London. Florida lays out several strong arguments in favor of a strong elected mayor who can act as an advocate for his or her city. </p>

August 22 - Jess Zimbabwe

BLOG POST

<p> <span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small"> </span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman"><span style="font-size: small">Many students are understandably worried about getting a job once they graduate. The slow economy has made this more difficult and also changed some of the parameters in terms of approach and timing. For example, many employers are hesitant to make early commitments, delaying some phases of the job search. In this blog I outline a strategy for using the academic year to find a job or a summer internship using the North American academic calendar as a base. </span></span> </p>

August 21 - Ann Forsyth

FEATURE

August 20 - Edward J. Jepson Jr.

FEATURE

August 14 - Fanis Grammenos

BLOG POST

<p> Do we sense a subtle shift in the too often pedantic world of planning and design from private conceits to public conscious constructs, and in of all places Los Angeles, as evidenced by the heralded dedication this summer of a new downtown park? </p> <p> To be sure, the first phase of the 12 acre park is a promising space, linking in a series of terraces edged by select plantings and brightly painted seating, from the neomodern Music Center to the west to the neoclassical City Hall to the east. Helping in particular these dog days of summer is a refurbished memorial fountain that invites wading and splashing, as well as the office workers out of the adjacent government buildings. </p>

August 9 - Sam Hall Kaplan

FEATURE

August 7 - Gary Toth

BLOG POST

<p> In the early 1990s, transportation politics at both the state and federal levels was often fairly simple: an all-powerful Road Gang (made up of real estate developers and road contractors) typically got whatever it wanted, rolling over a much weaker pro-transit coalition of environmentalists and urban politicians. </p>

August 7 - Michael Lewyn

BLOG POST

<p> As Olympics excitement grows in the first week of the London 2012 Games, we in Vancouver watch with great interest, and occasional feelings of deja-vu. Last week in Atlantic Cities, <a href="http://www.theatlanticcities.com/jobs-and-economy/2012/07/what-vancouver-gained-hosting-olympics/2695/" target="_blank">I wrote about</a> Vancouver’s 2010 Olympics experience with Olympic jitters and the host city funk, and the ability of the Games to change cities through the “power of the collective experience.” </p> <div style="text-align: center"> <img src="/files/u31521/city.jpg" width="400" height="225" /> </div> <p> </p>

August 3 - Brent Toderian

FEATURE

August 2 - John Norquist

BLOG POST

<p> The recent release of the <a href="http://www.transportation.org/" target="_blank">American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials’</a> (AASHTO) 2012 <a href="https://bookstore.transportation.org/collection_detail.aspx?ID=116" target="_blank">Update to the Guide for Development of Bicycle Facilities</a> sparked an interesting discussion on the <a href="http://www.apbp.org/default.asp?" target="_blank">Association of Pedestrian and Bicycle Professional</a>’s (APBP) email listserv. <br />

August 1 - Mike Lydon

FEATURE

July 31 - Kevin C. Desouza

BLOG POST

<p> How much is a hipster worth to a city? Is she worth more when she&#39;s building an app, or when she&#39;s writing a blog? Is a hipster with a walrus mustache and a mean whiffle ball pitch worth more than one who wears a sarong and practices aerial yoga? How many of them can dance on the pull tab of a PBR? <br />

July 27 - Josh Stephens

BLOG POST

<p class="MsoNormal"> A recent paper by Harvard economists <span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; padding: 0cm">Daniel Shoag</span> and<span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif"> </span></span><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; padding: 0cm">Peter Ganong</span> titled, <span style="font-size: 10.5pt; font-family: Arial,sans-serif"><a href="http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2081216">Why Has Regional Convergence in the U.S. Stopped?</a></span> indicates that land development regulations tend to increase housing costs, which contributes to inequality by excluding lower-income households from more economically productive urban regions. Does this means that planners are guilty of increasing income inequality? </p>

July 26 - Todd Litman

FEATURE

July 24 - Laurel Prevetti

FEATURE

July 16 - Charles Siegel

BLOG POST

<p> Returning home to Vancouver last week after taking in some of the 100th Anniversary world-famous Calgary Stampede, I find myself thinking about the relationship between city-defining events and place-making. I also couldn’t help remembering an unusual moment in my career that relates to the Stampede.<br /> <br /> In 2006 when I was 36, after 4 rounds of interviews, I found myself in a closed-door session with Vancouver&#39;s City Council. I was being recommended to Council to become the new Director of City Planning, replacing former Co-Directors Larry Beasley and Dr. Ann McAfee. Council was meeting me for the first time, before going in-camera to officially decide on my hiring.<br /> <br />

July 16 - Brent Toderian

BLOG POST

<p class="MsoNormal"> <span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: 'Century Schoolbook'">A couple of months ago, I wrote a blog post comparing the safety of inner suburbs and outer suburbs. (See <a href="/node/56468">http://www.planetizen.com/node/56468</a> )</span> </p> <p class="MsoNormal"> <span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: 'Century Schoolbook'">My post showed that (in least in the metropolitan areas I looked at) inner suburbs were safer than outer suburbs, because violent deaths from murder and traffic combined were lower in the former.</span> </p>

July 15 - Michael Lewyn

BLOG POST

Whenever we weed through the records of our personal past -- diaries, letters, drawings, school assignments from our youth -- we face difficult decisions over what to keep and what to discard. We are forced to come to terms with our documented past, and often recognize the power such records hold to both inspire – and embarrass. For individuals and governments alike, the decision over what to record, what to retain and what to communicate is a potent one, for it can either afford or constrain opportunities for actions in the future, as well as confirm or conflict with the image or myths we choose to tell about ourselves.

July 12 - Michael Dudley

BLOG POST

How forlorn spaces might be developed as community resources that lend a sense of place, however fleeting, can be a precarious exploit.<br /> <br /> Convinced the real challenge in planning and design these dog days is placemaking, my convivial colleague Rhett Beavers and I have been exploring the potential of a variety of fringe and derelict sites under the banner of the Landscape Architecture program at UCLA Extension. With big and brutalistic no longer winning the hearts and minds of the discerning public, we are thinking small and green. <br />

July 10 - Sam Hall Kaplan

BLOG POST

A frequent query I receive from students is whether they should focus on gaining a broad understanding of many aspects of planning and places or if they should focus on one topic in depth. This is an important question.

July 6 - Ann Forsyth