Exclusives

BLOG POST

Faculty Using Web 2.0 to Show Images

Lately as I’ve been trying to help students find information for papers and classes, I’ve stumbled across a few new examples of faculty using the web to give others access to visual data from their research.

February 1 - Ann Forsyth

FEATURE

Great Places in Balance With Nature: Beyond Low Impact Development

January 30 - Jonathan Ford

BLOG POST

Information Sources in Planning: Introduction

For more than ten years now I have been a librarian at the Institute of Urban Studies at the University of Winnipeg, managing <a href="http://www.uwinnipeg.ca/index/ius-library">a small library dedicated to planning, geography, urban design and environmental issues</a>. I have been extremely fortunate to have had the freedom in this role to evolve a hybridized career involving research, librarianship, teaching, writing and editing.

January 24 - Michael Dudley

FEATURE

The Smart Math of Mixed-Use Development

Are cities across the country acting negligently in ignoring the property tax implications of different development types? Joseph Minicozzi thinks so, and he's done the math to prove it.

January 23 - Joseph Minicozzi

FEATURE

Mapping Transportation and Health in the United States

What is the relationship between car travel and health outcomes in the United States? Ariel Godwin and Anne Price challenge the claim that more time in the car decreases your health by looking at the impacts of education, income, and employment rates.

January 16 - Anne Price

BLOG POST

Liveblog: ULI Rose Center Kansas City Study Visit

I'm writing from the audience of a presentation this morning in the Hotel Phillips in Kansas City. The presentation will cover the initial observations and recommendations of a national team of experts who've been invited here by Mayor Sly James and his team of Daniel Rose Fellows. The Kansas City Daniel Rose Fellows:

January 13 - Jess Zimbabwe

BLOG POST

The Law of Traffic Congestion, according to "The Flash!"

Across the world, city-builders who understand the complex relationship between land-use, car infrastructure and road congestion, struggle to communicate it in a simple way that resonates with the public. It's now well-demonstrated in transportation demand management (TDM) research and practice that you can't build your way out of traffic congestion by building roads, and in fact the opposite is true - the more free-ways and car lanes you build, the more people drive and the more congestion and other negative results there are.

January 10 - Brent Toderian

FEATURE

Foreclosing on the African American Community

January 9 - John I. Gilderbloom

BLOG POST

Density without walkability

I had heard of “dense sprawl” and “density without walkability” in the past, but before spending a week in Jerusalem last month, I had never really lived through these problems. My parents (who I was staying with) rented a unit in a high-rise condo complex called Holyland Tower. Although Holyland Tower was the tallest building in the area, there were numerous mid-rise buildings, and lots of two-and three-story apartment and condo buildings. While walking through the idea, I saw nothing resembling a single-family home. In sum, this area was a pretty dense neighborhood in a pretty dense city (Jerusalem’s overall density is roughly comparable to that of the city of San Francisco).

January 1 - Michael Lewyn

BLOG POST

Yes, We Can Have a Healthy Environment and Economic Development: Reconciling Conflicting Planning Objectives

I am sorry to report that, Canada, my chosen country (I immigrated here in 1993), recently withdrew from the Kyoto Accord, which sets international climate change emission reduction targets. It’s worth noting that this decision was made...

December 30 - Todd Litman

BLOG POST

Case Studies: How Planning Students Can Find Interesting Projects Online

Planning students are often interested in finding examples of planning practice, particularly good examples. Several free online sources list projects that have won awards or been the subject of magazine articles. While winning an award doesn’t mean a project is perfect, such projects are typically m some of the more interesting examples of planning.

December 21 - Ann Forsyth

BLOG POST

Planning to Get an Internship

It’s winter break for many northern hemisphere planning students so time to start planning for next summer’s internship. I have previously blogged about "making the most of an internship": <a href="/node/51287" target="_blank">http://www.planetizen.com/node/51287</a>. Here I briefly talk about the practicalities of getting one.

December 18 - Ann Forsyth

FEATURE

The Power of Jane Jacobs' "Web Way of Thinking"

December 15 - Michael Mehaffy

FEATURE

Zurich, the World's Best Transit City

Transportation expert Norman Garrick reports on the amazingly effective transit system of Zurich, Switzerland. Garrick says the system is one of the factors that makes Zurich one of the most livable cities in the world.

December 12 - Norman W. Garrick

BLOG POST

"And the Winners are...": re:CONNECT Stand-outs Announced!

Last week, at an event attended by over 300 Vancouverites, we announced the winners of our re:CONNECT Open Ideas Competition regarding the future of our Viaducts and Eastern Core. If you missed my past posts on the steps leading up to the big night, it might help to read <a href="/node/52012" target="_blank">here</a> and <a href="/node/52571" target="_blank">here</a> first.

December 5 - Brent Toderian

BLOG POST

New Understanding of Pricing Impacts on Travel

Bad planning simply extrapolates past trends: “We experienced 2% annual growth during the last decade, so we’ll assume that will continue into the future.” Good planning attempts to understand underlying factors that affect change.

December 4 - Todd Litman

BLOG POST

Can't Buy Me Love--Or Plan For It

This morning I embarked with three dozen volunteers to plant 10 trees in Pigeon Town, a neighborhood in western New Orleans. The group was completing an eight-hour training on urban greening initiatives, learning everything from pruning methods to how to work with municipalities to find funding for beautification projects—which have been proven to improve everything from <a href="http://www.pennsylvaniahorticulturalsociety.org/phlgreen/seeinggreen.htm">real estate values</a> to <a href="http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2011/11/more-green-crime/">crime statistics</a>. The training did not, however, cover what we were supposed to do when we heard gunshots ring out. That we had to improvise.

November 30 - Jeffrey Barg

BLOG POST

What Transit Agencies Should Ask Their Customers About

After reading <a href="http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/ct-met-rta-surveys-riders-20111129,0,908396.story">this story</a> about a transit agency surveying their customers, I thought to myself: do riders really want another survey asking whether they are satisfied or how clean the stations are? Although clean stations are certainly better than unclean stations, I suspect that these are not transit riders' major priorities. (And when I say "transit riders" I really of course mean "myself").

November 30 - Michael Lewyn

BLOG POST

Sustainability Allows Us to Manufacture Time

Go ahead, define sustainability. Everyone knows countless, tangled and unconvincing definitions for this word which is quickly losing steam. The problem is that we’re not sure about how sustainability relates to us except in planetary ways. We’re bombarded with many concepts that if we reduce this by 20% then we’ll get that in 30 years which helps the earth survive. All’s well, except we’re almost numb because we won’t feel the aggregate effects for quite some time. Obviously, we’re an impatient lot.

November 29 - Rick Abelson

FEATURE

No-Exam Bylaws Amendment for Planning Faculty Will Cheapen AICP Certification

Stuart Meck and Rebecca Retzlaff call the attention of AICP certified planners to an upcoming change to the certification process which they believe will "degrade and cheapen" the AICP designation.

November 28 - Stuart Meck