Exclusives

BLOG POST

Starbucks Initiative Could Brew Up Urban Vitality

<div> <br /> </div> <div> I am writing this missive from the living room of a Starbucks. Not that you'd care where I'm writing from. Except this time it's relevant. </div> <div> </div> <div> </div> <div> Here on Montana Avenue, in Santa Monica, I'm joined by other folks who are also on their laptops, recovering from yoga, or just biding their time. The guy sitting at my table just sold a pilot to Fox. That's nice for him. A few weeks ago I sat next to Hillary Swank here. She's not hurting either. </div> <div> <br /> </div> <div> But others aren't so lucky. To its credit, Starbucks seems to want to do something about it. </div> <div> <br /> </div> <div>

October 18 - Josh Stephens

FEATURE

The Surprising Rise of Minneapolis as a Top Bike Town

Despite its cold weather and spread-out development patterns, a Midwestern city beat Portland, San Francisco and Boulder for the title of #1 Bike City. Jay Walljasper explains how.

October 17 - Jay Walljasper

BLOG POST

How will the Suburbs Cope with Poverty?

The terms Central city, Inner city and urban have long been synonymous with the poorer, disadvantaged minority sections of metropolitan areas. Conversely, the suburbs have been associated with whites, affluence and job growth. For a long time, however, this dichotomy has failed to capture the gradual blurring of distinctive patterns that demarcate city from suburb. A recent <a href="http://www.brookings.edu/papers/2011/1011_housing_suburbs_covington_freeman_stoll.aspx">Brookings report</a> by Kenya Covington, Michael Stoll and yours truly underscores this point. The Housing Choice Voucher (HCV) program, the single largest affordable housing program in the country is almost as prevalent in the suburbs as in central cities.

October 13 - Lance Freeman

FEATURE

Healthy Travel Modes: Correlations, Causality and Caution

Driving makes people fatter and less healthy, right? Fanis Grammenos warns planners and urban designers that the answer is not so simple, and misusing the statistics will weaken effective debate.

October 13 - Fanis Grammenos

FEATURE

Critics and Designers Pick Their Favorite Public Spaces

October 6 - Tim Halbur

BLOG POST

The Importance of Comprehensive Planning in a Down Economy

<p class="MsoNormal"> <span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: Garamond, serif">In many ways, the Great Recession has been a frightening time for planners. As development slowed, the flow of applications submitted for new development slowed from its torrent at the height of the housing boom to the trickle it is today.<span> </span>With the decline in applications came a decline in workload for public-sector planners working in current planning roles and a decline in revenue for the jurisdictions that employed them.<span> </span>The end result was hundreds of planners being laid off, and private-sector planning firms competing with one another for ever-decreasing shares of work from public- and private-sector clients.</span> </p>

October 4 - Justin Steinmann

BLOG POST

Learning from TTI

<p> In a <a href="/node/51680">recent post</a>, Todd Litman criticized the Texas Transportation Institute's <a href="http://mobility.tamu.edu/ums/">Urban Mobility Report</a>. In this post, I'd like to do something a little different: assume that TTI's congestion estimates are more or less reliable, and try to learn something from them. So here are a few observations: </p>

October 4 - Michael Lewyn

FEATURE

The Challenges of Housing Design for a Growing World

October 3 - Tatiane de Jesus

BLOG POST

Solyndra, Moneyball, and Lessons for Planning

<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small"> </span> <p style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNoSpacing"> <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt"> <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt">The Los Angeles Times recently had a <a href="http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-fi-solyndra-20110925,0,1536191.story" target="_blank" title="Solyndra's collapse is a tale of too much dazzle">story</a> about the collapse of Solyndra – the once heralded poster-child of the Obama administration’s green jobs plan. A big part of Solyndra’s demise was due to the rapidly falling price of their competitors’ solar panels. In 2008, the cost of solar panels was a bit over $4 for each watt generated. Solyndr

October 1 - Marlon Boarnet

BLOG POST

A foray by HUD into telling small towns how best to use their land

In April 2009, HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan spoke to the ULI Spring Council Forum in Atlanta; he stated that his administration’s goal was “to put the UD back in HUD,” and explained that HUD’s over-reliance on housing solutions wasn’t helping cities address their complex revitalization needs. Just over two years later, this small new funding program caught my eye on a list of new HUD announcements: <p class="MsoNormal"> *** HUD HOPE VI – $0.5 million<br /> Application Due: August 22, 2011<br /> Eligible Entities: Local governments </p>

October 1 - Jess Zimbabwe

BLOG POST

Streets of a multicultural city

This past weekend I attended a memorial service for a local activist. Eric Quezada was important in many planning-related issues here in San Francisco – how we create space that reflects the cultural traditions of our large immigrant communities, the importance of preventing displacement of low-income people, the development of affordable housing and institutions that meet the needs of all of our citizenry. I had known Eric for many years, but had the privilege of working most closely with him when I served on our city’s Planning Commission and he was a lead organizer in the Mission District, an historically Latino neighborhood threatened by dot-com fueled gentrification. In his short 45 years on earth, Eric touched the lives of thousands here and around the world.

September 28 - Lisa Feldstein

BLOG POST

Public Education, Privatization and Planning

<br /> <!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <p class="MsoNormal"> One of the greatest challenges for US cities is the perceived failure of public schools. Both as a means for attracting and retaining the middle class and for providing upward mobility public schools are crucial. Consequently, any effort to build livable cities must include successful public schools so as to provide a ladder for the poor and to attract and retain the middle class. Although education typically falls out of the purview of planning, planners can ill afford to ignore such a key component of what makes a place livable in the minds of many.

September 26 - Lance Freeman

FEATURE

Carpooling: What the Census Doesn't Show

Recent census data analysis shows that the number of carpoolers has been declining over the last thirty years. But further study of carpooling's history, as well as social, demographic and economic trends, shows that there is more to carpooling numbers than a downward slope, writes Cynthia Armour.

September 26 - Cynthia Armour

BLOG POST

Digging (in) Detroit

Detroit is the darling of the media.

September 21 - Barbara Knecht

FEATURE

Save the Partnership for Sustainable Communities

September 19 - Geoffrey Anderson

BLOG POST

5 Things That Inspire Me

<p class="MsoNormal"> During these harsh economic times I’ve read about some of the most creative and inspiring planning and design projects in my career. Whether they are the product of the underemployed looking for a creative outlet or a resetting of our values and goals, something magical is happening in the world of planning. Below are 5 things that have inspired my inner planner. </p> <p class="MsoNormal">   </p>

September 15 - Melissa Hege

FEATURE

Seeking the Top 100 Public Spaces in the U.S. and Canada

September 15 - Tim Halbur

BLOG POST

The false hope of comprehensive planning

<p>   </p> <p style="line-height: 17px; margin: 0px" class="ecxMsoNormal"> It is conventional wisdom in some circles that “comprehensive planning” and sprawl are polar opposites- that planning is the enemy of sprawl. </p> <p style="line-height: 17px; margin: 0px" class="ecxMsoNormal"> But in fact, a comprehensive plan is almost as likely as a zoning code to be pro-sprawl.<span style="line-height: 17px"> </span>Many of the land use policies that make suburbs automobile-dependent (such as wide roads, long blocks, low density, single-use zoning, etc.) can just as easily be found in a comprehensive plan. </p>

September 15 - Michael Lewyn

BLOG POST

Manhattan Urbanism, 9/11, and the "Security-Silo"

September 13 - Brent Toderian

BLOG POST

Making the Most of an Internship

<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small"> </span> <p style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"> <span style="font-size: small"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman">Recently I’ve had a number of undergraduate students ask how to make the most of internships—over the semester and in the breaks. The following represents some advice for current students.</span></span> </p>

September 11 - Ann Forsyth