Exclusives

BLOG POST

<p class="Body"> <span>“<em>The only thing we have to fear is fear itself—nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance</em>” </span><span style="font-style: normal">– President</span><span style="font-style: normal"> Franklin D. Roosevelt, 1932 </span> </p> <p class="MsoNormal"> <span>This being the decade anniversary of the World Trade Center and Pentagon terrorist attacks, it seems a good time to consider how our society responds to such threats, and what planners can do to maximize safety.</span> </p>

September 11 - Todd Litman

FEATURE

Mark Ferrall is on a mission to get planners away from their computer screens and collaborating again - over a good board game. Here, he presents three he thinks you and your colleagues will enjoy.

September 8 - Mark Ferrall

BLOG POST

<p> Summer travel took me out of the US and back to Sweden for the first time in five years.  While my initial reaction was that things seemed much the same, I quickly realized that the Swedes had quietly pushed forward a number of projects that, if located in the US, would be on the vanguard of sustainability.  But over there it&#39;s just called urban planning. </p>

September 7 - Walker Wells

BLOG POST

<p> We all remember that day: How we first heard, whom we were with, how we felt as we watched an iconic American cityscape transformed into a burning, toxic wreckage, knowing that  thousands were surely dead, many never to be found. We can all too easily recall how our disbelief quickly turned to horror, sadness and then fear – a fear that the world was now a fundamentally different place, and what that would mean for ourselves and our children.<br /> <br />

September 7 - Michael Dudley

BLOG POST

This is the third in a series of columns that respond to recent claims by the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) that smart growth policies are ineffective and harmful. The first was, An Inaccurate Attack On Smart Growth [...]

September 5 - Todd Litman

BLOG POST

<p> For a while now, I&#39;ve wondered if we have been mislabeling the development around well functioning transit stops as transit-oriented developments (TODs). This may seem odd, because numerous studies have shown that property values can increase by 20% to 40% percent around transit stops, particularly rail stations (although the increases are uneven). </p>

September 4 - Samuel Staley

FEATURE

Are skyscrapers the way to achieve great density, or a form of retro-urbanism that should be retired? With a debate simmering in the planning world over the energy efficiency and urban necessity of tall towers, Planetizen's staff decided to determine the answer once and for all.

September 1 - Tim Halbur

BLOG POST

<p> Historically, data sources for urban planning have remained relatively stable. Planners relied on a collection of well-known government-produced datasets to do their work, including statistics and geographic layers from federal, state and local sources. Produced by regulatory processes or occasional surveys, the strengths and limitations of these sources are well known to planners and many citizens. However all this is beginning to change. Not only has the U.S. Census Bureau&#39;s American Community Survey introduced a bewildering variety of data products, all with margins of error, three interrelated categories of new data are growing rapidly: crowdsourced, private, and &quot;big&quot; data. </p>

September 1 - Robert Goodspeed

BLOG POST

<p> <span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt">Much of the inefficiency surrounding our use and misuse of water derive from entrenched habits formed during previous eras of presumed inexhaustibility of water supplies.  Our wastewater treatment approach has traditionally relied on an infrastructure of centralized municipal water plants where tertiary effluent is recycled.<span>  </span>These plants consume considerable energy and cost to restore all of the water they process. </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt"> </span> </p>

August 26 - Rick Abelson

BLOG POST

On Monday, August 22nd, the leader of Canada’s New Democratic Party, Jack Layton, succumbed to cancer and passed away, mere months after leading his left-leaning party to unprecedented electoral success as the official opposition to Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s Conservatives. Since then, the public expressions of loss, and the celebration of his life, have been extraordinary: impromptu memorials have sprung up in cities across Canada, <a href="http://www.toronto.ca/jack_layton/index.htm">especially in Toronto</a> where he sat as a city councilor for almost 20 years before moving to federal politics.

August 26 - Michael Dudley

FEATURE

Urbanist Peter Kageyama's new book suggests that the "loveability" of a city as a factor in its success is greatly underappreciated. Mike Lydon has this review.

August 25 - Mike Lydon

FEATURE

The true evolution of Ebenezer Howard's Garden City has yet to be realized, says Chris Abel, and today's digital design technology is poised to create a revolutionary vertical version.

August 18 - Chris Abel

FEATURE

Freiburg, Germany has become a stunning model of sustainability, thanks in part to Wulf Daseking, the city's Head of Urban Planning since 1984. Sven Eberlein vists Daseking in Freiberg for this interview.

August 11 - Sven Eberlein

FEATURE

The U.S. is going from one financial crisis directly into another, as SAFETEA-LU, the omnibus transportation bill, expires next month, writes Roxanne Blackwell of the American Society of Landscape Architects.

August 8 - Roxanne Blackwell

FEATURE

This famous statement by Mahatma Gandhi is being challenged by urbanists today who see a shining future for India in its cities. Architect Dhiru Thadani writes that Gandhi's vision of village life can apply to all levels of urban form.

August 1 - Dhiru Thadani

BLOG POST

<p> A few months ago, I updated a city rating system (available at http://lewyn.tripod.com/livable09) that evaluated cities&#39; &quot;livability&quot; by rating crime rates, transit-friendliness, and cost of housing.   </p> <p> Plenty of cities did very well on the first two criteria.  For example, New York is now safer than most big cities, and of course is by far the best city in the U.S. for public transit.  But its housing costs are dreadfully high.  The same was true of Boston and San Francisco (which, if only crime and transit were considered, would rank second and third for livability).   </p>

July 30 - Michael Lewyn

FEATURE

Wave of the future, or glorified golf cart? Lisa Nisenson says that dismissing neighborhood electric vehicles (NEVs) is a mistake, and planners can use NEV planning to make more walkable urban centers.

July 25 - Lisa Nisenson

BLOG POST

Automobile travel imposes significant health risks. Traffic fatality rates, obesity and related illnesses such as diabetes, and total air pollution emissions tend to increase with per capita annual vehicle mileage.

July 25 - Todd Litman

FEATURE

July 21 - Amber Hawkes

BLOG POST

<span style="font-family: Arial; color: black">To its minimal credit, Borders Books &amp; Music always had a a few shelves where the works of Jacobs, Mumford, Kunstler, Whyte, Florida, and others resided. </span> <p class="MsoNormal"> <span style="font-family: Arial; color: black">But, judging by the financial and aesthetic bankruptcies of, respectively, Borders and many American cities, it seems that copies of Life and Death (or anything else) weren&#39;t exactly flying out the door. If the public&#39;s understanding of urban economies even began to rival its fascination for gossip, self-help, and vampires, Borders never would have arisen in the first place.

July 20 - Josh Stephens