Exclusives

FEATURE

Carmageddon failed to live up to the hype, as Los Angelenos opted to leave their cars in the garage. As the hysteria fades, Planetizen's Tim Halbur asks: is there a real story here about good transportation planning?

July 18 - Tim Halbur

BLOG POST

As discussed in my previous column, An Inaccurate Attack On Smart Growth, the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) sponsored a research program intended to raise doubts about smart growth’s ability to reduce vehicle travel [...]

July 18 - Todd Litman

BLOG POST

<p style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"> <span style="font-size: small; font-family: 'Times New Roman'">When the Planetizen team set up the Interchange blog section in early 2007 they invited half a dozen academics, and dozens of others, to blog. This is my 54^th entry in that (monthly) series. I’m about to start dealing with some new topics--like big ideas in planning--but thought I should do a little research to see which of my past blogs people have been reading.</span> <br />

July 13 - Ann Forsyth

FEATURE

Jay Walljasper argues that the era of specialized, Spandex-clad bicyclists dominating the road is coming to an end - the future is in normal folk taking to the road and taking advantage of the numerous benefits to society that comes from bicycling.

July 11 - Jay Walljasper

BLOG POST

<p> <em>&quot;The secret of Disney is doing things you don&#39;t need, and doing them well, and realizing that you needed them all along...Walt Disney was ahead of everyone, always.&quot;</em> </p> <p> <em>-Isaac Asimov, interviewed by Leonard Maltin<br /> </em> </p>

July 7 - Tim Halbur

FEATURE

Can a city be driven by the noble goals of democracy, diversity, and equity? Harvard professor Susan Fainstein thinks so, and outlines how in her new book, <em>The Just City.</em> Victor Negrete has a review.

July 7 - Victor Negrete

BLOG POST

<p> <span><span style="font-size: small"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman">It’s the middle of summer and few people are thinking about the return to school. However, in the coming month or two new students will need to start interacting with their faculty adviser. The following tips can help make it a productive relationship.</span></span></span><span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small"> </span></span> </p>

July 5 - Ann Forsyth

BLOG POST

<p> A few months ago, I was talking to a faculty colleague who lives in a part of Jacksonville even more sprawl-bound where I live, an area about a mile or so from the nearest bus stop and with a single-digit Walkscore.  He said Jacksonville was &quot;safe and clean.&quot;  I was a little surprised: &quot;clean&quot; is one word I would never* use to describe Jacksonville.  When I walk down the sidewalks of San Jose Boulevard, I notice litter aplenty - and from what I know of Beach Boulevard (the grim commercial strip near my colleague&#39;s house) I doubt that it is much better. </p>

June 30 - Michael Lewyn

FEATURE

Studies often show that bicyclists find "safety in numbers." Norman Garrick and Wes Marshall explain that the street design strategies that attract bike riders are the same ones that improve road safety for all road users.

June 27 - Norman W. Garrick

FEATURE

June 20 - Gregory K. Ingram

FEATURE

Rebecca Bateman grew up in Joplin, Missouri, which was decimated on May 22nd by a tornado. The the personal nature of the disaster has caused her to reflect on some strategies for city planners to consider before a disaster hits.

June 9 - Rebecca Bateman

BLOG POST

<p style="margin-top: 12pt" class="MsoNormal"> <em>Note: This column was originally titled, &quot;A Stupid Attack on Smart Growth,&quot; intended as a pun on &#39;smart&#39; and &#39;stupid.&#39; However, that sounds harsh so I retitled it. - T.L.</em> </p> <p style="margin-top: 12pt" class="MsoNormal"> The National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) has a well-financed campaign to discourage communities from considering <span style="font-size: 16px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif" class="Apple-style-span"><a href="http://www.epa.gov/smartgrowth/tisg.htm">smart growth</a></span> as a possible way to conserve energy and reduce pollution emissions. They contend that compact development has little effect on travel activity and so provides minimal benefits. The NAHB states that, “The existing body of research demonstrates no clear link between residential land use and GHG emissions.” But their research actually found the opposite: it indicates that smart growth policies can have significant impacts on travel activity and emissions.

June 9 - Todd Litman

FEATURE

At the 19th Congress for the New Urbanism, Planetizen's Tim Halbur finds a vibrant, active community of urban thinkers more interested in improving livability than in architectural principles.

June 6 - Tim Halbur

BLOG POST

<p> <span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman"><span style="font-size: small">Many of those who have recently graduated in planning are currently asking “how can I get a job?” Of course a number of recent graduates do have work. But government budget cuts may mean that local jobs are hard to get. This is the time to use your imagination. To get you started here are some ideas:</span></span></span><span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small"> </span></span> </p>

June 4 - Ann Forsyth

FEATURE

Landscape architect Laurie Olin says that to design well you have to be interested in how people behave. Johanna Hoffman gets in-depth with Olin about his design process.

June 2 - Johanna Hoffman

BLOG POST

<p> <span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: 'Courier New'"> </span><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: 'Courier New'">As I heard a national reporter put it recently, it’s not often that an entire city is focused on one thing. In Vancouver it happened during the 2010 Winter Olympics. A year and a half later here, it’s happening again.</span><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: 'Courier New'"> </span> </p>

June 1 - Brent Toderian

FEATURE

Urban designer and architect Ken Greenberg writes "an eloquent, personal, compelling and persuasive argument for more enlightened city-building," says Michael Dudley in this review of Greenberg's new book [...]

May 26 - Michael Dudley

FEATURE

Deteriorating commercial strips are commonplace in today's auto-oriented suburbs. Errin Welty outlines her strategy for turning stagnating strips into vibrant shopping districts.

May 23 - Errin Welty

BLOG POST

<!--StartFragment--><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: 'Big Caslon'"><span style="white-space: pre" class="Apple-tab-span"> </span>A comment I hear frequently from planners is that the focus on food and planning is “trendy”. I must admit that this puzzles me quite a bit. Professional planners in rural areas have concentrated on planning for agriculture – food planning – for decades. Before we had professional planners, human populations planned their communities around food, whether they were planning how best to follow herds for hunting, structuring early agricultural societies, or developing the first cities where food proximity and trade were central considerations.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal">&nbsp;</p>

May 20 - Lisa Feldstein

BLOG POST

<p> Last week, I was busy trying to turn my paper on sprawl in Canada (available at http://works.bepress.com/lewyn/65/) into a speech.   In my paper, I define sprawl in two ways: where we grow (measured by growth or decline of central cities, controlling for municipal annexations) and how we grow (measured by modal shares for cars and transit).  As I was proofing, I asked myself: why these particular measurements?  What presuppositions underlie defining sprawl based on, say, modal share as opposed to the growth of a urban area&#39;s land mass? </p>

May 18 - Michael Lewyn