Exclusives

FEATURE

Storytelling in Architecture

Architect William A. Browne, Jr., FAIA, LEED AP, explains how he and his firm use narrative when designing buildings and spaces.

November 15 - William A. Browne Jr.

BLOG POST

Who's Driving This Public Transit System?

Virtually every modern economy is mixed: governments produce some goods and services and private companies produce others. Governments generally provide those goods and services that are either considered essential and should be available to everybody regardless of ability to pay, or that require strategic coordination, including police protection, basic education, transportation infrastructure, parks, and public health services. Transportation facilities and services are among these basic government functions.

November 15 - Todd Litman

BLOG POST

"Hidden Density" showing up across the City

Back when Vancouver was first discussing the concept of laneway housing as part of the EcoDensity Initiative in 2006-2008, we nick-named it "hidden density" because it didn't significantly change the way single-detached housing blocks looked from the street. We did so, recognizing that the word hidden is a relative term.

November 12 - Brent Toderian

BLOG POST

Urban Planning Gift Ideas For Children (Your Budding Planner)

I've gathered some of the best here, properly field tested by my boys, to help you with your holiday shopping list.

November 12 - Chris Steins

FEATURE

In Defense of the NIMBY

November 11 - Keith Sugar

FEATURE

What Makes A City Great? An American Perspective

H.V. Savitch attempts to break down the attributes that make a city great, and concludes that a city need not score high in all the categories in order to achieve greatness.

November 8 - H.V. Savitch

BLOG POST

Help Me Help You Help Us! Planning Volunteers Wanted for Hoboken (Transport/Parking)

We're doing a lot of fun, progressive stuff in Hoboken, NJ, and what we do here helps our industry push the envelope for the whole country. But limited budgets and ever-critical politics make it incredibly difficult to keep the momentum on current and new projects with our limited staff. Last year we created a new Department of Transportation and Parking, but we have been strapped from hiring on requisite professionals to manage all projects because, well, we don't have the money. If you are a planning/engineering student seeking real-world experience to counterbalance academic theory, or if you are currently employed but looking for an outlet to independently exercise your creativity, I need your help in Hoboken, no matter where you live.

November 2 - Ian Sacs

BLOG POST

Deconstructing A Tea Party Muse

For some lucky candidates, tomorrow’s election will have a storybook ending. Unfortunately for anyone who understands architecture, planning, and land use, that storybook will, in many cases, turn out to be The Fountainhead. The train wreck of ideologies that is emerging this election season is too much for anyone to categorize.

November 1 - Josh Stephens

FEATURE

Evidence-Based Urban Planning

In a field such as planning that is rich with quantifiable data, why there so little focus on evidence rather than opinion?, wonders researcher Martin Laplante.

November 1 - Martin Laplante

BLOG POST

Planning Processes: Some Resources

Over the last six months some of my blog entries have highlighted plans and places. This month I turn to processes that are important in planning. This is a bit trickier than plans and places as the web presence of processes tends to be dominated by project examples and how-to instructions. It’s also hard from the web to get a sense of how processes have developed over time—for example what passes as rational comprehensive planning today, complete with numerous participatory processes and evaluation strategies, is quite different from the much criticized technical model of the 1950s and 1960s. Of course that’s a good reason to go to planning school.

October 31 - Ann Forsyth

BLOG POST

The Tie Goes To Freedom

While critiquing one of my blog posts, Prof. Randall Crane asked: "Is any parking regulation a net social burden or only 1.75 spaces per Jacksonville, Florida apartment?" This question in turn is an example of a broader question: how do we resolve an issue when we don’t know, and perhaps have no way of knowing, the ideal empirical answer? Parking regulation presents a classic example: looking at environmental harm alone, it seems to me clear that minimum parking requirements create some environmental harm by on balance encouraging driving, but also reduce environmental harm from "cruising" (motorists wasting time and fuel searching for parking spaces).*

October 26 - Michael Lewyn

FEATURE

A Return to Physical Planning

Planetizen talks with Peter J. Park, Manager of Community Planning and Development for the City of Denver, Colorado, about the return of physical planning, the city's form-based code, and more.

October 25 - Tim Halbur

BLOG POST

Planning for Tea Parties

Republicans appear set to make significant political inroads in Congress this November, perhaps taking control of the U.S. House of Representatives and knocking on the door of majority control of the U.S. Senate. Their success will be in no small part due to the so-called Tea Parties, a grassroots political movement reacting to the perceived excess of the federal government. Planners should take note. While the Tea Party Movement is largely a national and statewide, its effects may well be felt on the local and regional level as well.

October 25 - Samuel Staley

BLOG POST

Halloween Costumes for Urban Planners - 3rd Edition

It's Halloween time again, the day when dressing up in silly costumes is required of every conscionable person. Some opt for the scary ghost or the sexy nurse, but others, more thoughtful others, make more of this opportunity.

October 25 - Nate Berg

BLOG POST

The Selfish Automobile

Why are otherwise generous and smart people sometimes selfish and irrational?

October 25 - Todd Litman

BLOG POST

Hoboken Begins 'Twenty is Plenty' Driving Speed Campaign

<span style="widows: 2; text-transform: none; text-indent: 0px; border-collapse: separate; font: medium 'Times New Roman'; white-space: normal; orphans: 2; letter-spacing: normal; word-spacing: 0px; color: #000000" class="Apple-style-span"> <div style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 10px"> This week, Hoboken is announcing its version of a highly successful awareness campaign practiced throughout Europe and, more directly translatable, the UK. In the UK, the <a href="http://www.20splentyforus.org.uk/">campaign</a> is called “20's Plenty for Us”, and in cities that adopt this policy, a 20mph speed limit area is established and signs are posted requiring drivers to obey the lower speed limit.

October 23 - Ian Sacs

BLOG POST

ULI's Odd Notion Of 'Global Excellence'

I write this blog from the concrete cradle of Nokia Plaza, an urban space so wondrous that the global arm of the Urban Land Institute has bestowed upon it one of five “<a href="http://www.uli.org/sitecore/content/ULI2Home/News/PressReleases/2010%20archives/Content/GlobalAwards2010.aspx" target="_blank">2010 Global Awards for Excellence</a>." In winning such a distinguished award, you’d think that developer AEG would have invited the Laker Girls and be pouring Champagne for an ebullient crowd here in one of the world’s great public spaces. Except they’re not. In fact, I’m pretty much alone. I don’t suppose the pigeons are carrying Cristal underwing?

October 21 - Josh Stephens

FEATURE

Sprawl Repair: What It Is and Why We Need It

October 18 - Galina Tachieva

FEATURE

Rebuilding America through Equitable Development

The objectives of urban redevelopment and meeting the needs of underserved communities are not mutually exclusive goals, says Carlton Eley.

October 14 - Carlton Eley

BLOG POST

What does TOD Stand for: transit-oriented development — or just the same Tired Old Development?

I’ve worked on designing, planning and preparing the way for Transit-Oriented Development (TOD) projects around the world. For some reason this particular proposed TOD caught my attention. Maybe because I thought I was an expert and in this case I was caught off guard. Or maybe because TOD advocates have made so much progress collectively and yet there is still so far to go. Probably a bit of both.

October 14 - G.B. Arrington