Exclusives

BLOG POST

Planning for Planning School

I used to have interns. Probably hundreds of them, if you add them up over the years. I lorded over them all—benevolently, of course—while they, with doe eyes and studied eagerness, did whatever they could to impress me and my colleagues. Then this week, at orientation for the University of Pennsylvania’s master of city planning program, I sat in the crowd, one face out of about 70. A plebe once again. Talk about humbling.

September 5 - Jeffrey Barg

BLOG POST

The Accidental Planner

I clearly remember the day that I received a call from MIT faculty notifying me of my acceptance into the Master of City Planning (MCP) program. I could not believe that a department within the illustrious MIT (and I do not say that facetiously), the epitomic bastion of computer geeks, rocket scientists and the like selected me for its MCP program. Moreover, the path that led me to that moment was somewhat accidental. My interest in urban planning, though earnest and fervent today, was not grounded in even the slightest exposure to urban planning or urban design in my pre-MIT life.

September 4 - Tamika Camille Gauvin

FEATURE

The Black Cloud: Using Games to Understand Air Quality

Human behavior and land use affect air quality, and those effects are very distinct at the local level. A new environmental game fusing public participation, air quality sensors and web technology shows how.

September 4 - Nate Berg

BLOG POST

The Mystery of Ground Transportation

Despite the rising costs of belonging to the jet set, I took my share of flights for a few business trips and boondoggles this summer. Though most of my plane tickets were paid for, my transportation to and from my respective airports were not. Like any good urbanist, I approached each airport as a challenge to see how cheaply and quickly I could get from the airport to my in-town destination. These were challenges that I -- or, rather, the cities -- failed more often than they passed.

September 2 - Josh Stephens

FEATURE

Brick By Brick: Protecting A Community’s Sustainable Future

Pineville, North Carolina was expanding rapidly and at risk of losing its identity. To preserve the town's character, planners put their faith in the common brick. City planning officials Kevin Icard and Travis Morgan bring us the story.

September 1 - Kevin Icard

BLOG POST

Dan Burden's Magical Townmaking Tour

Just spent 4 action-packed days (have you ever tried to keep up with Dan Burden?) touring the Pacific Northwest with Dan, Paul Zykofsky, a very patient charter bus driver, and 40 +/- townmaking fanatics. Our assemblage came from as far away as New Zealand and Taiwan, from small towns and large cities, and from disciplines including planning, engineering, transportation, software design, elected officials, public health, bike advocates, and lots more. We toured communities in Washington state and in British Columbia, meeting local luminaries along the way.

August 31 - Lisa Feldstein

BLOG POST

Defining the Planning Skill Set: Resources for Students

At the beginning of semester students are signing up for classes and planning their degrees. Lately, a question I have been asked quite frequently is which classes will make new planners most employable? Students ask if computer aided design or GIS will be key. However, surveys of planning practitioners show that a far more basic set of skills is important—skills in communication, information analysis and synthesis, political savvy, and basic workplace competencies and attitudes. Below, I highlight three of these studies from across three decades:

August 31 - Ann Forsyth

BLOG POST

Culs-de-Sac and Grids: A Middle Ground (Or Two, Or Three)

Smart growth supporters tend to prefer grid systems to cul-de-sacs, for excellent reasons. A proliferation of cul-de-sacs artificially lengthens walking distances: if streets don’t connect to each other, you might have to walk a mile to go just a few hundred feet. In addition, cul-de-sacs increase traffic congestion by dumping most vehicular traffic on a few major streets. And because biking is less safe on busy, high-traffic streets, bikers benefit from a grid system as well.

August 28 - Michael Lewyn

BLOG POST

Planetizen's 2008-2009 Student Bloggers

A couple months ago, we posted an announcement seeking student bloggers for the 2008-2009 school year. We received a pile of great applications, but two new students stood out. Each week, they will bring you reports from their master's programs at the University of Pennsylvania and the Massachussetts Institute of Technology. <img src="/files/u20704/Tamika.jpg" width="179" height="183" align="left" /><img src="/files/u20704/JBArg.jpg" width="167" height="183" /> Tamika Camille Gauvin Jeffrey Barg

August 27 - Tim Halbur

BLOG POST

Public-Private Partnerships at the Crossroads

This year, the future of public-private partnerships is expected to receive heightened attention amid speculations that Congress may attempt to assert oversight over public-private partnerships and place conditions on private toll road concession agreements as part of next year's transportation program reauthorization. Some interest groups, notably the trucking industry and public employe labor unions, are expected to vigorously support efforts to regulate PPPs at the federal level. Meanwhile, PPP proponents believe that the case for greater private sector involvement in infrastructure funding has never been stronger. They want to see this involvement mature free of congressional oversight or federal regulatory controls.

August 27 - Kenneth Orski

BLOG POST

Master's Planning: How to Pick an Industry That’s Growing, Not Shrinking

Just after 2008 began, I realized my profession of choice was dying. I’d spent the previous seven years at <a href="http://www.philadelphiaweekly.com" target="_blank">Philadelphia Weekly</a>, a fairly typical alternative newspaper: you know, magazine-style lefty bent, where-to-go-and-what-to-do listings, porn ads in the back. The usual.

August 27 - Jeffrey Barg

BLOG POST

Last Days of a Way of Life

This summer I cycled through beautiful countryside, saw impressive ruins, visited old churches, travelled through small towns and met friendly people. I also saw communities, deprived of their purpose, coping with decline. I may have even seen the last days of a way of life. (See for youself, in this issue of <a href="http://www.pricetags.ca/pricetags/pricetags105.pdf" title="Price Tags 105">Price Tags</a>.) This was Upstate New York State, along the Erie Canal from Buffalo to Albany – an experience that rivaled any bike tour I could have taken in Europe. For it was there that I saw one of the wonders of the world. The Erie Canal was certainly that.

August 25 - Gordon Price

FEATURE

The Social Functions of NIMBYism

Assessing NIMBYism: not just its agonies but also its value in democratizing land use planning decisions, and concluding with constructive advice on how to make the most of this painful but inescapable feature of the development landscape.

August 25 - Matthew J. Kiefer

BLOG POST

'Reality's' Reveal

With the Olympics nicely coinciding with my vacation, I think I’ve watched more coverage of the games than the average human should. Prior to the start of the games, I followed with interest the story of how Beijing was re-fashioning itself to host the games. Much has been written on this subject from the loss of the city’s “<a href="http://www.slate.com/id/2196883/">hutongs</a>” to the “<a href="http://featuresblogs.chicagotribune.com/theskyline/2008/08/behind-beijings.html">distorted</a>” messages conveyed by the starchitecture. Some have referred to Beijing as a “Houston on steroids.”

August 20 - Scott Page

BLOG POST

Infographics For The Rest Of Us

<img src="/files/u2/20080820-sparkline-example.png" alt=" " title=" " hspace="20" vspace="20" width="291" height="29" align="right" /> An introduction to free tools for creating interactive information graphics. As professionals shaping the built and natural environment, we have to process and communicate complicated concepts and data to peers and the public. We often use visuals such as maps, charts, graphs, and diagrams to illustrate a concept or explore data. Such visual representations are called <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Information_graphics">information graphics</a> or infographics.

August 20 - Abhijeet Chavan

FEATURE

North Corktown: A Model of Neighborhood Revitalization

August 18 - Michael Poris

BLOG POST

Rewiring America's 'Energy Crisis'

In a much discussed speech, ‘<a href="http://www.wecansolveit.org/pages/al_gore_a_generational_challenge_to_repower_america/">A Generational Challenge to Repower America</a>,’ Al Gore challenged America to hit the off-switch on foreign oil and re-power itself with home-grown carbon-free energy– namely wind, solar and geothermal. The predicted outcome Gore said would be a bold, energy independent nation ready to lead the world into the 21st century. However, such an effort, he asserted, would require “commitment to changing not just light bulbs, but laws. And Laws will only change with leadership.”

August 17 - Mike Lydon

BLOG POST

Walkable Neighborhood Grocers

Costco may be <a href="http://www.nysun.com/new-york/costco-eyes-a-manhattan-site-but-draws-political/82797/" target="_blank">coming to Manhattan</a>, bringing 2300 parking spaces with it.

August 14 - Diana DeRubertis

BLOG POST

Crime and urban design: Oscar Newman 36 years later

I recently read Oscar Newman’s 1970s book on crime prevention, “Defensible Space.” In this book, Newman addressed the question of why some public housing projects are insanely dangerous, and others only moderately so. Although Newman’s analysis is mostly confined to low-income housing, commentators of all stripes have relied on his work: new urbanist commentator Laurence Aurbach asserts that Newman’s work supports new urbanists’ emphasis on heavily trafficked, walkable streets (1) while Randall O’Toole considers Newman to be a defender of single-use, cul-de-sac sprawl (2).

August 13 - Michael Lewyn

BLOG POST

The Great American Fallacy Machine

When it comes to urban policy issues such as public transit andsmart growth, self-identified "Conservatives" and Libertarians have turned"straw man" argumentation into an art form. Many of their positions are sotransparently fallacious that I feel compelled to take them down, (asI've done in previous Planetizen op-eds [<a href="/node/25437">here </a>and <a href="/node/24107">here</a>])by systematically identifying their fallacies and documenting their misleading use of data sources. It's easy and it's fun!

August 12 - Michael Dudley