Exclusives
BLOG POST
Judaism and Urbanism
<p> After visiting Denver for the Congress for New Urbanism (CNU) conference, I began to meditate on the relationship between Judaism and urbanism, and on how few cities accommodate both. In particular, I was impressed by how well-populated downtown Denver was compared to the southern cities where I have spent the past three years (Jacksonville) and this summer (Little Rock) - but I stll couldn’t imagine myself living in downtown Denver all that comfortably. </p>
BLOG POST
Architecture You Can Dance To
On my way to work this morning, I was listening to an interview with the band <a href="http://blitzentrapper.net/vids.html">Blitzen Trapper</a> on my iPod. They’ve got a beautiful song called ‘Furr’; the sound echoes 1970s folk rock- and roots influences like English folk, country and bluegrass. Anyway, Eric Early, the main songwriter, got my attention with his answer to this question:<br /> <br /> <blockquote> <em>INTERVIEWER: Obviously ‘American music’ means different things to different people. What does it mean to you?<br /> </em>
BLOG POST
Working in Planning? Quit Your Job!
<p> It’s Thursday! Sounds like a perfect day to quit your job. </p> <p> Stuck in the doldrums of office work? Itching to get outside as summer rolls around and the blue skies start looking more and more appealing? There’s never been a better time to pack up and leave, planners. Do it. Quit today. </p>
FEATURE
Masterplanning the Architecture of the Near Future
As the population rises, underused and empty spaces are going to fill in. How well the transition works depends on shifts in demographics and infrastructure, as well as architecture. A studio of UCLA architecture students were asked to plot that transition. But before they could be architects, they had to be planners.
BLOG POST
Athletes (Like Stallworth) Are Not The Only Ones Who Get Off Easy
<p> If you watched or read the news yesterday, then you likely came across <a href="http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090616/ap_on_re_us/fbn_stallworth_pedestrian_killed">the sentencing of Donte Stallworth</a>. Previously known (maybe) for being an NFL role player, Stallworth will serve a 30 day sentence for hitting and killing a pedestrian named Mario Reyes while driving intoxicated here in Miami Beach. The typical sentence for such an offense in Florida is 4 to 15 years. Stallworth will be released just in time for his NFL training camp. </p> <p> How convenient. </p>
BLOG POST
Remembering Canada's Greatest Architect
<span style="font-size: x-small"> <p> This weekend, friends, family, colleagues and admirers got together to celebrate the life, and mourn the death, of a man many consider to be the most talented architect Canada has ever produced. Frank Gehry may have been born in Canada, but Arthur Erickson began, remained and died a great Canadian. He was also one of the World's architectural greats, and a "citizen of the World". </p>
BLOG POST
Comparing Celebrations in Championship Cities
<p> Here in Los Angeles, the local professional basketball team just won its league's national championship. When I was in Barcelona a few weeks back, the local soccer team won a major international championship. These were two days for the cities to celebrate their home teams' triumphs, but the differences in how they celebrated says a lot about these cities and their civic cultures.<br /> <br />
FEATURE
Reinventing America's Cities: Discovering Opportunities by Challenging Biases
Dr. Aseem Inam takes writers on urbanism and architecture to task for spreading stereotypes about "third world cities", particularly when used to generalize about urban form.
BLOG POST
Top Five Concerns About New Bike Lanes In Our Community
<p> I live in Hoboken, New Jersey. It is a small (~50k residents), very densely populated city (fourth in the country), with high pedestrian volumes and some hairy traffic issues in certain areas. With heavy rail, light rail, subway, bus, ferry, taxi, bicycle, pedestrian, and para-transit all converging at Hoboken Terminal, it is also home to perhaps the richest intermodal transportation facility in the world (in terms of modes). It is often characterized as feeling European, or like Brooklyn, take your pick. Recently, we have been successful in implementing a nascent bicycle plan that includes bike lanes striped along the length of two north/south avenues in the heart of the city. Cross streets are next with “sharrows" since these streets are too narrow for exclusive
BLOG POST
VMT Reductions: An Excellent Idea When Correctly Evaluated
<strong><span style="font-size: small"><span style="font-family: Calibri">OK Bob – I’ll Take Your Challenge</span></span></strong> <p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt" class="MsoNormal"> <span style="font-size: small; font-family: Calibri">Last year, California, passed SB 375, which requires regional governments to develop smart growth-oriented land use and transportation plans aimed at reducing VMT.
BLOG POST
How walkable is it?
<p class="MsoNormal"> Recently, an acquaintance asked me how to measure the walkability of a place he was visiting.<span> </span> </p> <p class="MsoNormal"> I could have told him to just look at Walkscore (<a href="http://www.walkscore.com/">www.walkscore.com</a>). <span> </span>Walkscore assigns scores to places based on their proximity to a wide variety of destinations.<span> </span>So if a place has a high walkscore AND a walkable street design (e.g. narrow streets, a grid system, etc.) it is probably pretty walkable. </p>
BLOG POST
Thunder and Excitement at CNU 17
<p> Reporting from CNU 17 in Denver, where the thundercracks shook the Sheraton at various points throughout the day. Somehow though I've managed to be outside only when the sun is out. </p>
BLOG POST
Civilization Planning?
<span>When we think of cities in antiquity, we don’t hesitate to think of them in association with their respective civilizations. After all, the words <em>civic</em> and <em>civilization</em> share the same root word in Latin, <em>civitas</em>. Similarly, we can now say that we live in a globalized civilization largely structured on what author Jeb Brugmann refers to in his new book <a href="http://www.amazon.ca/Welcome-Urban-Revolution-Cities-Changing/dp/1596915668/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1244824502&sr=1-1"><em>Welcome to the Urban Revolution</em></a> as the global City. </span> <p class="MsoNormal"> <span>However, in our focus as planners on addressing concerns with current development projects and other local issues we might be forgiven for sometimes losing touch with this larger picture: that the city is still the focal point and driver for those processes we refer to as civilization.</span>
FEATURE
Community Energy Planning and the Stimulus -- Take a Time Out!
Stimulus money is available for a variety of energy efficiency projects, but many understaffed cities are having trouble meeting the impending deadlines. Jessica Millman, Joe Schilling, and Kathryn McCarty have found a loophole that can help.
BLOG POST
The New Normative Planning
<p>The conference bags handed out to the attendees of the 2007 National Planning conference in Philadelphia had four words printed on one side: value, choice, engagement, community. The words echo the <a href="http://www.planning.org/apaataglance/mission.htm">long mission statement</a> of the American Planning Association, evidence of what I <a href="/node/34936">described</a> last year as the pragmatic position of the profession that refrains from making a larger argument about the form of the city. Here's a taste:</p><blockquote> "Our collaborative efforts will continue to result in great success for APA and the vital communities we strive to support, and APA members will continue to help create communities of lasting value. We value choice and community engagement, diversity, inclusion and social equity."</blockquote><p>Since then, a new program from the organization and other evidence may suggest a subtle shift in professional values now underway.</p>
BLOG POST
Thinking by the Square Foot
<p> <em>"Buyers value the dollar per square foot, and the builder responds by delivering as many square feet of conditioned space as possible for $X. If he can deliver 100 more square feet than the competition, most buyers think it's a better value."</em> </p> <p> <em>-Ron Jones, Green Builder Magazine, in <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/06/AR2007040600934.html" target="_blank">The Washington Post</a>.</em> </p>
BLOG POST
Will Developing Nations Drive/Follow in our Faulted Footsteps?
<p> The growth in hybrid car sales is a welcome sign that a major change in the automobile industry is afoot. The shift to transport infrastructure that is not based on the archaic complexity of an internal combustion engine, with its hundreds of moving parts and compressed fuel explosions, has been long put off by an automobile industry, happy with status quo, partnered with oil cartels with the power to price their product as if it were in endless supply. But with smack-in-the-face-reality fuel prices last summer, the collapse of the so-called “Big Three” over the winter, and the simultaneous heralding assertion of alternative energy technologies (Daimler AG <a href="http://money.cnn.com/2009/05/19/news/companies/tesla_daimler_electric/index.htm?postversion=2009051915">bought a 10% stake in Tesla Motors</a> last month!), the fallout of western economic near-collapse has changed everything we’ve known to be sacrosanct; Leonard Lopate even waxed nostalgic about the “<a href="http://www.wnyc.org/shows/soundcheck/episodes/2009/06/08">Death of the Car Song</a>” yesterday on National Public Radio’s local station, WNYC.
BLOG POST
Potential Energy & Renewable Resource Mapping - PERRM™
<p> <span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt">One important planning approach for sustainable living is how to locate and integrate the natural and man-made attributes of the land to configure a low-carbon site for large scale development.
BLOG POST
Vacancy, It's Not Just For Cities Anymore
<p> Thanks to the <a href="http://www.vacantproperties.org/index.html">National Vacant Properties Campaign</a> for another important conference on vacant properties - this time in Louisville. I was duly <a href="/node/27856">impressed with the first conference</a> on the subject a year and a half ago but what struck me this time was the growing diversity of voices concerned with the issue. </p> <p> At the last conference, I (and I assume many others) had the feeling that it was a therapy session of sorts for like-minded spirits. "Older industrial" cities were sharing information and ideas because, while all cities are unique, we share a lot of the same challenges. </p>
KFH Group Inc.
Greater Baltimore Committee
Eagle County Government
The Architects Foundation
University of Cincinnati Online
The Pocatello Development Authority
The Urban Renewal Agency of the City of Pocatello
FREE Course: Walkable City 1: Why Walkability?
After describing his path towards focusing on walkability as the essence of good planning, Jeff Speck marches through his five principal reasons for making more walkable places.
Reinventing Malls: Planning Alchemy—Turning Gray Fields Into Gold
The course focuses on the opportunities and imperatives that shape reinvention of mall sites.
