Exclusives

BLOG POST

<p> Which of these families most needs to plan its family commitments and related budget items? </p> <p> Family 1:  Wife is a bankruptcy lawyer whose business is booming; husband is an executive at a growing wind-energy company and has just received a nice raise, paid out of growing profits.  The kids are grown.  The couple&#39;s two Polish Lowland Sheepdogs are very healthy. </p> <p> Family 2:  Wife is a plant manager for a U.S.-owned automobile company, facing mandatory unpaid time off this year; husband is a travel agent who sells high-end vacation packages to school teachers, planners and other middle-income individuals and families.  Son has graduated from college but cannot find a job and is living at home and working part-time at a burger place.  Daughter will be a college junior next year at an institution that has had its funding cut by the state and has thus announced a 15 percent tuition increase. </p>

April 23 - Eric Damian Kelly

BLOG POST

<span style="font-size: x-small">&quot;If we can develop and design streets so that they are wonderful, fulfilling places to be </span><span style="font-size: x-small; font-family: Tahoma"><span style="font-size: x-small; font-family: Tahoma">—</span></span><span style="font-size: x-small"> community-building places, attractive for all people </span><span style="font-size: x-small; font-family: Tahoma"><span style="font-size: x-small; font-family: Tahoma">—</span></span><span style="font-size: x-small"> then we will have successfully designed about one-third of the city.&quot;         A</span><span style="font-size: x-small">llan Jacobs </span><span style="font-size: x-small"> <p> A few weeks ago, I was asked to speak at an event celebrating what might possibly come to be recognized as one of Vancouver&#39;s important civic feats - the redesign and reconstruction of downtown Vancouver&#39;s Granville Street. </p>

April 21 - Brent Toderian

BLOG POST

 At a company presentation about environmental impact the other week a colleague included a historic photograph of Scollay Square in Boston.  You are pardoned if, even after visiting or living in that city, this doesn’t sound familiar because all prominent characteristics of the area were summarily obliterated in the mid-twentieth century to make way for a potpourri of brutalist-style administrative buildings and renamed Government Center.  Urban redevelopment arguments aside, the photograph reveals a particularly interesting detail about the function and use of streets virtually erased from our minds over the last century.  <p> <img src="/files/u20603/Scollay.jpg" width="432" height="336" align="bottom" name="graphics1" />  </p>

April 20 - Ian Sacs

FEATURE

April 20 - Heike Mayer

BLOG POST

<span style="border-collapse: separate; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #000000" class="Apple-style-span"><div style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; background-color: #ffffff"><p class="MsoNormal">Remember the legislation that, in 1965, affirmed universal suffrage in all elections?<span> <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span>Yes, you do.<span> <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span>It was called the National Voting Rights Act.</p>

April 18 - Josh Stephens

BLOG POST

<p> Many planners and even American Planning Association (APA) members are unaware that the APA has special member bodies called <a href="http://planning.org/divisions/index.htm">Divisions</a>. These are essentially issue-focused member committees within APA that contribute to policymaking, develop conference sessions, publish newsletters, and generally act as focal points for like-minded APA members. </p>

April 16 - Daniel Lerch

FEATURE

A new report out of Oregon suggests that the fiscal costs of successful resort developments significantly outweigh their benefits -- and taxpayers are burdened with the tab. Erik Kancler of Central Oregon LandWatch explains.

April 16 - Erik Kancler

BLOG POST

<p> Whether you&#39;ve realized it yet or not, soccer is a big deal in this gloabalizing world. And every four years it&#39;s a huge deal for one country: the host of the FIFA World Cup. All eyes are on the host country for the 32-team tournament, which is the most-watched sporting event in the world. And though showtime is just one month long, the host spends years vying, preparing and investing for the tournament. It has major potential to spur broad countrywide improvements and economic development. So when the U.S. made news recently by <a href="http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hAf04GntIiIkl5LwxXs5V8nyvDMAD97F6TRG0" target="_blank" title="&quot;US Soccer: Plenty of time for new stadiums&quot; - Associated Press, April 9, 2009">offering forth 70 stadia as possible host sites for either the 2018 or 2022 World Cup</a> (along with <a href="http://www.goal.com/en-india/news/140/world-cup/2009/4/15/1211332/president-obama-trying-to-help-us-world-cup-bid" target="_blank" title="President Obama Trying To Help US World Cup Bid - Goal.com">a reputation booster from President Barack Obama</a>), I had to filter out my national pride. Sure, the U.S. would make a good and clearly able host for the event, but it seems that the potential of the World Cup could be better directed towards a country that really needs large-scale civic improvement and investment.

April 16 - Nate Berg

BLOG POST

<p> With just two weeks to go in my second semester, I like to think that I know just about everything about being a planning student by now. But when 100+ prospective students came to our campus open house last week, an easy question stumped me: </p> <p> “What about drawing?” </p> <p> At first I thought she was asking if she needed to have an art background coming into school. A thousand times, no. But instead she was looking to <em>learn</em> how to draw as a planner, which is a much trickier proposition. </p>

April 15 - Jeffrey Barg

BLOG POST

<p> <span style="font-size: 8pt; font-family: Verdana">An article posted <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/apr/09/shipping-pollution"><span style="color: #800080">last week</span></a> by the Guardian and highlighted <a href="http://www.treehugger.com/files/2009/04/cargo-ship-emissions-more-than-760-million-cars.php"><span style="color: #800080">yesterday</span></a> by Treehugger.com cites recent studies as well as data from maritime industry sources that the combination of quantity and quality of low-grade bunker fuel used in the massive engines of freight vessels may result in more emissions than all the cars in the world!  I don’t mean to wax sensationalist here, this is what is stated in the article.  If the truth is anywhere near the statement, then the idea of

April 15 - Ian Sacs

BLOG POST

<p> It’s always tempting returning from a vacation to a foreign country to come to conclusions about how that society works. This isn’t entirely a bad thing- after all, exposure to different ways of life are mind-expanding and suggest new possibilities. My first trip to Rome redefined the way I think of public space, and set me on a path  leading to a career in urban planning. </p> <p> <img src="/files/20090415_philosophers2.jpg" alt="Along the Philosopher's Walk in Kyoto." title="Along the Philosopher's Walk in Kyoto." width="438" height="329" /> </p> <p> <em>Along the Philosopher&#39;s Walk in Kyoto.</em> </p>

April 15 - Tim Halbur

BLOG POST

<p> Here in San Diego, public transportation is on life support.  Despite record ridership, trolley and bus service has been reduced, with some bus routes cancelled altogether.  Fares are up across the board.  The monthly light rail pass will be $72; three years ago it was $60. <br />

April 14 - Diana DeRubertis

BLOG POST

<p> Once upon a time public rights-of-way were simpler; they made sense.  The mobile laws of society were black and white.  Streets were for cars and sidewalks were for, well, walking on the side of the street.  You know, out of the way?  At some point recently though things have started to blur, and it&#39;s starting to get just a little bit out of control.  It&#39;s hard to put one&#39;s finger on it, but lately there&#39;s been this funny notion that the street itself, long the gift to man-and-machine, is supposed to be shared with people who just can&#39;t seem to keep themselves on their side of the curb.  Woe is me, in some instances there isn&#39;t even a curb anymore!  What&#39;s worse, it seems apparent that our public officials, the very people we elect to represent us an

April 13 - Ian Sacs

BLOG POST

<p> The Takings Clause of the Fifth Amendment provides that government may not take private property without just compensation. The courts have held that this clause requires government to compensate landowners for losses caused by government regulation in certain situations- most notably when regulation leads to a permanent physical invasion of property (1) or makes property worthless (2). </p>

April 13 - Michael Lewyn

BLOG POST

<p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt" class="MsoNormal"> <span style="font-size: small; font-family: Arial"><span style="font-size: small; font-family: Arial"><em>Politicians and planners be warned: you will now be judged according to your ability to improve walking, cycling and public transit services.</em></span>  </span> </p>

April 12 - Todd Litman

FEATURE

Mike Lanza, an entrepreneur in Palo Alto, CA, is using his front yard as a place for his friends and neighbors to gather and play. Julia Galef from the Project for Public Spaces brings us this story.

April 10 - Julia Galef

BLOG POST

This is a true story.

April 10 - Eric Damian Kelly

BLOG POST

<p> Will the red-hot microblogging platform <a href="http://www.twitter.com" target="_blank">Twitter</a> change the way we live in our cities, how we call for help in an emergency, or even help rally a group to topple the city&#39;s government? Or is it a frivolous technology that simply atomizes our thoughts and relationships into 140-character bits? </p>

April 8 - Robert Goodspeed

BLOG POST

<p> Posted today on CNN, optimistically under “SPECIAL REPORT – Detroit’s Downfall”, was a <a href="http://money.cnn.com/2009/04/07/autos/gm_segway/index.htm">brief</a> about GM and personal transport company Segway collaborating on a project called “Personal Urban Mobility and Accessibility” (P.U.M.A.).  Along with some future-thinking gush about vehicle interconnectivity are eye candy photos of the traditional Seqway chassis redesigned as a side-by-side two-seater with a degree of weather protection and other accommodations to make the vehicle a tad more practical than the original stand-up version.  For those who find the Smart car a tad dumb on the bang:buck ratio but are not about to don a helmet and go the scooter route, the P.U.M.A. may offer a new market segment.

April 7 - Ian Sacs

BLOG POST

<p> A near-unanimous response to this week’s question on <a href="http://transportation.nationaljournal.com/" target="_blank" title="National Journal Transportation Experts Blog">National Journal&#39;s Transportation Experts Blog</a> was that we are far from being intermodal.

April 6 - Kenneth Orski