Exclusives
BLOG POST
The Future of Presence
<p> I spent a few days last week in Newcastle, England - a real gem of a town for tech history enthusiasts and urbanists. Newcastle is where the first steam trains and railways were built at the dawn of the industrial revolution. It was the <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/victorians/launch_ani_rocket.shtml">demonstration</a> of Robert <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephenson's_Rocket">Stephenson's </a><em><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephenson's_Rocket">Rocket</a></em> in 1829 in Newcastle that you might mark as the beginning of mass mechanical mobility.
BLOG POST
An unheralded conference
<p><span style="font-size: 9pt; font-family: Verdana">I had the opportunity to spend a day at the <a href="http://www.vacantproperties.org/index.html">Vacant Properties</a> conference late last month which, if you’re not familiar with the “movement,” you should be.<span> </span>Granted it’s not for everyone.<span> </span>At the opening plenary session, the moderator asked “who is here from a weak market city?”<span> </span>A room full of hands went up with a collective giggle.<span> </span>It felt like an AA meeting for cities.<span> </span>Admitting you have a problem is the first step toward addressing it.<span> </span></span><span style="font-size: 9pt; font-family: Verdana"> </span></p>
BLOG POST
Planning By The Plate
<p>Most people don't know anything about planning. Sure, they may understand the general gist of it, but many planning concepts just haven't yet made it into the public consciousness. In an effort to accelerate the education of the public, here's an easy-to-use pictorial guide that relates some of those not-so-familiar planning concepts to something we're all familiar with: food.</p>
BLOG POST
Are planners ready for the Drew Carey (not so free) freeway?
<p style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><font face="Times New Roman" size="3">Technology creates new challenges and opportunities, and this came home to me a couple of weeks ago when I was previewing a rough cut of </font><a href="http://www.reason.tv/video/show/6.html"><font face="Times New Roman" size="3" color="#800080">Gridlock: Hell on Wheels</font></a><font face="Times New Roman" size="3">, a video on traffic congestion released by </font><a href="http://www.reason.org/"><font face="Times New Roman" size="3" color="#800080">Reason Foundation</font></a><font face="Times New Roman" size="3"> today. In the video, Comedian Drew Carey makes the following off-the-cuff comment on a morning drive-time radio show: “I would love to own a freeway in LA.” </font></p>
BLOG POST
Wireless, Connected, Productive Transit - Formula for Hyper-Sprawl?
<p> There are lots of Wi-Fi buses popping up in Northern California. The <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/10/technology/10google.html">Google shuttle</a> from San Francisco to the Valley has been running for a while and I think Yahoo! has a similar service, but I saw this <a href="http://www.actransit.org/news/articledetail.wu?articleid=ae8a49cd">Wi-Fi enabled AC Transit bus</a> (that's Alameda County folks) crossing the Dumbarton Bridge last week. Apparently, the service is being subsidized by a grant from the Alameda County Congestion Management Agency. </p>
BLOG POST
Acronym Atrocities Afoot in Washington
<p> To paraphrase the New York Times' summation of the Anaheim Angels' rhetorical exodus to Los Angeles a few years ago: some ideas are so stupid that you just have to stand back and watch. To that I would add, some things are so stupid that they deserve derision no matter how long ago they occured. Though it crawled out from the Senate floor in the summer of 2005, SAFETEA-LU -- the $240 billion federal transportation bill -- has, for the past two years, gotten off way too easy. </p>
BLOG POST
Trusting the Local (but double-checking with GPS)
<p style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: 'Janson Text'">I live a ten-minute cab ride from the airport. I love it. Many a morning, I have stumbled down the porch steps in flip-flops and a business suit, carrying an overnight bag and high heels to make a flight in an hour’s time. Several weeks ago, I stepped into a cab and chirped my usual, “Good morning—National Airport, please!” and settled back into the seat, ready to finish applying eyeshadow. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: 'Janson Text'">“Do you know how to get there?,” the driver asked.</span></p>
BLOG POST
Comprehensive Evaluation of Congestion Costs and Solutions
<p class="MsoNormal">The newest Texas Transportation Institute <em><a href="http://mobility.tamu.edu/">Urban Mobility Report</a></em> was recently released, stimulating discussion of congestion costs and potential solutions. Here are some things you should know when evaluating these issues.</p>
BLOG POST
A Guide to Taser-Free Public Meetings
<p><font face="Times New Roman" size="3"> </font><font size="3"><font face="Times New Roman">We all saw it on the Internet—the fellow at a public meeting being hauled away from the microphone before getting wrestled to the floor and tasered during a Q&A with John Kerry. Fortunately, silencing argumentative speakers with a taser is not a common occurrence at most public meetings. While I might confess that there have been meetings where, in retrospect, one might have secretly wished one was armed with a stun gun, facilitators generally try to avoid confrontation. Yet there’s no denying that sometimes people show up at public meetings looking for a fight, begging for outrage, and hoping to irritate and inflame.
BLOG POST
Our collective identity crisis
<p><span style="font-size: 9pt; font-family: Verdana">Since making the switch from architecture to planning / urban design, I’ve been fascinated by the continuing dialogue that surrounds what we do to explain… what we do.<span> </span>There is less emphasis on this dialogue in architecture of course as the tacit assumption is that architects build.<span> </span>(I would say not all great architects need to build but this is a debate for a different setting.)<span> </span>What did often emerge in architecture was the common concern that “design” is not valued to the degree that it should.<span> </span>And why not?<span> </span>Architects spend anywhere from 5-6 years in school the majority of which is spent in studio learning how to design.<span> </span>Who wants to then enter the profession feeling like their education mis-led them?<span>
BLOG POST
How Much Can You Pay? A New Criterion for Stormwater Management
<p style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><font face="Times New Roman" size="3">What if the utility company asked you how much you made when you called to start service in a new home?<span> </span>What if they wanted this information to tie your bill to your salary and not to how much gas, electricity or water you used? <span> </span>Would that seem fair?<span> </span>That’s how some communities are treating developers when determining how much stormwater they should be required to manage. <span> </span>But regulations that link stormwater standards to the developer’s ability to pay are neither fair nor efficient. <span> </span>Environmental regulations and their costs should be directly linked to the impact on the environment, not to profit margins.</font></p>
BLOG POST
So You Want to Change the World, Part 2: Finding the Right Planning Program
<p class="MsoNormal"> Many students choose planning over business school because they want to serve the public and change the world. However, saving the world is a complicated task. What kind of school will prepare you? As in many parts of life there isn’t a simple answer but a few key points can help frame your search. And remember, you don’t need to answer all these questions before you apply—get a good enough list and then investigate them some more once you have real offers. </p>
FEATURE
Modernism In Fragments
Nathan Glazer's <em>From a Cause to a Style: Modernist Architecture's Encounter with the American City</em> reveals how this influential social movement's good intentions shaped the look of the 20th century.
BLOG POST
Too bountiful a crop of farmers' markets?
<p> The number of farmers’ markets has grown dramatically in the US over the past few years. The number increased by seven percent from 2005-2006 on top of the incredible 79 percent increase from 1994 to 2002. People love the festive atmosphere, the ability to meet the people who grow their food and the connection to the earth this experience provides, and the quality and freshness of the produce. Many patrons value local farmers’ markets as a means of lessening their impact on the earth by allowing them to eat more locally.</p><p> Yet in some places, farmers are abandoning the markets. They cite a number of reasons, including:</p>
BLOG POST
After revisiting Moses, New York turns again to Jane Jacobs
<p style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><font face="Times New Roman" size="3"> Now it’s Jane’s turn.</font></p>
BLOG POST
A Live Post From The 2007 Ohio Planning Conference
I'm posting this blog entry live in front of a panel session of approximately 200 participants at the <a href="http://www.ohioplanning.org/conference/">2007 Ohio Planning Conference</a> at the Columbus Conference Center to demonstrate, live, how one posts to a blog.<br /><br /><img src="/files/u4/columbus-conf-ctr.jpg" alt="Columbus Conference Center in walkable downtown Columbus" title="Columbus Conference Center in walkable downtown Columbus" hspace="4" vspace="4" width="400" height="266" align="right" />I'm presenting on "Web 2.0 Tools to Communicate Planning Ideas". Here's the pitch:<br />
FEATURE
Rolling Out A New Park, Literally!
National Park(ing) Day aims to show people how space traditionally reserved for cars could be turned into useable public space.
BLOG POST
New York Gets Cell Phone Service in the Subways... Sort of... Someday Soon...
<p> It's the talk of the town today. The Metropolitan Transit Authority, after years of dithering has finally signed a contract to build out a shared cell phone infrastructure inside the underground portions of the subway system. Sort of. </p><p> According to the <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/20/nyregion/20cellphone.html">New York Times</a>, "[t]he cellphone network will start in six downtown Manhattan stations in two years. Once it is shown to be working properly, Transit Wireless will have four more years to outfit the rest of the underground stations." </p><p> Thats six years to completion, folks. Awesome. </p>
BLOG POST
Risky Business
<p>With cities developing today at a rate that is outpacing architects’ and planners’ efforts to shape them, there is no longer sufficient time to plan. As a result, architecture’s role in the city has fundamentally changed from that of designing buildings which both engage and are a product of their context, to that of creating commodified experiences--like everything else, tied first and foremost to speculation in future identity, and real estate values. </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.
