Exclusives
BLOG POST
De-Bunking Smart Cities
<p>About two years ago, after teaching a course at NYU's Interactive Telecommunications Program on "Digitally Mediated Urban Space", I wrote an article for the architectural design journal Praxis that sought to do do two things: 1) make sense of the wide array of digital technologies that are being deployed in urban space, and 2) present a couple of places that I thought exemplified good and bad "design" of digital public spaces. </p><p>Recently, my research on context-aware computing - computing based on sensors and artificial intelligence - has led me to revisit this piece. Around the same time, I got a call from Lucas Graves, a friend who writes for Wired, and was doing a piece on technologies that are "perpetually around the corner". Lucas was mainly interested in things like videophones, but it coincided with a turn in my research to the applications side of context-awareness: smart cities, smart places, smart homes, and smart objects. As an urban planner, I immediately gravitated to thinking about smart cities and smart places, but wondered in the back of my mind - is this something that is really happening, or just another one of those technologies that are perpetually around the corner?<br />
BLOG POST
Public Library in Limbo in Washington, D.C.
<p>As a note of introduction, I am a Master's student in Community Planning at the University of Maryland. I'm happy to be part of this exciting project. </p><p><img src="/files/u10085/271989110_fe17db8a63_m.jpg" alt="MLK Memorial Library, Washington, D.C." title="MLK Memorial Library, Washington, D.C." hspace="5" vspace="5" width="240" height="189" align="right" />With a series of new urban libraries opening in U.S. cities recent years, its been said we're living through an 'urban library renaissance.' Whether it is the <a href="http://www.planetizen.com/node/13300">enthusiastic reception</a> of the new Seattle library, or lending and attendance <a href="http://www.planetizen.com/node/22494">up in urban Canadian libraries</a>, there seems to be an increased awareness of the critical role libraries play, even in the information age.</p><p>However, no such renaissance has happened here in Washington, D.C. -- at least not yet. Here the former mayor's plans to build a new library were stalled by what the Washington Post has termed the '<a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/06/15/AR2006061501802.html">Mies Mystique</a>.'</p><p>
BLOG POST
Planning and Climate Change
<p>This is my first blog post on this network and I'm happy to be here. For 1.5 years, I've been blogging by myself at greeneconomics.blogspot.com and this is the first time that I've been a "team" player. I'm hoping that debates and discussions on important policy issues take place here and I'll try to do my part to not be boring!
BLOG POST
Can Light Rail Save Peachtree Street?
<p>A long time ago in a previous design office, I made the mistake of engaging a light rail fanatic in a debate about whether Peachtree Street in Atlanta should be adorned with a light rail line. The debate turned into a protracted email diatribe about the pros and cons of light rail and whether this specific idea made any sense.
BLOG POST
Homelessness In The City Of Angels
<p>It should come as no surprise to anyone who has visited Downtown L.A.'s Skid Row that the city has a serious homelessness problem -- with more people living on the street than any other city in the nation. A <a href="http://www.economist.com/world/na/displaystory.cfm?story_id=8672187">recent article</a> in the <em>Economist</em> focused on the recent crackdown by the city's police on the homeless population of skid row. With more and more residents moving into the area, and city officials keen to clean up downtown's streets, police chief William Bratton committed additional police officers to patrol the area to round up criminals (and presumably break up the population of street dwellers).</p>
FEATURE
Planning on Walking?
With positive effects on public health, safety, and environmental quality -- walkability has become the new buzz word in planning.
BLOG POST
Welcome To Planetizen Interchange
Greetings Planetizen readers! I'd like to welcome everyone to our new blog -- called Planetizen Interchange. This is our latest effort to provide exposure to new ideas, encourage discourse that cuts across disciplinary boundaries, and bring together allied professionals.
FEATURE
Incorporating Sustainability Into Community Development
Sustainability must become a primary goal of public policy if we want to ensure the long-term health of communities.
FEATURE
The Daunting Task Of Airport Planning
Airports connect us to the world, generate enormous economic benefits, and provide an important first impression of a city. It's high time the airports shed their bad rap and are planned not as nuisances, but assets.
FEATURE
Top Planning Issues Of 2006
From green building to the housing bubble, the editors of Planetizen review the most talked about stories of 2006.
FEATURE
The AICP Certification Maintenance Program: Good Steps In The Wrong Direction
Though the program has good intentions, APA's proposal for mandatory continuing education could just encourage more planners to attend the National Planning Conference than to actually get more training.
FEATURE
Best of the Worst for 2006
Keeping track of the weird things that occur in the planning and government world -- from Barry Manilow to brothels -- isn't really necessary. But someone should do it anyways.
FEATURE
News Summary and Analysis - November 2006
As part of a monthly series, we present a summary and analysis of some of the most interesting news to appear on Planetizen over the month of November 2006. This is the transcript of an audio segment that originally aired on the nationally syndicated radio program "Smart City".
FEATURE
New Orleans Planning Update: The Unified New Orleans Plan
Disaster recovery expert Robert B. Olshansky reports on the latest planning effort in New Orleans.
FEATURE
Pedestrians Lost In The New Suburbia
A resident of a touted New Urbanist development in San Diego, California, comments on its failure as a walkable community.
FEATURE
Rethinking Atlanta's Green Space
By hosting public outreach sessions and design clinics with registered landscape architects, Atlanta-area non-profit Park Pride is giving communities an active role in creating a new vision for their neighborhood greenspaces.
Pagination
Heyer Gruel & Associates PA
JM Goldson LLC
Custer County Colorado
City of Camden Redevelopment Agency
City of Astoria
Transportation Research & Education Center (TREC) at Portland State University
Jefferson Parish Government
Camden Redevelopment Agency
City of Claremont
Urban Design for Planners 1: Software Tools
This six-course series explores essential urban design concepts using open source software and equips planners with the tools they need to participate fully in the urban design process.
Planning for Universal Design
Learn the tools for implementing Universal Design in planning regulations.
