Exclusives

FEATURE

Sex and the City, Pregnancy and the Suburb?

If a correlation exists between birth rates and urbanization, does the post World War II baby boom owe its existence to urban sprawl?

May 21 - Sriram Khé, PhD

BLOG POST

Is Community Just Another Commodity?

A commodity is something that is normally bought and sold. Not everything is a commodity. Sure, most people need to purchase a certain amount of food, clothing and housing, but many other things that we value are not for sale.  For example, simply purchasing exercise equipment will not make you physically fit – it requires effort. Similarly, health, safety, education, rewarding personal relationships, community and our satisfaction with life are aspirations that depend more on our behavior than on how much we spend.

May 17 - Todd Litman

BLOG POST

Frozen Assets in Arizona

Don't know if you've heard, but Arizona voters passed a new law in November, a nameless one called Proposition 207. And here's what preservationists have to say about it:"With Prop 207, we're dead in the water," Debbie Abele, Scottsdale historic preservation officer, told the East Valley Tribune.It's modeled after Oregon's controversial property-rights law Measure 37. In a nutshell, it allows property owners to seek compensation from the state for infringing on their right to use, divide, sell, or possess their property via a land-use law.

May 14 - Margaret Foster

BLOG POST

Equitable Utopias - Thoughts on Walking Away from Omelas

In the short story The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas, Ursula LeGuin depicts a utopia that is made possible by the transference of all misery to a child who is kept in a cellar. Some in the community ignore the scapegoat’s existence, choosing the easy life of bliss that is offered to them. Those whose consciences do not allow them to live in willful ignorance often chose to leave Omelas and live complete, full lives that include awareness, and shouldering their own pain.

May 14 - Lisa Feldstein

FEATURE

Rent Regulation: The Right Tool for the Right Job

Far too many discussions about the 'failures' of rent control don't take into account what such regulation is really designed to do -- namely, provide housing stability and protect against displacement. Before allowing rent control regulation to wither in New York City and elsewhere, it's a good idea to consider how much residents and society overall benefit from these imperfect policies.

May 14 - Greg Smithsimon

BLOG POST

Chinese urbanism and the scale of development

SHANGHAI, CHINA--I've been a fan of New Urbanism for several years, but I've always considered myself an urban "pluralist"--someone who doesn't believe there is an "objective" or general urban form that is persistently successful over long periods of time. Indeed, Bob Bruegmann's thesis in <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Sprawl-Compact-History-Robert-Bruegmann/dp/0226076911/ref=sr_1_1/103-6037660-7039810?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1179060172&sr=8-1" title="sprawl: a compact history">Sprawl: A Compact History</a>, suggests that urban form changes and evolves over time, although generally in a less dense direction.

May 13 - Samuel Staley

BLOG POST

Reading, Writing, And Planning: Urbanism In High School

The high school curriculum overlooks a great many subjects, so we could go on at length pointing out its ironies and shortcomings. But the topic at hand happens to be urban planning, so let's stick with that.

May 10 - Josh Stephens

BLOG POST

Communist China's GPS congestion management capitalism

BEIJING, 9 MAY 2007--Anyone questioning China's potential to become the dominant player in the 21st century and beyond need look no further than the <a href="http://www.bjjtw.gov.cn" title="Beijing Transp. Info Ctr">Beijing Transportation Information Center</a>. The entrepreneurial leader of the center, Mr. WANG gang, has lead the development of the most innovative system for managing traffic congestion I've seen, putting U.S. systems to shame and leapfrogging over London's cutting edge signal coordinatin system. Rather than try to regulate congestion by limiting automobile use, they have figured out a way to use technology to make its use more efficient.

May 10 - Samuel Staley

BLOG POST

The Urban Freeway Conundrum

Planners regret them, neighbors dislike them, and they gobble up valuable real estate in the center city. The downtown expressway is a much-disliked reality in most American cities. Now's the time to do something about them.

May 9 - Robert Goodspeed

BLOG POST

Beijing's traffic nightmare and public transit

BEIJING--When I first learned that I wouldn't be able to rent a car in Beijing, I was disappointed. That's how I usually break away from the business "bubble" to learn something about a city. But, it didn't take more than an hour to realize that I was better off with a local driver than tackling it myself. Driving habits, combined with roads choking with pedestrians, cars, buses, and taxis, convinced me I needed to leave the driving to a "pro".

May 9 - Samuel Staley

FEATURE

Urban Planning and the Informal Sector in Developing Countries

Rather than seeking to eliminate the presence of the informal sector, urban planning should seek to accommodate this important component of urban economies.

May 7 - Deden Rukmana

BLOG POST

Atlantic Yards and the Perils of Community Benefit Agreements

Just east of downtown Brooklyn on a 22 acre site Forest City Ratner is proposing a mega-project that would transform the Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA) Vanderbilt rail yards and a few adjacent blocks into 6,430 units of housing, 336,000 feet of office space, 247,000 feet of retail space, a hotel and an arena that would be the new home of the NBA New Jersey Nets. Like almost any mega-project proposed in a dense city like New York, Atlantic Yards is raising the ire of many. In this case, however, the names and roles of the usual suspects have changed. At least some view the developer as a savior and champion of the inner city poor, while many of the project’s opponents are viewed as reactionary elites only concerned about the potential loss of their parking spaces. This reversal of protagonists is due in large part to the Community Benefits Agreement (CBA) negotiated between the developer and several community groups.

May 7 - Lance Freeman

BLOG POST

Smart Growth, Bad Air

Locating residential development closer to city centers comes with a price: increased exposure to air pollutants.

May 3 - Diana DeRubertis

BLOG POST

Who’s Watching the Beach?

It’s not just those buff lifeguards. Most coastal and Great Lakes states have a coastal zone management program. And not only are the coastal zone managers watching the beach, they are watching what’s being built in their communities. In fact, in recent interviews of coastal zone managers, 56 out of 58 said growth was the top pressure on coastal resources in their state.

May 2 - Anonymous

FEATURE

Minimizing The Effects Of The Kelo Decision

While many local governments have been utilizing the eminent domain powers granted to them by the Kelo case, the American Planning Association hasn't been successful in finding ways to limit the decision's negative effects. But as Richard May, FAICP explains, there are many ways to reduce any damage done.

April 30 - Richard May, FAICP

BLOG POST

Comfort Versus Speed

Most people that I know want to act responsibly, but when it comes to daily travel decisions they often choose driving over more resource-efficient but less comfortable and convenient alternative modes, such as walking, cycling and public transportation. As a result, they feel guilty, and communities suffer from problems such as congestion, infrastructure costs, consumer costs, accidents, energy consumption, and pollution emissions.

April 26 - Todd Litman

BLOG POST

Pulling Up Stakes On The 'Good Old Days'

The 1950’s and 1960’s were boom times for planning and building in the northeastern United States. Projects were designed and built seemingly overnight. For those who idolize Edmund Bacon (Philadelphia's director of city planning from 1949 to 1970) and Robert Moses (New York City’s master builder from 1924 to 1968), that was the time to plan and design and implement and build --quickly.

April 26 - Barbara Faga

FEATURE

Paved Paradigm

Libertarian biases and assumptions keep Reason Magazine authors stuck in traffic.

April 26 - Michael Dudley

BLOG POST

The Importance of Beauty: A Personal and Professional Perspective

The countless issues and debates about the nature of city-building need powerful voices within the broader public.

April 25 - Brent Toderian

BLOG POST

Thom Mayne's inspiration

The new <a href="http://www.pritzkerprize.com/164/pritzker2005/sanfranciscofederalbuilding.htm">San Francisco Federal Building</a>, designed by <a href="http://www.morphosis.net/">Morphosis</a> starchitect <a href="http://www.greatbuildings.com/architects/Thom_Mayne_-_Morphosis.html">Thom Mayne</a>, opened earlier this year. It's visible from the windows of our kitchen at work, so I see it at least five times a day, every time I make myself a decaf double americano. And I knew it looked familiar. Today I finally figured it out. The building:<img src="/files/u10403/14mayn_CA1_650.jpg" alt="" width="500" height="375" /> And what must have been the inspiration: <img src="/files/u10403/crawler_copy1.jpg" alt="" width="475" height="219" /> (Oh, come on. It's the Sandcrawler from Star Wars. The nerds got it.)

April 24 - Anonymous