Exclusives
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Are Jews Coming Back to the Cities?
The growth of urban Jewish populations is more evidence that educated Americans are less hostile to city life today than they were in the late 20th century.
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Creating Inclusive Communities: Notes From a Conference
The Rocky Mountain Land Use Institute annual conference is the region's premier gathering of planning professionals. This year's conference explored strategies for building inclusive cities in which everyone can thrive.
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Trump Raises Stakes For Urban Journalism
At an annual gathering of land use journalists, we came away with more questions than answers about how the Trump administration will treat cities.
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Removing California's Costa-Hawkins Act and the Future of Rent Control
In an attempt to combat prohibitively high housing costs in California, some look to repeal the 1995 state law that limits the power of local rent control ordinances. However, removing those restrictions would likely exaggerate current problems.
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The Good and the Bad of Planning Websites
Students review municipal planning department websites in cities with more than 50,000 people to identify strengths and weaknesses. This post shares examples of the use of websites for information sharing and engagement.
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Land Prices and New Housing
Some commentators argue that even if cities allow housing supply to expand, more permissive zoning will cause land prices to increase, causing rents to rise rather than fall. This post disagrees.
FEATURE
Seeing the Better City, Making a Better Place
The author of the new book "Seeing the Better City" (Island Press) explains the importance of practiced skills of observation, and how a "vocabulary of looking" can be a foundation for participation in civic discussion.
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Finding Hope In Challenging Times
Despite depressing U.S. federal politics, there are many encouraging planning trends if you look internationally and locally.
FEATURE
New Planning Initiatives Strive for Equity in Baltimore
The Planners Across America series visits Maryland for an interview with Baltimore Planning Director Tom Stosur.
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The Wisdom of Engaging Nervous Cyclists
It was clear to the City of Toronto that engaging less confident cyclists that make up 60% of the population, yet seldom come to community meetings, might be the key to dramatic mode shifts in the city. Here's how it happened.
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Most Livable Cities Revisited
This "livable cities" ranking considers transit, walkability, and bikeability.
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Early Exposure to Public Transportation Can Lead to More Sustainable Travel Later in Life
Michael Smart and Nicholas Klein guest blog about their recent article in the Journal of Planning Education and Research.
FEATURE
Planners Across America: Making Albuquerque the Land of Enchantment, Not Confusion
The city of Albuquerque is focused on bringing consistency and coherence to an unwieldy collection of planning and land use regulations. An interview with Albuquerque Planning Director Suzanne Lubar explores the city's approach to the challenge.
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S.F.'s Transbay Transit Center: Grand Central Station of the West, or Billion Dollar Bus Station?
The developers of San Francisco’s Transbay Transit Center say it has the potential to change travel patterns in the region and land use in the neighborhood, as did New York City’s Grand Central Terminal. How realistic is this promise?
FEATURE
Planners Across America: McDermid Manages New Oklahoma Land Rush
Planning Department Director Aubrey McDermid discusses planning's role in the Oklahoma City's ongoing reinvestment and revitalization.
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Apartments, Cities, and Pollution
Some evidence suggests that apartments lead to more greenhouse gas emissions per capita than houses. Does this mean that suburbs pollute less than cities? Probably not.
FEATURE
Doubling Down on Infrastructure
The challenge facing the nation's infrastructure is massive in scale, requiring ambition lacking since the New Deal and Eisenhower eras. Building on those historic models, the following op-ed suggests a "WPA 2.0" approach to infrastructure.
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Measure S Is Just Bad Policy
Measure S gives city leaders a moderately satisfying smack across the face. As satisfying as that may be, Measure S is remarkably bad planning and development policy at the expense of the vast majority of Angelinos.
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Unaffordability is a Problem but Sprawl is a Terrible Solution
Many households spend more than they can afford on housing and transportation, but the latest International Housing Affordability Survey is wrong to recommend sprawl as the best solution. Real solutions must reduce both housing and transport costs.
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Lessons from Oroville: Resilience for Scarcity and Abundance
Swings in weather-related fortunes will continue to push to unprecedented extremes, in California, in Texas, in Boston, in Long Island, in Louisiana, and everywhere else.
Pagination
Harvard University Graduate School of Design
KFH Group Inc.
Greater Baltimore Committee
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.