Exclusives
BLOG POST
Tactical Urbanism: A Look Back at 2012
From guerrilla wayfinding to future-tising, these are my top five, perhaps lesser known, highlights of a banner year for Tactical Urbanism.
FEATURE
Top 10 Books - 2013
Planetizen is pleased to release its eleventh annual list of the ten best books in urban planning, design and development published in 2012.
BLOG POST
Do Environmentalists Feed The Fire of Climate Change Denial?
Despite the extreme weather events of the past year, most Americans are still not persuaded that climate change is primarily the result of human activity. Why not?
BLOG POST
Better Living through Information: Big Data and Urban Systems
The emerging methods of urban governance, planning, design, and management made possible by technological advances in data collection, analysis, and communication promise to make our cities better, and more efficient, places to live. The Urban Systems Collaborative, a unique gathering of voices from academia and industry, is fostering a discussion about improving our cities through technology.
BLOG POST
Green Building in Affordable Housing Reaches Critical Mass
Green building has become a fundamental element of many states Qualified Allocation Plans (QAPs), which guide the distribution of the Federal Low-Income Housing Tax Credit program.
FEATURE
Top Twitter Feeds 2012
We've augmented our comprehensive list of Twitter's top sources for news and observations about urban planning, design and development by recognizing this year's Top Ten Feeds.
BLOG POST
Toward Comprehensive and Multi-Modal Performance Evaluation
One of planners’ most important jobs is to help develop the indicators and frameworks use to define problems and evaluate potential solution. Often, a particular solution will seem cost effective and beneficial when evaluated one way, and wasteful and undesirable if evaluated another. It is important that we help develop comprehensive evaluation frameworks that effectively inform decisions.
BLOG POST
TechniCity: The most fascinating technologies shaping cities
Course explores how the increasing availability of networks, sensors and mobile technologies allows for new approaches to address the challenges that our cities face.
BLOG POST
No, Cars Are NOT Greener than Buses (Even Almost-Empty Ones)
Even in cities without world-class transit systems, transit can reduce car ownership to some extent.
BLOG POST
From Sparks of Brilliance to Waves of Reform
Bottom-up urbanism, now becoming increasingly popular in the academy under the rubrics of “do-it-yourself (DIY) urbanism”; “guerilla urbanism”; “tactical urbanism” etc., are the surest sparks of brilliance and hope for our urban future.
FEATURE
Planetizen's Responsive Redesign
We have completely redesigned and rebuilt the Planetizen website. Enjoy the new features, a fresh new look, and a streamlined mobile-friendly design that's optimized for your laptop, tablet, and smartphone.
FEATURE
Back To The Future: The 1970 Los Angeles 'Centers' Concept Plan
The 1970 Concept Los Angeles plan is a history lesson for urban planners and a vision of what the city could have looked like.
BLOG POST
Greetings from Manila
Greetings from Manila where I'm attending the Asian Development Bank's Transport Forum 2012. It is an exciting and important event: the types of transport planning investments that the bank supports now can have huge impacts on the nature of future.
FEATURE
Jail the Planners for Not Preventing Sandy!
Ed Blakely indicts the planning profession for failing to protect our communities from the threat of a changing climate. How can we plan places that serve as bulwarks from the worst physical traumas, while providing economic and social resiliency?
BLOG POST
Shared Hardship and the Souls of Cities
I can't remember the last time I left the house and gave a moment's though to whether I'd be warm enough, or whether I needed to bring an umbrella. Meanwhile, half the East Coast is underwater right now.
FEATURE
Planning Education: Striking a Better Balance
Planning education and practice fail to recognize the importance of physical design and spatial planning. Randall Arendt diagnoses the root of the disorder and suggests some treatments for returning urban planning to good health.
BLOG POST
Does it Make a Difference if a Planning Program is in a Policy, Design, or Other Kind of School?
Students investigating options often ask if it makes a difference where the planning school is located. The short answer is it matters less to students than many think.
BLOG POST
How to Turn One Disaster Into Two
In St Bernard Parish, it took almost 7 months for the crickets and other insects to return after Katrina. In that period there was silence at night to go with the darkness.<br /> <br /> But the first plans for recovery were delivered inside a mere 80 days, during which time none of the people were talked with or listened to except for the wham bam ty m'amisms that are the lifeblood of the charrette. <br /> <br /> Is it any wonder there are two disasters to recover from a full seven years later? The first a storm. The second, an imposition.<br />
BLOG POST
The Not-So-Libertarian Argument For Sprawl
<p> In the 1990s, most public argument about suburban expansion was pretty simple. Environmentalists argued that sprawl increased pollution, while their opponents responded by invoking the free market. Environmentalists and other sprawl critics (including myself) responded that sprawl is the result less of the free market than of <a href="http://works.bepress.com/lewyn/28/">government subsidy and regulation</a>. </p> <p> Recently I have started to notice hints of a not-so-libertarian argument for sprawl: that pro-sprawl government policies such as highway construction open up real estate for development, and thus make housing affordable. </p>
BLOG POST
Enough with Bikes vs Cars – It’s about Better Cities!
<p> A few weeks back, I watched with concern Toronto having a rhetoric-heavy debate about removing the relatively new bike-lane on Jarvis Street. Last minute efforts to save the bike-lane <a href="http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/cityhallpolitics/article/1265847--jarvis-bike-lanes-to-be-removed-after-last-ditch-council-effort-to-save-them-fails" target="_blank">were ultimately unsuccessful</a>, although as small consolation, Council chose not to use bike-lane infrastructure funds to remove it – a previous intention that had been seen as adding budgeting insult to active mobility injury.<br /> <br />
City of Camden Redevelopment Agency
City of Astoria
Transportation Research & Education Center (TREC) at Portland State University
Regional Transportation Commission of Southern Nevada
Toledo-Lucas County Plan Commissions
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.
