The Most Popular Posts of 2017

All the planning news that's fit to print.

2 minute read

December 26, 2017, 9:00 AM PST

By James Brasuell

@CasualBrasuell


White House

Michael Candelori / Shutterstock

Every end of the year list of "most popular" posts is like a mirror to the audience, and given Planetizen's focus on the fields of urban planning and its related fields, there is an additional layer of meaning available for interpretation when we gather lists like these.

This mirror is pointed a collection of professionals, academics, and interested observers, interested in preparing and building for the future while armed with the best possible information about the past and present.

To end the suspense, I am sure is keeping you all on the edges of your seats: there is only a little Donald J. Trump lurking in this mirror. In fact, there's even less Trump here than there was in the first six month of the year, when we took a look at traffic to satisfy our curiosity about Trump's impact on our audience's interest. It's hard to say with any certainty, but Planetizen readers must be getting their fill of Trump news elsewhere (likely), realized that the world must go on (also likely), or they just don't care about Trump (not very likely).

News

  1. Uber Releases Trip Data in Select Cities
  2. Trump's California Double Play: Potential Fatal Blow to Commuter and High-Speed Rail
  3. Bill Gates Buys 25,000 Acres in Arizona for a Master Planned 'Smart City'
  4. Two Simple Sentences Could Reshape Suburban America
  5. Which Is the Most Sprawling City in the World?
  6. Bikelash Reaches a Whole New Level
  7. Whole Foods to Undergo Unprecedented Downsizing
  8. Eight Cities Rolling Out Streetcar Projects
  9. Friday Eye Candy: Comparing a Square Mile of the World's Famous Cities
  10. Seattle Pulls the Plug on its Bikeshare System

Features

  1. The Top Schools For Urban Planners
  2. New Research on How Ride-Hailing Impacts Travel Behavior
  3. The 100 Most Influential Urbanists
  4. Planetizen's Top Ten Books of 2017
  5. Top Planning Websites - 2017
  6. America's Largest Suburb Flirts With Urbanization
  7. Forget 'Smart'—We Need 'Context Cities'
  8. Planning and the Alt Right in the Time of Trump
  9. A City With Room for Everyone
  10. Seeing the Better City, Making a Better Place

Blogs

  1. The Best Planning Apps for 2017
  2. Is It Time to Rethink the Legacy of Enrique Peñalosa?
  3. Has Placemaking Become Cliché?
  4. The Many Problems With Autonomous Vehicles
  5. Gentrification, for Better and Worse
  6. Unaffordability is a Problem but Sprawl is a Terrible Solution
  7. City Books For Non-Planning Nerds
  8. New Urbanism Emerged in Response to Sprawl, but Does it Really Offer an Alternative?
  9. Is There a Perfect Density?
  10. Which Cities Are Gentrifying?

While you're here, it's also worth a look at last year's list to perform a little compare and contrast on the year that was 2017.

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"Planetizen federal action tracker" logo superimposed over black and white image of US Capitol dome.

Planetizen Federal Action Tracker

A weekly monitor of how Trump’s orders and actions are impacting planners and planning in America.

September 30, 2026 - Zachary Whalen

An Airo train driving towards the camera on a track. There is a forest behind it.

Northwest rail fans eager for Sept. 30 debut of Amtrak’s Airo fleet

Get ready for that new train smell and more seats. But they won’t go faster or run more frequently on the Cascades route in Washington and Oregon.

September 22, 2026 - Washington State Standard

A rendering of the planned bridge over a large river. The bridge has two main support beams that form diamond shaped arches over the bridge.

Alabama scores up to $2.5 billion federal loan for largest infrastructure project in state’s history

The Mobile River Bridge and Bayway Project aims to ease congestion at Alabama’s worst bottleneck.

September 20, 2026 - NBC 15

A birds-eye view of the construction of an apartment.

Novel study finds extreme state-by-state disparity in housing construction timelines

The first comprehensive working paper on U.S. construction timelines also found that the permitting process for multi-family projects has slowed nationwide.

1 hour ago - Vox

A crowd of people play in the sand at a California beach at sunset.

California may destroy its beaches trying to save homes from El Niño

Boulders and seawalls can protect homes from waves, but ultimately destroy sandy beaches.

2 hours ago - Los Angeles Times

Construction for California's high-speed rail line. A concrete bridge stretches over a dirt field.

California high-speed rail accomplishes only one legislative goal in 2026

The majority of the agency's failed pitches were never developed into written proposals.

3 hours ago - Cal Matters

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.

Senior Planner

City of Thousand Oaks

Community Development Director

City of Wisconsin Rapids

Professor of Urban Planning

Harvard University Graduate School of Design

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