Housing
Less Parking Needed In Silicon Valley TODs
A graduate class in San Jose State's urban planning program surveyed parking lots at 12 housing developments by rail stations in Santa Clara County to see how well utilized they were and offer recommendations on parking codes.
Rental Market Rebounds
A new report indicates that the average rent went up while vacancy rate fell in the second quarter of this year. Based on the data from 82 markets around the country, San Jose, California experienced the highest rent increase.
Water as Infrastructure
Developers in Sweden plan to use the several aquifers already located underneath Stockholm's streets to heat and cool the buildings located above them.
Obama's Housing Policy Expanded
At a town hall meeting this week, President Obama proposed a new initiative that would give unemployed homeowners more wiggle room on their late mortgage payments.
Belgians Create "the Architectural Equivalent of A Mullet"
A post at Fast Company describes the House in the Outskirts of Brussels as business in front and a party in back. (SEE IMAGES).
Discrimination Case Over Katrina Housing Settled
A discrimination lawsuit filed against the federal government and the state of Louisiana was settled this week in favor of homeowners who claimed that the way funds were distributed was biased against the poor.
Sustainable Practices Find a Home in the Americas
Whether in Cupertino, Calif. or Curitiba, Brazil, cities are starting an aggressive move toward sustainability in the Americas. In this evolution, technology, citizen involvement and innovation will play a role transforming cities, Leon Kaye writes.
Graying of the Suburban Image
The 2010 Census showed that the baby-boom generation led to the growth of older populations settling in suburbs, which is causing local governments to rethink whom their services should cater to.
How ARRA Affects the Homeless
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) claims that Obama's economic stimulus bill helped contain the number of homeless people in 2009 and 2010.
Slow Progress in East New Orleans
In this piece from Places, Deborah Gans offers a firsthand look at planning for recovery in the city's neglected East side.
Section 8 Hits the Suburbs
The federal rental assistance vouchers known as Section 8 are increasingly putting low-income families into empty homes in the suburbs.
Smart Growth Weathered Housing Crisis Better Than Sprawl
Abigail Gardner of Smart Growth America takes aim at a recent article based primarily on Wendell Cox's correlation of smart growth policies to the housing market bubble and collapse.
A Neighborhood of Stairs
The La Independencia neighborhood in Medellin, Colombia sprawls up a hillside, leaving the inhabitants to walk up to 10 flights of stairs every day. An ambitious development program is considering building an outdoor network of escalators.
Higher Vacancy Rates in Walkable Neighborhoods
In comparing data collected during the 2010 Census, walkable neighborhoods are shown to have greater vacancy rates than the cities they're in.
Stalled Developments Documented
Photographer Daniel Kariko focuses on issues of land use in sensitive environments. His latest work looks at stalled suburban housing developments in the U.S.
Census Data Reveals Fundamental Changes in Modern Families
Think your living arrangement is unique? You aren't alone. The New York Times parses the vicissitudes and permutations of the twenty-first century American households.
Dwindling Sprawl: The End is Near for Suburbia
As mobile technology is fast becoming more mainstream, Urban Land Institute's CEO Patrick Phillips envisages more mixed-use developments in the next decade.
Stagnant Sales Hamper Chicago's Revitalization Efforts
Failing to attract buyers even with deep discounts, developers are starting to bail out on Plan for Transformation, an ambitious program that seeks to replace moribund public housing projects with mixed-income housing.
New Housing Starts Reveal Shift Toward Multi-Family Housing Construction
AP reports on the Anderson Forecast from UCLA that looks into CA's housing slump and shows two distinct markets, one on the rise and the other (single-family housing) falling.
Density, Closer to the Ground
Vancouver, Canada, famous for its dense downtown development, is changing tack slightly with a transit corridor from downtown to the airport, bringing building heights down mostly to 4 to 12 stories.
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.
New York City School Construction Authority
Village of Glen Ellyn
Central Transportation Planning Staff/Boston Region MPO
Institute for Housing and Urban Development Studies (IHS)
City of Grandview
Harvard GSD Executive Education
Regional Transportation Commission of Southern Nevada
Toledo-Lucas County Plan Commissions
