Housing

Alex Steffen, a "leading voice in planetary futurism," muses on what he believes could be a way to move beyond NIMBYism and incremental urban planning, to provide an antidote to fundamentally broken city governance.

October 2, 2012 - Planetary Thinking

Smoking is physically harmful to smokers and non-smokers alike, but what about its impact on public space? Nate Berg reports on a new paper in Urban Studies based on interviews in Singapore -- where smoking has been regulated since 1970.

October 2, 2012 - The Atlantic Cities

LEED for Neighborhood Development (LEED-ND) hasn't exactly unleashed a flurry of new sustainable, dense development. But, as the economy strengthens, innovative projects in Oakland, Syracuse, and Milwaukee are beginning to take flight.

September 28, 2012 - Urban Land Magazine

Do you know the effect your spiffy new development will have on the neighbors' health? Aaron Wernham and the Kresge Foundation think you could use a health impact assessment.

September 27, 2012 - Shelterforce Magazine

Beset by daunting challenges, and a summer of stinging articles and reports, the chairman of the New York City Housing Authority has announced a controversial plan to raise hundreds of millions of dollars by leasing land to private developers.

September 27, 2012 - The New York Times

Squatting has been a rite of passage for British youth since at least the 1960s, but a new law criminalizing the practice, amid a rise in squatters due to the economic crisis, is "upending the rebellious and politically charged British subculture."

September 24, 2012 - The Washington Post

With researching suggesting international immigration can kick-start local economies, cities across America are contemplating efforts at attracting, and retaining, immigrants. But are immigrants the silver bullet to revive declining cities?

September 24, 2012 - Bloomberg

A pilot project spearheaded by the Bloomberg administration to develop a new housing model for the City’s "growing small-household population," has attracted a big response from interested housing developers.

September 23, 2012 - The Wall Street Journal

New York City's supertall skyscrapers court billionaires, selling prime real estate in the sky for tens of millions of dollars. The latest trophy building, One57, will soon become the city's tallest building with residences.

September 23, 2012 - The New York Times

Although the findings of a vast, decades-long study into the effectiveness of efforts to decrease the segregation of poor families did not turn up the results social scientists had hoped for, those efforts were successful in unexpected ways.

September 22, 2012 - The New York Times

As if to show that "walkable" is the new mobility in America, even with single-family-homes, new census findings show two-thirds of homes constructed last year had front porches while the number of garages or carports decreased to late 1990 levels.

September 22, 2012 - USA Today

Statistics Canada has released more data from the 2011 Census, this time focusing on household composition and type of dwelling. The data finds that growth in housing stock in Canada's larger cities is tied to high-rise living.

September 21, 2012 - Vancouver Sun

Rick Hampson explores the New Urbanist vision for how cities will be designed and planned over the next 30 years, as told by the movement's co-founder, Andres Duany.

September 19, 2012 - USA Today

A protest last week through downtown Los Angeles was meant to raise awareness of local activists' concerns that Los Angeles County Metro is displacing working class people and small businesses as it develops land adjacent to its stations.

September 17, 2012 - KPCC

According to Prime Minister David Cameron, planning regulations are the boogeyman holding back the UK's economy. Thus, in an effort to boost construction, Cameron is proposing to ease the country's rules on which projects require planning approvals.

September 15, 2012 - The Atlantic Cities

Citing a lack of affordable housing, a Manhattan Community Board has sent architecture's hot young firm, Denmark-base Bjarke Ingels Group (aka BIG), back to the drawing board to amend the design for their premier New York project.

September 13, 2012 - The New York Observer

While the housing crash may have temporarily halted the dramatic growth in downtown LA's residential sector, new retail and restaurant openings continued. Now, as the housing market recovers, developers are clawing to get back to building residences.

September 12, 2012 - Los Angeles Downtown News

Walkable urban places are poised to "put a foundation under the economy as well as government tax revenues," concludes Christopher Leinberger in a new report. Better! Cities & Towns delivers some highlights from his much anticipated study.

September 11, 2012 - Better! Cities & Towns

It's a mere 12 units but a huge test for apartments with no auto parking but plenty of bike parking. The 5-story, mixed-use Mission District building was unanimously approved by the Planning Commission on Sept. 6 despite neighborhood opposition.

September 11, 2012 - Streetsblog San Francisco

Certainly, says Brent Toderian. And with children "the indicator species of a great neighbourhood," he argues that cities should be designed with families in mind.

September 10, 2012 - HuffPost British Columbia