Infrastructure

Sea Level

Making the Bay Area Resilient By Design

The Resilient By Design Bay Area Challenge has produced nine designs to address sea-level rise and flooding around the San Francisco Bay Area.

June 22, 2018 - ASLA The Dirt

Chicago Bike Trail

A Map of the 'Mellow' Bike Routes Around Chicago

Not all bike routes are created equal; some are just mellower.

June 22, 2018 - Chicago Reader

Kansas City Streetcar

Voters Approve Special Sales Tax, Property Tax to Expand Kansas City Streetcar

Voters in a new Transportation Development District supported new taxes to help fund the extension of the Kansas City Streetcar. Despite a paltry turnout, the taxes passed by a wide margin.

June 21, 2018 - The Kansas City Star

Bike Infrastructure

Nice Try, Sharrows

End the sharrow experiment, says this columnist.

June 21, 2018 - The Record

Coal-Fired Power Plant

First: Oklahoma Can Regulate its Own Coal Ash

Oklahoma will now be able to regulate coal ash disposal without answering to federal regulators.

June 21, 2018 - Governing

Staten Island Ferry "Spirit of America"

A Planning Think Tank Devoted to Staten Island

The Staten Island Partnership for Transit and Resiliency Improvements (SIPTRI) would be tasked with improving the competitiveness of the borough as it grows to 500,000 residents and beyond.

June 21, 2018 - Crain's New York Business

Light Rail Project Proposed Route

Light Rail Recommended for the San Fernando Valley

Transit planners with the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority have recommended light rail for the planned East San Fernando Valley Transit Corridor Project.

June 20, 2018 - The Architect's Newspaper

MAX Light Rail

'Enhanced Transit Corridors Plan' Under Consideration in Portland

Transit advocates are concerned the plan doesn't do enough to support modes other than cars.

June 20, 2018 - Bike Portland

Hurricane Harvey Flooding

Harvey's Effects Still Apparent in Houston's Capital Spending

It's hard to measure exactly how much, but Hurricane Harvey has significantly pushed the city of Houston's capital spending program toward recovery efforts.

June 20, 2018 - Houston Chronicle

Streetcar Route

St. Paul-Mall of America Streetcar Connection Moving Forward

The Riverview transit corridor has plenty of local support. Now planners will get to work.

June 20, 2018 - The Pioneer Press

Washington Monuments

D.C. Updating its Sustainability Plan

The District of Columbia is updating its Sustainable DC plan, originally crafted in 2012, and seeking feedback on draft goals set for 2032.

June 20, 2018 - Greater Greater Washington

Mayan City

The Ancient Roots of New Urbanism

The planning values and principles of New Urbanism are deeply rooted in human history. What does this look like, and what can we learn from it? The archaeology of an ancient Mayan city sheds some light.

June 19, 2018 - Dean Saitta

Toll Lane Project

Expansion of Maryland Toll Lane Project Increases Cost Five-Fold to $1.1 Billion

A $210 million project to add a single, 7-mile express toll lane on Interstate 95 north of Baltimore was just expanded to two lanes for 10 miles. Financing will rely on toll revenue. Unlike HOT lanes, every motorist will pay to use the lanes.

June 19, 2018 - The Baltimore Sun

New York jail

The Happy Jail

Where do the street trees come from, and where does the compost go? Rikers Island was New York City's growing outpost for years. But does “greening” the jail always improve things for prisoners?

June 19, 2018 - Urban Omnibus

Ontario Street

A Famous Former Planning Director and the 'War on Cars'

Former Toronto Planning Director Jennifer Keesmaat is responding to rising pedestrian and bike fatalities in the "Vision Zero" city with a series of calls for action.

June 19, 2018 - The Toronto Star

San Francisco Bay Area

Facebook Could Partner With Local Transit Authorities to Repair Defunct Rail Bridge

The Dunbarton Rail Bridge has been out of service since the 1980s. In a potentially groundbreaking development, Facebook is interested in repairing the bridge to serve multi-modal commuters.

June 18, 2018 - The San Francisco Chronicle

New York Sandy Power Outage

Wanted: A Regional Planning Approach to Climate Change

The effects of climate change—rising seas, extreme weather—will require coordinated action around the New York region. Regional planning, in other words.

June 18, 2018 - Curbed NY

Chicago Blue Line

Chicago's New Train to O'Hare Won't Be a Train—It's Elon Musk's 'Loop'

Loop, as in a derivation of Hyperloop, conceived by Elon Musk and to be built by his newest venture, The Boring Company, is the technology of choice for high-speed transit to O'Hare Airport.

June 16, 2018 - Chicago Tribune

Pedestrian Deaths Up Sharply in Chicago

A Chicago Department of Transportation commissioner calls the trend "very troubling."

June 15, 2018 - Streetsblog Chicago

Central Park - Manhattan, New York

Private Developers Building More Public Parks in New York City

Private developers are building parks around New York to satisfy zoning laws.

June 15, 2018 - The New York Times

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

Top Books

An annual review of books related to planning.

Top Schools

The definitive ranking of graduate planning programs.

100 Most Influential Urbanists

The who's who of urbanism, according to Planetizen readers.

Urban Planning Creators You Should Know

A short list of voices on social, video, and podcasting platforms.