Land Use

Can Seattle Build 20,000 Affordable Units in 10 Years?

Frank Chiachiere provides some advice on how Seattle can achieve its ambitious goals for affordable housing over the next decade: build transit to places where land is less expensive.

April 10, 2015 - Seattle Transit Blog

Property Rights, First Amendment at Issue Over Confederate War Memorial

150 years ago yesterday Robert E. Lee surrendered the Army of Northern Virginia to Ulysses S. Grant and the Army of the Potomac, ending the Civil War. The ancestors of the Confederacy not live in a country protected by the First Amendment.

April 10, 2015 - The Washington Post

Lawns and Suburban Homes

Libertarian-Friendly Drought Control

Arid states can both reduce water use and avoid intrusive government by eliminating zoning regulations that mandate or encourage water-wasting lawns.

April 9, 2015 - Michael Lewyn

Complete Street Vancouver

Florida Backs Miami Complete Streets Initiative

The Florida DOT has approved Miami's plan to rework busy Biscayne Boulevard. In the spirit of Complete Streets, vehicle lanes will be reduced and pedestrian/bike spaces expanded.

April 9, 2015 - Miami Today

Los Angeles Releases Ambitious 'Sustainable City Plan'

Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti has ambitious plans to modernize the city. This week his administration laid out a sweeping sustainability agenda on matters of critical importance to the future of the nation's second largest city.

April 9, 2015 - Los Angeles Daily News

Visioning Edges in Cities, and the Spaces Beyond

In an inspirational essay about the undeveloped boundaries of the public domain (such as street-ends), Chuck Wolfe urges innovation in city spaces where we "blend the familiar with the edge of the unknown."

April 9, 2015 - The Huffington Post

Streetsblog 'Golden Crater' Goes to Camden, New Jersey for Waterfront Parking Abyss

Angie Schmitt announces the results of the 2015 "Parking Madness" tournament, which pits the country's worst examples of parking.

April 8, 2015 - Streetsblog USA

Minneapolis Green Line University of Minnesota

Minneapolis' New Urbanism Success Story

A case study in how New Urbanist principles helped transform the neighborhood around the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis.

April 8, 2015 - Streets.MN

Better Zoning Codes for Better Quality of Life

As Los Angeles continues the five-year process of re-writing its zoning code for clarity, one Zoning Advisory Committee member considers who should really care.

April 6, 2015 - The Planning Report

Coming Soon to Downtown Winnipeg: Surface Parking Lots?

What follows is a cautionary tale of how quickly downtown investment can go astray.

April 4, 2015 - Winnipeg Free Press

Exploring the Unique, Threatened Florida Everglades

Fusion has produced a multi-media exposé on the endangered Florida Everglades.

April 4, 2015 - Fusion

APA's Daniel Burnham Award Goes to Vibrant NEO 2040

The efforts of 12 counties, four big cities, and four metropolitan planning organizations, as well as universities, major foundations, cultural institutions, and some 10,000 residents in Northeast Ohio have been rewarded.

April 3, 2015 - The Plain Dealer

The Station at Potomac Yard

A Mixed-Use Fire Station? Challenging the Limits of Mixed-Use Development

A visual essay exploring the emerging Potomac Yard neighborhood in Alexandria, VA and how one innovative project reinterprets the traditional definition of mixed-use development.

April 3, 2015 - Plan.Place

A Primer on Parklets in San Francisco: Past, Present, Future

The San Francisco Chronicle's urban design critic, John King, knows his San Francisco parklets—from the first ones that started the nationwide urban movement five years ago, to the ones currently in the hopper at the city planning office.

April 2, 2015 - San Francisco Chronicle

Urbanism: Nothing to Fear

Scott Bernstein, president of the Center for Neighborhood Technology, talks planes, trains, and automobiles, in an urban industrial context.

April 2, 2015 - PlaceShakers

Shanghai China

China's Megacities May Soon Rely on Urban Farming

While widespread urban farming remains pipe dream in the United States, dwindling arable land and a mass shift to cities might make it a necessity in China.

March 31, 2015 - designboom

Shopping Mall

Death of the Shopping Mall May Be Exaggerated

Despite threats like online retail, upscale sectors of the mall market are prospering. This is good news for what are, perhaps, the only walkable 'streets' in some parts of the country.

March 31, 2015 - CityLab

Gentrification

Grassroots Activists Take On Evictions, Displacement

On the ground, combating gentrification means putting a stop to cost-driven displacement and evictions. Grassroots organizations in some of the hardest-hit cities have dedicated themselves to that task.

March 31, 2015 - Next City

Casa Torre

Re-Evaluating Pasadena's City of Gardens Ordinance

Practicing urbanist and USC professor Vinayak Bharne examines the legacy of a progressive zoning code over the two decades since its adoption.

March 31, 2015 - Vinayak Bharne

Op-Ed: Time to Take Planning Power Back from Communities

In light of the current housing crisis, argues Stephen Smith, the community-based land use controls created as a response to urban renewal policies of the 20th century should be for forfeited to more development friendly political forces.

March 30, 2015 - New York YIMBY

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.

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.