Land Use

Lydia DePillis profiles Washington D.C.'s planning director, Harriet Tregoning, and her efforts to reshape the city along smart growth principles.

March 9, 2012 - Washington City Paper

Shriya Malhotra explores the potential for participatory mapping to manage the complexities of cities in the 21st century.

March 9, 2012 - The City Fix

Eric Jaffe reports on the growing use of "health impact assessments" (HIA), which are used in a similar fashion to environmental reviews, to determine the public health side effects of major projects.

March 9, 2012 - The Atlantic Cities

A series of stunning photo comparisons in The Washington Post and The New York Times document the magnitude of destruction unleashed by the Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami, and the steps achieved to date towards recovery.

March 9, 2012 - The Washington Post

After a two-year effort, the City of El Paso adopted a new comprehensive plan this week. Based on smart growth and sustainability principles, author Kaid Benfield calls it "among the best, most articulate comprehensive plans" he's ever seen.

March 8, 2012 - Switchboard

Kasia Cieplak-Mayr von Baldegg interviews Gwenaëlle Gobé, director of a new film called This Space Available, which seeks to document the rise of "visual pollution" and those who are fighting to stop it.

March 8, 2012 - The Atlantic

Despite last minute wrangling, the Philadelphia City Planning Commission unanimously adopted the Master Plan for the Central Delaware Waterfront on Tuesday, with the promise of creating new recreational and green space and spurring economic growth.

March 8, 2012 - Plan Philly

Giovanna Borasi & Mirko Zardini examine the state of pervasive anxiety afflicting the urban populations of the West and how "medicalization" and an ambition for total well-being are effecting architecture and urban planning.

March 7, 2012 - Places

Having just returned from a United Nations-led tour of disaster-ravaged areas of Japan, Warren Karlenzig reports on efforts across the region to rebuild along smart growth and green economic development models.

March 6, 2012 - Common Current

Several posts over the last couple of weeks build on the growing body of work illuminating the economic, physical, and social damage caused by urban highways.

March 6, 2012 - Better Cities & Towns

Mark Hinshaw calls an end to the use of the term "suburb" to describe the communities ringing Seattle, and the inferior connotations attached to it. It's a term that he thinks has outlived its usefulness.

March 6, 2012 - Crosscut

Lee Epstein and Kaid Benfield pen a post on the importance of working rural landscapes to the sustainability agenda, which seems to be increasingly overlooked by smart growth advocates.

March 5, 2012 - Switchboard

Is the dream home for the New Era compact, connected and mortgage free?

February 29, 2012 - PlaceShakers

Sean Patrick Farrell examines the lengths that Midwesterners are willing to go to get their bike riding fix during snowy winter months, including a popular new indoor mountain bike park in Milwaukee.

February 28, 2012 - The New York Times

February 27, 2012 - Jonathan Nettler

Marina Strauss reports on the changing retail landscape, in which retailers such as Wal-Mart and Staples are counting on smaller stores to draw customers. As McMansions lose their luster, are over-sized retailers the next victim of changing tastes?

February 27, 2012 - The Globe and Mail

Matt Bevilacqua speaks with Ellen Dunham-Jones, renowned co-author of Retrofitting Suburbia, about the key factors impacting suburban redevelopment and the recent retrofit projects across the country that have caught her eye.

February 27, 2012 - Next American City

Chuck Wolfe traces the comeback of sandwich board signage in cities, explains how associated regulations work, and offers reasons why such signage should be carefully fostered.

February 24, 2012 - The Atlantic Cities

Charlie Gardner writes about what can be found in, and more importantly what is excluded from, one of the most progressive code revisions to be adopted by a major American city.

February 23, 2012 - Old Urbanist

John King authors an article examining the types of privately owned public spaces that have been created in San Francisco under the city's 1985 downtown plan and sees room for improvement.

February 22, 2012 - San Francisco Chronicle