Land Use

America Chooses More Urban and Less Suburban

Haya El Nasser and Paul Overberg report on how current trends could cause the extinction of suburban sprawl.

April 6, 2012 - USA Today

Monumental Regional Plan for Southern California Gets Final Approval

As the largest council of governments in the country adopts a $525 billion transportation and land use plan for the next two decades, Josh Stephens marks the beginning of Southern California's age of climate-friendly, smart-growth regionalism.

April 5, 2012 - California Planning & Development Report

Asking What Comes Next, as Maryland Tries to Move Beyond Sprawl

McKay Jenkins looks at the challenges confronting Maryland as the state tries to reckon with the devastating consequences of the era of sprawl and prepare for an additional one million people over the next twenty five years.

April 5, 2012 - Urbanite

More Signs of the Big-Boxalypse

The era of big-box retail dominance is coming to an end. That's the opinion of David Welch, Chris Burritt and Lauren Coleman-Lochner, writing in Bloomberg on the occasion of Best Buy's recent announcement that it is closing 50 big stores.

April 4, 2012 - Bloomberg

The Ordinance Behind the Rebirth of Downtown LA

For the latest in a series on the laws that shaped Los Angeles, KCET's Jeremy Rosenberg examines 1999's Adaptive Reuse Ordinance, which made possible downtown's wave of condo conversion projects.

April 4, 2012 - KCET Departures

As the Global Population Explodes, Experts Ask Where They'll Live

A conference held in London last Tuesday, called "Planet Under Pressure," provided a forum to begin to answer the question, reports Roxanne Palmer.

April 2, 2012 - International Business Times

Guerrilla Crosswalk Debuts in France

Jeroen Beekmans reports on the pet project of "urban hacktivist" Florian Rivière to produce light-weight pop-up crosswalks.

March 31, 2012 - The Pop-Up City

Letting Children Take Back Our streets

Tim Gill chronicles a community-based movement to reclaim streets for play, part of a global wave of playful street-based interventions looking to change the nature of how we view our shared spaces.

March 31, 2012 - Rethinking Childhood

Bringing Dead Space Back to Life in Brooklyn

Sarah Goodyear discovers a project to help Brooklynites reclaim land owned by the city, but long since abandoned, and building neighborhood bonds in the process.

March 30, 2012 - Grist

Controversial Plan for Hollywood Moves Closer to Approval

A controversial new community plan for Hollywood made it's first appearance before City Council members this week. James Brasuell was on hand to capture the drama.

March 29, 2012 - Curbed LA

How Parking is Hampering Cincinnati's Resurgence

John Yung looks at how an overabundance of off-street parking spaces and outdated parking policies are harming Cincinnati's downtown rebound, and proposes three solutions to address the city's parking problem.

March 29, 2012 - UrbanCincy

Making Regulatory Reform Work in Seattle

Although Seattle's downtown redevelopment may be receiving plaudits, Chuck Wolfe describes efforts underway to rethink land use regulations on a broader level in the city, with jobs in mind.

March 28, 2012 - The Atlantic Cities

How Easy Will It Be To Shift Suburbia?

A recent panel held at the Museum of Modern Art in conjunction with their current exhibition, Foreclosed: Rehousing the American Dream, provided a reality check for the visionary thinking depicted in the show, writes Jayne Merkel.

March 27, 2012 - Architectural Record

Imagining An Alternative to the Parking Lot

Eran Ben-Joseph pens an opinion piece in The New York Times calling for the transformation of the parking lot to capture its true value as a public space.

March 27, 2012 - The New York Times

Walking New York

Jed Lipinski profiles Matt Green, an intrepid pedestrian whose goal is to traverse every street in every borough in New York City on foot.

March 26, 2012 - The New York Times

Did the Built Environment Contribute to the Trayvon Martin Tragedy?

In an opinion piece for Better! Cities & Towns, Robert Steuteville argues that the Sanford, Florida, case is partly about what happens to a gated development when residents find themselves on the same side of the gate as people they fear.

March 26, 2012 - Better! Cities & Towns

Rooftop Farm Company Expands Into Brooklyn Industrial Park

Rich Calder reports on Brooklyn's newest urban-garden-in-an-industrial-park, and the environmental benefits it will offer.

March 25, 2012 - New York Post

Are Liberals and Conservatives Fighting Each Other's Land Use Battles?

In his book, The Rent Is Too Damn High, Matthew Yglesias encourages us to reexamine our assumptions about which urban policies our values really support.

March 23, 2012 - The Atlantic Cities

2012 Charter Awards Recipients Announced

The Congress for the New Urbanism has announced this year's 9 recipients and 4 honorable mentions recognized by its 2012 Charter Awards.

March 22, 2012 - Better Cities & Towns

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.

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.