Land Use
Assessing Miami's New Urban Experiment
Three years after its adoption, Sean McCaughan assesses the impact of Miami 21, first New Urbanist zoning code adopted by a major American city.
Saving the Mall By Returning to Its Ideals
Stephanie Clifford documents the extraordinary lengths malls across the country are going to in hopes of attracting customers in the face of e-commerce and a battered economy.
Exhibit Seeks to Understand Japan's 'Metabolism' Architecture
The new exhibit at Toyko's Mori Art Museum will be the first architecture showcase since the 2011 earthquake, and displays a movement central to the country's history of building and rebuilding.
Innovation when Good Planning Policy Has Become the Norm
Scott Doyon argues for a stripped-down, back-to-basics 'punk rock' approach to urban growth and development to replace the 'rock and roll' excesses of planning during the housing boom; and he profiles the new innovators who are doing just that.
Muscling Out the Car in NYC
Marc Santora pens a pity piece for the fate of the automobile in New York City. Whereas, once upon a time the car was doing the bullying, the 'once-exalted automobile is now under siege.'
Zoning to Protect Mom & Pops on the Upper West Side
Joseph Berger reports on New York City's efforts to protect local retailers with new zoning in Manhattan's Upper West Side, where the proliferation of chain stores, banks, and pharmacies have caused consternation.
As New York Plants One Million Trees, Benefits—and Some Burdens—Grow
The city’s MillionTrees program fights asthma and global warming. But tightening maintenance budgets, increasingly severe weather and decades-old planting decisions complicate trees’ contribution.
Sidestepping Zoning to Build Green in NYC
Even in New York City, it's a pain to try to "green" a building with insulation, overhangs, and other methods that violate zoning. Katharine Jose reports on the Zone Green Text Amendment, which addresses such impediments, and the team behind it.
Philadelphia Passes Long Overdue Zoning Code Reform
The prior code, adopted in 1962 and amended with with nearly 1,000 ad-hoc revisions since then, required a strict separation of uses and outlawed the classic Philadelphia rowhouse typology.
San Francisco Businesses Thrive Without Parking
The San Francisco neighborhood of Chinatown temporarily removed parking from Stockton Street for a week during the busy Lunar New Year season. Aaron Bialick reports on the results.
Ranking Housing Affordability in America
Nate Berg reports on information compiled in the 8th Annual Demographia International Housing Affordability Survey, and asks to what extent the affordability of housing is tied to land use policies and how much is related to other factors.
In LA, Agricultural-Residential Zoned Neighborhoods Threatened
A neighborhood in Tarzana, one of the few residential areas in Los Angeles County that allows raising livestock, battles developmental pressures. The latest proposal: razing five homes for an elderly care center.
In Defense of the Grid
Paul Knight delivers an impassioned defense of the gridded urban form against its many criticisms -- that its boring, its unnatural, its only use is to maximize profits for developers, etc.
The Smart Math of Mixed-Use Development
Are cities across the country acting negligently in ignoring the property tax implications of different development types? Joseph Minicozzi thinks so, and he's done the math to prove it.
Zappos Founder "Trades Shoes for Urban Planning"
Zappos founder Tony Hsieh and his team went from designing a new campus to an entirely new collaborative city in downtown Las Vegas for Zappos employees and other emerging members of the creative class.
Revealing Parking's Hidden Costs
Dave Gardetta highlights the work of Donald Shoup and others whose mission is to eradicate the parking minimum in Los Angeles.
An Ever Evolving Zoning Code
However one's feelings on zoning, New York City's Resolution has changed over the years to positively reinforce good social initiatives over the outright banishment of negative uses, Julie V. Iovine reports.
Zoe Strauss Chronicles Philadelphia's Urbanity
Next American City Editor in Chief, Diana Lind describes how vital and particular Zoe Strauss' photographs are to the city of Philadelphia, and its cultural and political future.
Towards a Right to Space
Kerwin Datu reflects on the implications of treating the world's diverse mixed-use slums as residential only enclaves.
Upzoning Midtown
Catering to potential office tenants who would want more modern spaces, New York City officials are toying with rezoning a swath of midtown Manhattan, allowing for even more density and the replacement of aging office buildings.
Pagination
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.
City of Rosemead
Rutgers University, Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy
One Hundred Miles
University of Michigan School for Environment and Sustainability (SEAS)
Hunter College, City University of New York (CUNY)
The Architects Foundation
City of Cambridge
Montrose County
The Pocatello Development Authority