Los Angeles needs to use zoning, land swaps, tax breaks, and imagination to ensure green space for its residents says Patt Morrison.
"Look at us. We're putting in acres of 3 bdr, 2 ba subdivisions where we once put in beans...We behave as if there's soooo much land here that we can squander it, and then it'll grow back...L.A. is the nation's worst park-to-people big city...L.A. needs to take its green space where it can find it...must there be yet another new building downtown, where the office vacancy rate is about 16%?...All this might have been avoided had the city used imagination and muscle early on for land swaps, tax breaks, rezoning â€" all the arrows in its civic quiver."
Read the full story: L.A. -- it's no park place
Planetizen Federal Action Tracker
A weekly monitor of how Trump’s orders and actions are impacting planners and planning in America.
The state-sanctioned urbicide of Austin
People don’t kill cities. Freeways do.
US to reduce Colorado River water deliveries to Mexico
A new Colorado Treaty amendment reduces Mexico’s Colorado River water allocation by 250,000 acre feet.
Nation's most wind-powered state turns to coal as data centers increase energy demand
For the first time in decades, Iowa has increased its generation of coal power.
NYC cools commuters with city's first rain garden above a bus stop
New York City officials say the plants in the rain garden can absorb 16 gallons of rainwater during heavy storms.
Brightline West’s future may rely on $6 billion federal loan
The company has until Nov. 2 to make a $400 million equity investment into its proposed high-speed rail line.
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.
Greater Baltimore Committee
Eagle County Government
Harvard University Graduate School of Design
The Architects Foundation
University of Cincinnati Online
The Pocatello Development Authority
The Urban Renewal Agency of the City of Pocatello
Journal of the American Planning Association