Bellevue, Seattle's largest neighboring city, grapples with Robert Lang's categorization of it as a "boomburb" -- having nearly as many foreign born citizens (32%) as New York's Brooklyn neighborhood (38%).
"[Robert Lang] says he doesn't mean Bellevue feels urban like Brooklyn. It surely doesn't -- downtown feels more like a giant mall than ever, now that it has four of them. Three are insufferably titled 'The Bellevue Collection.' Only Bellevue would 'collect' malls.
Lang says he means that Bellevue is a 'cosmoburb' -- a place tagged as a white suburb that is no longer either white or suburban. Bellevue now is less white than Seattle and has nearly as high a share of foreign-born residents (32 percent) as Brooklyn (38 percent).
Yet people can't bring themselves to call it a real city."
Thanks to Megan Ritchie Saffitz
FULL STORY: Is Bellevue a New Brooklyn?

Maui's Vacation Rental Debate Turns Ugly
Verbal attacks, misinformation campaigns and fistfights plague a high-stakes debate to convert thousands of vacation rentals into long-term housing.

Planetizen Federal Action Tracker
A weekly monitor of how Trump’s orders and actions are impacting planners and planning in America.

Chicago’s Ghost Rails
Just beneath the surface of the modern city lie the remnants of its expansive early 20th-century streetcar system.

Bend, Oregon Zoning Reforms Prioritize Small-Scale Housing
The city altered its zoning code to allow multi-family housing and eliminated parking mandates citywide.

Amtrak Cutting Jobs, Funding to High-Speed Rail
The agency plans to cut 10 percent of its workforce and has confirmed it will not fund new high-speed rail projects.

LA Denies Basic Services to Unhoused Residents
The city has repeatedly failed to respond to requests for trash pickup at encampment sites, and eliminated a program that provided mobile showers and toilets.
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.
planning NEXT
Appalachian Highlands Housing Partners
Mpact (founded as Rail~Volution)
City of Camden Redevelopment Agency
City of Astoria
City of Portland
City of Laramie