According to RPA Executive Director Robert Yaro, global competition requires that the United States focus on regions for future infrastructure investment.
The article is an interview with Robert Yaro, executive director of the Regional Plan Association:
"...all of our competitors around world-Europe and Japan and China-were engaged in long-range investment strategies around moving people and goods. The rest of the world is building high-speed rail, expanding commercial aviation systems, and building integrated goods movement systems that involve new connections between seaports and rail systems. Really, we're the only place in the world that doesn't have that kind of long-range investment strategy."
"...we need a national policy and investment framework. The analogy that we've been using is the interstate system. That really made late 20th century metropolitan regions possible. They were organized around these metro-scale motor-access highway networks."
"We're just approaching the one-year mark of the announcement of PlaNYC, and it's an amazing story. We had one highly visible setback, and that was the refusal of the New York State Legislature to vote on the congestion pricing proposal. That was one of 127 policy and investment recommendations."
Read the full story: NY’s RPA Advocates ‘America 2050’ Plan to Renew Regions
How Planners Can Help Cities Thrive
For planners, the key to moving a city’s vision for development forward is to value public as well as private investment in projects, according to urban planner and author Howard M. Blackson III.
Can Planning Happen More Quickly?
Members of the British Parliament attempt to speed up the process for planning major projects. But some advocates and observers fear the public's voice will be muted.
What the fall of earth's largest pre-industrial city can teach us about urban sprawl
Angkor was a low-density metropolis. It lasted six centuries, until it could no longer maintain its infrastructure in a changing climate. Today, it offers planners a sobering warning about the risks of dispersed urban living.
Planetizen Federal Action Tracker
A weekly monitor of how Trump’s orders and actions are impacting planners and planning in America.
California plans to bury El Niño’s downpour
If the state plays its cards right, it may be able to store a billion acre-feet of El Niño’s water in aquifers.
Chicago breaks ground on $3 billion megadevelopment
The new neighborhood, titled Foundry Park, will one day host 3,700 residences.
California High-Speed Rail Authority CEO resigns after $600,000 scandal
Under Ian Choudri, the authority used taxpayer dollars to fund first class flights and trips to nightclubs.
Want to study the Missouri River? Soon, you may need unanimous approval from 10 states
Legislation would require 10 governors’ permission to study or build projects moving water outside the basin.
Desperate measures: Advocates weigh draining Lake Powell to fill Colorado River
Draining the reservoir could reduce evaporation losses by a couple hundred thousand acre-feet.
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
Hunter College, City University of New York (CUNY)
The Architects Foundation
University of Cincinnati Online
City of Cambridge
Montrose County
The Pocatello Development Authority