Dallas's city council passed an ordinance restricting the percentage of window space a storefront can use for advertisements. Council members say the signs are creating or adding to blight.
"The corner convenience store might not be the first thing that springs to mind when it comes to cleaning up neighborhood blight.
But in poorer parts of Dallas, such shops are frequently plastered front to back with mini-billboards advertising everything from cigarettes to Frito pie.
'These signs just trash up the community. When you pass a neighborhood retail shop on the north side, it's not as big a problem as it is here,' said Deputy Mayor Pro Tem Dwaine Caraway as he passed sign-covered store after sign-covered store in his southern sector district.
It drew little notice, but last week, the City Council enacted restrictions that target those signs, hoping to clean up the way convenience stores and other mom-and-pop shops look in neighborhoods around the city.
The ordinance limits how much of a building's facade and windows can be covered with signs.
Specifically, windows and glass doors, many of which are completely covered today, must be 80 percent clear so patrons can see in and out of the store. And outside walls and facades that have served as little more than street-level billboards must have no more than 25 percent of their surface covered with signs."
FULL STORY: Dallas law aims to bring signs down from storefronts

Rethinking Redlining
For decades we have blamed 100-year-old maps for the patterns of spatial racial inequity that persist in American cities today. An esteemed researcher says: we’ve got it all wrong.

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

California High-Speed Rail's Plan to Right Itself
The railroad's new CEO thinks he can get the project back on track. The stars will need to align this summer.

‘Displaced By Design:’ Report Spotlights Gentrification in Black Neighborhoods
A new report finds that roughly 15 percent of U.S. neighborhoods have been impacted by housing cost increases and displacement.

Nevada and Utah Groups Oppose Public Land Sell-Off Plan
A set of last-minute amendments to the budget reconciliation bill open up over half a million acres of federally managed land to sales.

More Than a Park: A Safe Haven for Generations in LA’s Chinatown
Alpine Recreation Center serves as a vital cultural and community hub in Los Angeles' Chinatown, offering a safe, welcoming space for generations of Chinese American residents to gather, connect, and thrive amidst rapid urban change.
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.
City of Clovis
City of Moorpark
City of Camden Redevelopment Agency
City of Astoria
Transportation Research & Education Center (TREC) at Portland State University
Regional Transportation Commission of Southern Nevada
Toledo-Lucas County Plan Commissions