Paul Smalera sees in the the ghost towers of Bangkok a disturbing warning for economically distressed urban developments in the United States.
"All over [Bangkok] skyline, towers [stand] in various states of undress but sans cranes or construction site bustle.
[In America we] are watching as our own ghosts materialize. Smaller cities like Minneapolis; Charlottesville, Va.; and Sacramento, Calif.; are all dealing with half-finished hotels or shopping centers, boarded up as developers' rationale and cash evaporated. There are, of course, acres of vacant homes all over Florida's swamplands and Las Vegas' deserts. These exurban projects could easily become ghost towns if credit to save them is not freed up. And the same credit crunch is making the prospect of ghost towers in our major cities very real.
New York, Boston, Philadelphia, San Francisco, and Chicago all have at least one major skyscraper in some stage of development death. New York-with major new towers in Lower Manhattan, Midtown, and Brooklyn on hold-has at least 30 sites where work has stopped. Boston has a 21-acre, $2.5 billion harbor development in limbo and a $700 million redevelopment of Filene's Tower into downtown condominiums in financing purgatory. The Chicago Spire, designed by starchitect Santiago Calatrava as one of the tallest buildings in the world, has been a hole in the ground since October. Waterview Tower, the Windy City's other stalled super-tall skyscraper, is stuck at the 26th floor.
When I look around Bangkok, I...see our entire country in microcosm in its haunted skyline: stalled development, empty exurbs, ghost towers."
FULL STORY: Zombie Banks Build Ghost Towers

Alabama: Trump Terminates Settlements for Black Communities Harmed By Raw Sewage
Trump deemed the landmark civil rights agreement “illegal DEI and environmental justice policy.”

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

The 120 Year Old Tiny Home Villages That Sheltered San Francisco’s Earthquake Refugees
More than a century ago, San Francisco mobilized to house thousands of residents displaced by the 1906 earthquake. Could their strategy offer a model for the present?

Opinion: California’s SB 79 Would Improve Housing Affordability and Transit Access
A proposed bill would legalize transit-oriented development statewide.

Record Temperatures Prompt Push for Environmental Justice Bills
Nevada legislators are proposing laws that would mandate heat mitigation measures to protect residents from the impacts of extreme heat.

Downtown Pittsburgh Set to Gain 1,300 New Housing Units
Pittsburgh’s office buildings, many of which date back to the early 20th century, are prime candidates for conversion to housing.
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.
Clanton & Associates, Inc.
Jessamine County Fiscal Court
Institute for Housing and Urban Development Studies (IHS)
City of Grandview
Harvard GSD Executive Education
Toledo-Lucas County Plan Commissions
Salt Lake City
NYU Wagner Graduate School of Public Service