An Un-Planned Neighborhood Gets APA Award for Planning

The Houston neighborhood of Montrose was recently named one of the APA's 'Great Neighborhoods' for 2009, but as this editorial suggests, planners had nothing to do with it.

1 minute read

October 13, 2009, 6:00 AM PDT

By Tim Halbur


"We were surprised that the American Planning Association recently named Montrose one of its '10 Great Neighborhoods' for 2009. Montrose is a great place. But does it, as the association writes, 'highlight the roles that planners and planning play in creating communities of lasting value'?

We think that planning helped make Montrose what it is. But much of what's great about that funky urban neighborhood had nothing to do with planning - and in fact, arose in spite of it."

Friday, October 9, 2009 in The Houston Chronicle

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I love the variety of courses, many practical, and all richly illustrated. They have inspired many ideas that I've applied in practice, and in my own teaching. Mary G., Urban Planner

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