What does Main Street America look like today? A journalist, a public radio producer, and two Harvard PhD students set out to visit actual Main Streets across the country to find out.
"In practical terms, [journalist Kara Oehler] tells us, this has meant that the researchers piled into a 1996 Subaru and started visiting Main Streets. The first trip took them from Boston to Chicago. Kara notes that street interviews – vox pops – usually yield one response out of three. 'But everyone talks to you on Main Street.' From May to August, the team travelled 12,000 miles, stopping at hundreds of Main Streets."
Read the full story: Mapping Main Street
In Planning, Reality Can Be Worse Than Fiction
The Showtime Series Penny Dreadful portrays a bleak vision of 1940s Los Angeles. But, unencumbered by regulations and zoning laws, it also displays what great urban neighborhoods can look like.
Reopening Main Street
A Long Beach-based urban design firm shares design tips for reopening main streets while balancing public health and economic concerns—making space for parklets, pedestrians, and al fresco dining.
Resurrecting the Classic American Main Street
In an interview, urbanism scholar Emily Talen discusses what it would take to restore "main street principles" to American towns and cities. Understandably, small retailers play a big role.
Eastern Nebraska is running out of electricity
Data centers and electrification are straining eastern Nebraska’s grid, throttling economic development.
Move over, LA: St. Louis gears up for Olympics, invests millions in downtown redevelopment
The Missouri city will host the 2028 Olympic soccer group stage and knockout matches.
California High-Speed Rail Authority picks trainset manufacturer
The California High-Speed Rail Authority aims to start servicing passengers by 2033.
Dallas releases zoning code overhaul to officials
The drafted overhaul is over 400 pages long.
NYC renovations for dangerous, ‘mercilessly crammed’ street delayed until 2027
Construction was supposed to begin this fall.
San Diego’s Midway Rising project gets greenlight from city council
The project looks to become the largest affordable housing development in California's history.
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
University of Michigan School for Environment and Sustainability (SEAS)
Hunter College, City University of New York (CUNY)
The Architects Foundation
City of Cambridge
The Pocatello Development Authority
The Urban Renewal Agency of the City of Pocatello