Abigail Gardner of Smart Growth America takes aim at a recent article based primarily on Wendell Cox's correlation of smart growth policies to the housing market bubble and collapse.
Cox's report, "The Housing Crash and Smart Growth" (PDF), and summarized in Planetizen: Wendell Cox Blames Planners for Housing Crisis, "argues land-use restrictions and planning policies like smart growth fueled property prices and became the engine of the housing boom and bust."
Gardner sees the causes of the housing crash differently.
"The only national variable that correlates clearly with this overwhelmingly national trend was the loosening of mortgage lending rules and Wall Street's invention of new ways to profit from bad loans - not land use restrictions."
In fact, it is peripheral suburbs that are disproportionately affected by the foreclosure crisis, writes Gardener: "Areas that pulled out all the stops on new development suffered more than those that took a more measured approach."
Thanks to ClimatePlan
Read the full story: Smart Growth to Blame For the Housing Crash? Not By a Long Shot
Amazon's Second HQ Poised for Smart Growth
With a second headquarters, Amazon is poised to expand its preference for walkable places into a new city. However, maybe the company should take the high road and not beg for subsidies.
Amazon's Second HQ Poised for Smart Growth
Amazon's second headquarters is huge, and their bias for walkable places says they are going to do it all over again in a new city. However, maybe they should take the high road and not beg for subsidies.
California's Growing Housing Imbalance
Robert Steuteville looks at a recent report on the Golden State's supply and demand imbalance in the housing market. It's not what the The Wall Street Journal has led you to believe.
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.
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.
US buildings threatened, destroyed by fires set to triple by 2060
Researchers found a high fire risk for socioeconomically vulnerable neighborhoods in the American West.
LA residents may be allowed to paint their own crosswalks
Councilwoman Katy Yaroslavsky put out a motion instructing the Los Angeles Department of Public Transportation to study the feasibility of allowing volunteers to paint crosswalks.
Dallas moves to overhaul its zoning code
The city's zoning reform will allow more multi-family and mixed-use developments.
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