Emily Badger is extremely impressed—and for good reason—with the City of Los Angeles' new neighborhood data portal, built in connection with the development a new health and wellness chapter for the city's General Plan.
What type of information is important to understand a city's health and wellness? Off-sale liquor license rates? Rates of motor vehicle collisions with pedestrians? The prevalence of childhood obesity? How about all of the above and much much more.
A new web tool launched by the City of Los Angeles as part of its Plan for a Healthy Los Angeles, "maps a tremendous number of metrics about life in the region, at both the city and neighborhood scales" in an easy to digest graphic interface.
"Much of the data comes from the Health Atlas [PDF] the city released earlier this year, which made clear that life expectancies, for example, varied considerably across town. In an interactive mapping tool, however, that same information is now much more accessible, and can be viewed city-wide or by neighborhood," notes Badger.
Read the full story: The Neighborhood Data Portal Every City Needs
Champion of L.A.'s 'Neighborhood Integrity Initiative' Speaks
A longtime Los Angeles journalist has joined the cause of a sweeping anti-growth initiative that has city leaders on high alert.
Five Ways to Measure the Need for City Parks
While standardized metrics for determining the number of and place for city parks cannot replace more fine grain analysis, they can be useful tools. Park planner Clement Lau writes about five park-need metrics, including a couple of the newest.
Los Angeles' Mobility Plan 2035 Slapped with Lawsuit
The group, Fix The City, sued the city on September 9 on its visionary plan that emphasizes transit, biking, and walking, claiming the traffic lane reductions will create more air pollution, imperil public safety, and add to traffic congestion.
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.
Chicago breaks ground on $3 billion megadevelopment
The new neighborhood, titled Foundry Park, will one day host 3,700 residences.
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.
This road in NYC is infamously dangerous — and Mamdani can't fix it
New York City's Ocean Parkway is known for reckless driving, but the power to implement safety measures lies with the state rather than the city.
One of Denver’s busiest corridors to gain BRT
The project will span 18 miles and contain 74 bus rapid transit stations.
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