A columnist attributes the success of President-elect Trump's anti-Muslim rhetoric with a rise in potentially illegal land use decisions around the state of Virginia.
Petula Dvorak writes a column for The Washington Post calling out the bigotry inherent to recent regulatory and legal frameworks of the planning profession.
"Sewage lines, traffic patterns and zoning ordinances. Meet the instruments of bigotry in America today," writes Dvorak.
Dvorak cites three recent examples of racism on display in recent planning and land use controversies in the state of Virginia—"cases where development regulations and mundane municipal laws have been used to smokescreen surging Islamophobia."
According to Dvorak, the episodes of racist opposition to Muslims are new to these communities, places like Spotsylvania County, Culpeper, and Nokesville.
Read the full story: A smokescreen for bigotry: Disguising anti-Muslim bias with land-use objections
Not Just Use: More Zoning Regulations to Unlock Housing Equity
Prohibiting single-family zoning alone won’t accomplish the needed transformation of the built environment in the United States.
After Waiting Two Days, Justice Department Appeals Transit Mask Ruling
Mystery surrounds the decision by the Biden administration to not ask for an immediate stay of an unanticipated district court ruling to vacate the CDC's masks-on-transit rule. Two days later they appealed as coronavirus cases increase nationwide.
Update: Coronavirus Vaccination Litigation against Biden Administration
The U.S. Justice Department filed its appeal on Nov. 23 before the 6th Circuit Court to reinstate the large private employer vaccination status requirement that the 5th Circuit had stayed after Republican governors and state attorneys general sued.
Planetizen Federal Action Tracker
A weekly monitor of how Trump’s orders and actions are impacting planners and planning in America.
Data reveals that NYC’s bet on congestion pricing has paid off
After almost two years of the program, reports show positive impacts on traffic and air quality and no disruptions to parking.
HUD modernizes 50-year-old manufactured housing framework
The Next Generation Manufactured Housing Action Plan establishes new energy-efficiency standards for manufactured homes, and new guidelines for anchoring them.
California voters weigh $11.25 billion housing bond
Prop. 1, combined with other funding, would support over 40,000 new rental units in California.
Connecticut is turning landfills into green infrastructure
Twenty-nine solar arrays have been built, or approved to be built, on top of Connecticut landfills.
Trump guts ‘win-win’ solar energy program for rural farmers
The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s changes have made virtually all solar power ineligible for funding through the Rural Energy for America Program.
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.
One Hundred Miles
County of Mendocino
planning NEXT
The Architects Foundation
University of Cincinnati Online
Montrose County
Northern Illinois Transit Authority (NITA)
The Pocatello Development Authority