Game of Thrones provides way more sex, blood, and dragons than your typical comprehensive planning project, but the dynamics can be instructive, particularly in places where demand for the high-quality amenities of urbanism out-paces the supply.
"Frustrated with efforts to pull your little kingdom together for long term strategizing? It could be worse. You could be caught up in the public outreach drama in Westeros. The battles renew on Sunday night, when HBO debuts season seven of 'Game of Thrones.'"
"The addictive series provides way more sex, blood and dragons than your typical comp planning project in American communities — at least in my experience. Nevertheless, the narrative undergirding, built as it is on the ambitions and frustrations of alliance formation, is plenty familiar. Which might help us talk about why holding together coalitions to get ambitious stuff done in our own communities is both essential and elusive."
Ben Brown discusses what drives the action, with a few pointers for policy planners.
Read the full story: Comp Plan for Westeros? Same issues, more swordplay
It's the Complexity, Stupid! (Try 'Splainin' that in an Elevator)
The dangerous absurdity of building a national—or a community—to-do list around fear, resentment, and wishful thinking
Op-Ed: Why NYC Needs a Comprehensive Plan
The city’s congestion pricing program could change transportation and land use in radical ways. A comprehensive plan would make the most of those changes.
Controversial Comprehensive Plan Update Moves Forward in Charlottesville
Residents have had a chance to oppose the new residential density proposed by the "Charlottesville Plans Together" comprehensive planning process.
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.
Los Angeles just elected an urban planner as its mayor
Transportation analysts are optimistic that Raman will be more aggressive in addressing transit issues than Bass.
Mamdani’s pied-à-terre tax survives legal challenge
A panel of judges found that the plaintiffs failed to demonstrate injury as a result of New York City's implementation of the tax.
Eastern Nebraska is running out of electricity
Data centers and electrification are straining eastern Nebraska’s grid, throttling economic development.
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
Montrose County
The Pocatello Development Authority