Social / Demographics

Did Advocates Overreact to Bike Safety Report?

When I read the subtitle to the recent GHSA bike safety report, "Adult Males and Urban Environments Now Represent Bulk of Deaths," I took an interest as I fit that demographic. I was surprised to read here about the dispute that erupted from it.

November 10, 2014 - Governing

How to Recover from a Poorly Attended Public Meeting

From the periphery, planning and community engagement seems easy. You schedule a few public meetings. You confer with a few experts and put together a plan for the future of a community. Easy? Nope.

November 7, 2014 - Civicly

Working Adults More Likely to Live with Roommates

Recent data by Zillow suggests that we might all soon be living like the Golden Girls (original author's joke).

November 5, 2014 - The Billfold

Friday Eye Candy: New York Street Life in High Definition

A few minutes of the film "Street" by James Nares shows only a few seconds of life in New York City—but such poetry is found there.

October 31, 2014 - James Nares

Racial Inequalities Withholding $2.1 Trillion from U.S. GDP

A new study by PolicyLink and the University of Southern California's Program for Environmental and Regional Equity showed that U.S. GDP would expand by $2.1 trillion if racial minorities had equal access to opportunities within the job market.

October 30, 2014 - National Journal

An Interview with Kaid Benfield, Urban Resilience Guru

PlaceMakers asks Kaid to give us his idea of where we are in the effort to integrate smart growth strategies in the broadest sense into community planning and design.

October 29, 2014 - PlaceShakers

Homeless

Fighting Homelessness by Closing a Commuter Rail Station

The high desert city of Lancaster in northern Los Angeles County has an innovative plan to reduce its homeless population: Close its Metrolink station, the last stop on the Antelope Valley line, that serves 400 commuters daily.

October 28, 2014 - The California Report

Gentrification

The False Choice in the Gentrification Debate

The income of original residents is more important to the gentrification debate than any opposition to luxury development or price controls. We need to begin to embed income inequality within the gentrification debate.

October 28, 2014 - Reuben Duarte

 Decatur Marta station

Majority of Americans Favor Funding for Transit Over Funding for Roads

In a poll conducted by ABC News and the Washington Post, Americans were found to prefer allocating transportation funding towards transit expansion rather than road widening.

October 26, 2014 - Streetsblog USA

United States map

Mapping the Skill Sets Unique to Cities

The skills and location data of over 175 million LinkedIn members were mined to produce a map displaying the industries most common in major cities throughout the United States and Europe.

October 24, 2014 - LinkedIn Blog

Massive Detroit Foreclosures Push Out Black Homeowners

A Detroit reborn sounds great, but what if the residents of “blighted” areas don’t want to leave? Many feel they have no choice in a process that has been compared to racial relocation. Meanwhile, activists scramble to give residents options.

October 24, 2014 - The Atlantic

Rethinking the Spectrum of American Multi-Modality

A new study from Virginia Tech reclassifies what defines multi-modal commuters.

October 24, 2014 - CityLab

How Twitter Identifies Public Sentiment

Rebecca Tuhus-Dubrow asks the question of whether the data produced by Twitter could be used to understand and plan cities?

October 23, 2014 - Next City

Millennial Crowd

The 'Young and Restless' Choosing to Live in Cities

A report by new think tank City Observatory about where young college graduates are choosing to live inspired plenty of commentary this week.

October 22, 2014 - New York Times - The Upshot

How 'Just Green Enough' Adds the Equity to 'Green'

A Fast Co. Design article explains the "just green enough" concept as advanced by Jennifer Wolch, dean of the College of Environmental Design at the University of California, Berkeley.

October 21, 2014 - Fast Co. Design

Going Viral, but Not in a Good Way

Republicans and Democrats have connected failures to control spread of Ebola to the other guys’ actions. We’re requiring stressed-out bureaucracies to perform out-of-the-box with zero tolerance in arenas of mind-boggling complexity.

October 20, 2014 - PlaceShakers

Fed Chair Janet Yellen Discusses Continuing Wealth Inequality in the United States

In a recent address to the Conference on Economic Opportunity and Inequality, chairwoman of the Federal Reserve Janet Yellen portrayed the stark inequalities growing within American society.

October 19, 2014 - The New Yorker

Washington D.C. COnstruction

Is Urban Revitalization Possible Without Displacement and Gentrification?

Jared Green asks the billion dollar question for economic developers and planning agencies throughout the United States: is urban revitalization of neighborhoods possible without the subsequent gentrification and displacement of current residents?

October 18, 2014 - ASLA The Dirt

Young Crowd

Why Millennials Opt to Rent

Sandie Angulo Chen of Trulia discusses the reasons why Millennials prefer to rent homes or apartments instead of buying properties.

October 17, 2014 - Trulia

DC Nightlife

Why Millennials Drive Less: Many Possibilities, Few Answers

Millennials are less likely to get driver's licenses, they tend to take fewer, shorter car trips, and they use alternative modes of transportation more than their predecessors. The question for the ages is why.

October 15, 2014 - The Washington Post - Wonkblog

Urban Design for Planners 1: Software Tools

This six-course series explores essential urban design concepts using open source software and equips planners with the tools they need to participate fully in the urban design process.

Planning for Universal Design

Learn the tools for implementing Universal Design in planning regulations.

Top Books

An annual review of books related to planning.

Top Schools

The definitive ranking of graduate planning programs.

100 Most Influential Urbanists

The who's who of urbanism, according to Planetizen readers.

Urban Planning Creators You Should Know

A short list of voices on social, video, and podcasting platforms.