Learn today, plan for tomorrow.
Sign up for news and offers from Planetizen Courses, the online learning platform for planners.
American Cities
Blog post
Some cities have become significantly more violent since the George Floyd protests began—but not all. Why have some cities been more successful than others?
Blog post
Those of us who cherish cities have much to be grateful for (at least in some cities).
Urbanist Jane Jacobs' support for mixed use development has long been seen as the best urban design strategy, but this vision assumed that the retail space under housing could be rented. What if that is no longer the case?
Shelterforce/Rooflines
Blog post
Has the smart growth movement succeeded? It depends how you measure "success."
How much do we have to fear from the president-elect's policy plans for urban America? We can hope that he will follow his party's playbook and largely ignore the cities, but potential changes to housing policy are more serious.
Shelterforce/Rooflines
Cities have appeared to figure very little into the presidential election up to now. To get a sense of whether this impression is accurate, I spent some time looking at the two party platforms, and the two candidate's websites.
Shelterforce/Rooflines
Blog post
Planners across the globe have been exploring opportunities to use augmented reality to enhance the way the public engages with the city. Over the last few days Pokémon Go took off, and now people are wandering across cities to catch Pokémon.
The in-migration of Millennials is largely driving the changes that American cities are going through. More specifically, it is the ones with college degrees who are driving the change. Where are they moving, and what is their effect?
Shelterforce/Rooflines
Exploding global population numbers and worries about escalating energy prices, climate change, and energy independence have placed a priority on net-zero building. This article explores the viability of net-zero communities and cities.
Blue & Green Tomorrow
A simple demonstration of one of the benefits of density.
Architect This City
Blog post
Recent stories claiming that millenials either (a) prefer cities to suburbs or (b) prefer suburbs to cities both have some basis in reality.
Blog post
Governing's recent study of gentrification systematically exaggerates gentrification in a variety of ways.
"Who's Moving to the Cities, Who Isn't" suggest that the number of Americans selling the "Golden Age" cities narrative is greater than the number of Americans buying into it.
Center for Community Progress
Blog post
Discussing some of the most pro-urban movies ever made.
An intrepid Reddit user has produced a striking visualization for the economic importance of the country’s urban areas by splitting the nation’s GDP into two—the top 50 percent and the lower 50 percent.
The Washington Post - The Fix
A new report by Brookings confirms that “big cities remain more unequal places by income than the rest of the country.” Where is the gap between wealth and poverty the greatest?
Brookings
Chuck Wolfe comments on this week's mayoral election in Seattle, suggesting the pending populist model for New York City is already on display.
myurbanist
Famed Danish architect Jan Gehl shared his thoughts this week about people-friendly cities, and why we have no option but to build them.
Future Cities
While many stories have been written about Detroit's turnaround, it took the top spot on Forbes list of most dangerous cities. Detroit had 1,111 violent crimes reported per 100,000 residents, which included 345 murders, writes John Giuffo.
Forbes
Frank Gruber asks, "why, not how." Many of the explanations for decline are clear; why it was allowed to happen, less so. Gruber highlights "suspects" of what might have led to cities' destruction.
The Huffington Post
