Books

NYC-crosswalk

Why Pedestrian Deaths Are Rising

Jarrett Walker offers insights into "Right of Way," a book written last year by Angie Schmitt that is influencing the traffic safety conversation and pushing the fields of planning and engineering in new directions.

June 21, 2021 - Human Transit

Centennial Olympic Park

New Book Examines Public Housing as a Locus of Political Power

A new book, "Diverging Space for Deviants," connects public housing with political power.

May 18, 2021 - WABE

Solar Powered City

The Potential of New Towns

Richard Peiser and Ann Forsyth discuss their latest book, New Towns for the Twenty-First Century: A Guide to Planned Communities Worldwide, with the Penn Institute for Urban Research.

February 21, 2021 - Penn IUR Urban Link

Green Belt

New Book, 'Land,' Searches for Solid Ground

Simon Winchester's new book, Land, brings global scope to the concepts of land use.

January 19, 2021 - Josh Stephens

Book in the Park

The Top Urban Planning Books of 2020

The public health crisis of the coronavirus pandemic upended all the normal day-today routines this year. At least there are plenty of great urban planning books to read.

November 30, 2020 - Josh Stephens

Gila National Forest

A New Tool for More Flexible and Resilient Water Policies

A new book created by the Sonoran Institute explains how exploratory scenario planning can be useful to prepare for the uncertainty of water in the near- and long-term future.

November 10, 2020 - Sonoran Institute

Westside Los Angeles

Searching for the 'Urban Mystique'

An excerpt from a new book by Josh Stephens, "The Urban Mystique: Notes on California, Los Angeles, and Beyond," published by Solimar Books.

October 29, 2020 - Josh Stephens

Downtown Los Angeles

'The Affordable City' Offers Solutions for the U.S. Housing Affordability Crisis

An excerpt from the new book by Shane Phillips, "The Affordable City," published by Island Press.

October 21, 2020 - Shane Phillips

Black LIves Matter

Valuing Black Lives and Black Cities

Andre M. Perry’s "Know Your Price: Valuing Black Lives and Property in America’s Black Cities" reveals the web of historical and contemporary socioeconomic barriers that maintain the racial wealth divide.

October 21, 2020 - Shelterforce Magazine

Crosswalk

An Excellent New Book: Right of Way

In Right of Way, Angie Schmitt explains why U.S. pedestrian fatalities have increased in recent years.

October 5, 2020 - Michael Lewyn

Kids Crossing the Street

Debunking Traffic Safety Myths as Pedestrian Fatalities Increase

Angie Schmitt, former editor at Streetsblog USA, has written a new book about pedestrian fatalities, which works to dispel some of the myths about traffic safety in the United States.

September 9, 2020 - Curbed

Car Traffic

How the Pandemic Has Magnified the Pre-Existing Housing Crisis

Declining rents won't be a silver lining in the post-pandemic housing crisis.

September 8, 2020 - Citymetric

Griffith Park

Book Review: Discovering Griffith Park

There is finally a guidebook for one of the country's largest city parks. Learn more about it in this L.A. Times review.

August 18, 2020 - Los Angeles Times

Residential Density

Missing Middle Housing: Thinking Big and Building Small to Respond to Today’s Housing Crisis

Dan Parolek, inventor of the term Missing Middle Housing, has written a new book on the subject, available now from Island Press. The following excerpts offer insight into overcoming planning and regulatory barriers to deliver the desired housing.

August 18, 2020 - Dan Parolek

Public Comment

Review: Neighborhood Defenders

A new book explains why people object to new housing in their neighborhoods, and whether these "neighborhood defenders" are representative of the public as a whole.

August 3, 2020 - Michael Lewyn

Cities for People

Jan Gehl on 60 Years of Designing Cities for People

The 10th anniversary of "Cities for People" offers the occasion for this interview with Jan Gehl, who has devoted a 60-year career to ideas about humanistic city planning—ideas of increasing relevance in 2020.

July 15, 2020 - Jan Gehl

Murder, Redlining, and the Fight for Jamaica Plain

In “Redlined: A Novel of Boston” by Richard W. Wise, an organizer's murder in 1970s Jamaica Plain exposes an epic battle over the future of American cities.

July 12, 2020 - Shelterforce Magazine

Carlos Correa

Houston: The Prophetic City

The Houston story gets a new telling in a recently published book by Stephen Klineberg.

June 24, 2020 - Texas Monthly

Paris Street

Is it Time to Revive the Pattern Language?

Software and other fields have made brilliant progress with the pattern language methodology, while built environment fields lag badly, mired in parochial debates over the massive book that invented the methodology.

April 21, 2020 - Michael Mehaffy

Montgomery County

How We Got Here

In "A History of Street Networks," Lawrence Aurbach discusses the intellectual movements driving the growth of suburban-style street design.

March 16, 2020 - Michael Lewyn

News from HUD User

HUD's Office of Policy Development and Research

Call for Speakers

Mpact Transit + Community

New Updates on PD&R Edge

HUD's Office of Policy Development and Research

Top Books

An annual review of books related to planning.

Top Websites

The best of the Internet—since 2002.

Top Apps

Planning apps for a brave new world.

Top Schools

The definitive ranking of graduate planning programs.

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.