Books

Mountain Lion

Wild LA: An Excellent and Beautifully Illustrated Resource for L.A.’s Biodiversity

Los Angeled has plenty of urban wildlife, but people don’t usually associate the city with the term biodiversity. L.A. County park planner Clement Lau offers a book review on the a book on that subject, "Wild LA."

June 17, 2019 - UrbDeZine

Ford Twin Cities Assembly Plant

Want to Know More About Zoning? Consider These Reading Suggestions

For those of us who could stand to learn more about zoning, Nolan Gray gives us a list of suggested reading material for the beginner on up.

May 6, 2019 - Market Urbanism

A Sci-Fi Novel About an Urban Planners and a War Over Gentrification

The Municipalists, a new novel by Seth Fried, will definitely appeal to fiction-reading urban planners.

April 19, 2019 - CityLab

Gentrification

Review: 'The Handbook of Gentrification Studies'

A book by Loretta Lees and Martin Phillips, published in 2018, is reviewed and recommended to "graduates studying anthropology of cities, urbanism, geography, and new urban identities."

March 28, 2019 - Electronic Green Journal

Sprawl

Order Without Design: Pro-Housing, Pro-Infrastructure

In Order Without Design, Alain Bertaud takes a middle position between consistent supporters of suburbia and sprawl critics.

March 27, 2019 - Michael Lewyn

Protesting racism

Planning and the 'Real Estate State'

A new book by Samuel Stein links planning to the causes of a global finance industry that values worldwide real estate at $217 trillion, or 60 percent of the world's assets.

March 7, 2019 - Next City

Chicago, Illinois

Lincoln Park and the Complicated History of Gentrification in Chicago

The following excerpt, written by Daniel Kay Hertz in the introduction to The Battle of Lincoln Park, challenges assumptions about the forces of gentrification in Chicago, with lessons for communities around the country.

January 22, 2019 - Daniel Kay Hertz

Little Free Library

Top 10 Urban Planning Books - 2018

Planetizen's annual list of top books covers subjects in all varieties of planning: urban planning, community planning, environmental planning, and more.

November 26, 2018 - Josh Stephens

Central Park

The Uses Of Urban Theory

Eminent urban scholar Richard Sennett populates Building and Dwelling with rich discussions of history, philosophy, and theory—as well as strolls through contemporary cities.

June 19, 2018 - Los Angeles Review of Books

4 abandoned homes in St. Louis's Greater Ville neighborhood

Book Review: The Divided City, by Alan Mallach

Jason Segedy's review of a must-read for all planners interested in the subject of "Legacy Cities."

June 17, 2018 - Notes from the Underground

Kid on Train

Kids' Books About Mobility (Not Just Cars)

Introducing the Streetsblog Guide to Children's Books.

June 6, 2018 - Streetsblog USA

Library Books

Two Popular Business Books for Planners

Mining the business world for lessons about the planning profession.

May 6, 2018 - Chris Steins

California

A Planner Goes To City Hall

Longtime planner and journalist Bill Fulton took on a side-project in the 2000s: a seat on the city council and then mayorship of the city of Ventura, California. Fulton's new book Talk City offers a real-time account of local politics.

May 2, 2018 - California Planning & Development Report

Last Days of Cabrini Green

Cabrini-Green's Life And Death

A new book tells the story of Chicago's Cabrini-Green and reflects on what the lives of the people in this public housing project have to say about the lives of all Americans.

February 10, 2018 - South Side Weekly

Oakland and San Francisco

Planners Cannot Ignore Legacy Of Government-Sanctioned Segregation

Even in liberal states like California, government-sanctioned residential segregation persisted in the 20th century. In a recent talk in L.A., Richard Rothstein, author of The Color of Law, charged planners with undoing this shameful legacy.

January 24, 2018 - California Planning & Development Report

Philadelphia

Mayor: The Best Job in Politics

An exclusive excerpt from former Philadelphia Mayor Michael A. Nutter's new book "Mayor: The Best Job in Politics." Nutter is now Senior SP2 Fellow at the Penn Institute for Urban Research.

December 15, 2017 - Penn IUR

City Hall

A Playbook for Achieving Meaningful Development Regulation Reform

Most cities know they need new development regulations, but it's much, much easier said than done.

October 18, 2017 - At Lincoln House

Gentrification

Who's To Blame For Gentrification?

Journalist Peter Markowitz has written a provocative, and profoundly disingenuous, analysis of the causes and effects of gentrification in American cities. He sows division at a time that requires collaboration, writes Josh Stephens.

May 31, 2017 - California Planning & Development Report

Design Library: African-American Perspectives on Architecture

Focusing on the often-overlooked contributions of people of color to the built environment, Dr. Craig Wilkins from the University of Michigan shares his list of recommended reading.

May 22, 2017 - Doggerel

Reading

City Books For Non-Planning Nerds

As the library of books on urbanism expands by the year, here are some fun, engaging titles for city nerds and non-nerds alike.

April 24, 2017 - Josh Stephens

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.

Senior Planner

City of Thousand Oaks

Community Development Director

City of Wisconsin Rapids

Professor of Urban Planning

Harvard University Graduate School of Design

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.