Community Engagement
Smart Design = Smart Policy? Not So Fast
After a few decades watching—and sometimes helping—great ideas die of overexposure to reality, I'm convinced it's not enough to just listen to folks you're hoping to help. You have to make something happen. A well-conceived charrette helps.
Tip of the Iceberg: Seeking Real Accessibility in Community Engagement
Do modern accessibility regulations go far enough to ensure fair access to all community members for public engagement activities? How can we design our planning processes to reach the broadest demographic?
9 Ways to Ruin a Community Meeting
An article in CityLab says organizers and facilitators should avoid a few simple mistakes to help improve community meetings.
Study: Transit Agencies Should Respond to the Haters
Here's a counter-intuitive proposition for transit agencies: feed the Twitter trolls.
Using Twitter to Better Understand Public Sentiment
By using the data provided by millions of Twitter users, two researchers discovered surprising insights into public sentiment in shrinking cities.
East Portland Mobilizing Against Gentrification
East Portland is home to 25 percent of the city's residents—many of which are low-income or immigrants. The East Portland Action Plan aims to protect the community as a wave of gentrification approaches.
A New Guide to Participatory Planning
A new guidebook by the Montréal Urban Ecology Centre can help improve a critical part of the job for all planners.
Calling on Teens to Participate in Comprehensive Plans
A group of teens were recently participated in the comprehensive planning process for the city of Rockville, Maryland.
High-Tech Lego Model Provides Interactive Transit Planning Test Bed
The process of building tactile models of neighborhoods as tools for planning outreach just got an upgrade with a high-tech, interactive Lego model built for the Boston area.
A Planning Primer: Validating the Lived Experiences of Immigrants
A few key considerations, implemented during a public engagement process, can ensure active and engaged participation from commonly marginalized groups and individuals.
How Growth and Neighborhood Protection Coexist in Pasadena
Pasadena recently elected its first new mayor in 16 years, and the city is completing a 20-year General Plan Update that aims to continue animating downtown Pasadena by addressing growth and mobility simultaneously.
Innovating the Planning Process Through Community-Centered Design
Sean O'Malley and Andrew Watkins, of the landscape architecture, planning, and urban design firm SWA, describe the benefits of a design process that empowers people and communities to participate.
Lessons for a Career's Worth of Community Engagement
Community engagement on planning subjects is fraught with the potential for boredom and political conflict. The former mayor of Chattanooga recounts lessons gained while combating those possibilities over a 40-year career.
Urban Big Data: Where is the Signal in the Noise?
Amid growing skepticism, an international gathering examines the useful benefits for an age of critical urban challenges.
Grant Funding Rewards Innovation in Community Engagement
The Citi Foundation and Living Cities announced $3 million in grant funding to help cities adopt innovative practices in community engagement. Albuquerque, Atlanta, Baltimore, New Orleans, and Seattle will have 18 months to empower citizens.
Building Capacity in Underserved Urban Areas
Seeing projects through—whether affordable housing, public space, or infrastructure—for low-income populations in cities like Los Angeles requires grit and coalition-building.
Residents Dig Into North Carolina Triangle Light Rail Planning
Ahead of a February 2016 deadline for an environmental impact statement, residents are making their opinions known about the potential routes for a proposed light rail line connecting Durham and Chapel Hill.
Inside Flint's Innovative Blight Elimination Plan
A blight elimination plan for Flint, Michigan has take shape over the past year, revealing innovative, community-based strategies for improving vacant properties and stabilizing the city's population.
Nextdoor—the 'Facebook for Neighborhoods—Catching on with Investors and Users
As social media platforms evolve into specific niches, the Nextdoor platform is quickly expanding its online version of neighborhood-level interaction.
Dallas Residents Gather for a 'Festival of Ideas'
A huge crowd braved un-Texas-like weather this weekend in Dallas to participate in the "Festival of Ideas." The Dallas Morning News hopes the citizens of Big D will keep up their momentum in working to improve their city.
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
Hunter College, City University of New York (CUNY)
The Architects Foundation
University of Cincinnati Online
City of Cambridge
Montrose County
The Pocatello Development Authority
