Density

As wealthy communities learn to use historic districts to inflate property values, socially conscious urbanists must think twice about the purpose and place of preservation, Will Doig reports.

April 18, 2012 - Salon

New research suggests that the electrification of automobiles can undermine planning efforts to create denser development patterns and may work against policies that encourage non-motorized forms of mobility, such as biking and walking.

April 9, 2012 - European Planning Studies

Census data reveals that California is the most urbanized state, with the most dense urban areas. But in California, sprawl, density, crowding, and urbanism are not always what they seem. Fortunately, a new law may help planners make sense of it all.

April 3, 2012 - California Planning & Development Report

A conference held in London last Tuesday, called "Planet Under Pressure," provided a forum to begin to answer the question, reports Roxanne Palmer.

April 2, 2012 - International Business Times

March 30, 2012 - Jonathan Nettler

Inspired by three books published in the last year that help to elucidate the role of cities and density in making people and countries richer, Ezra Klein compiles some lessons for economic development in the United States.

March 13, 2012 - The Washington Post

In For A New Liberty, libertarian intellectual Murray Rothbard writes that leftist intellectuals had raised a variety of complaints against capitalism, and that "each of those complaints has been contradictory to one or more of their predecessors.”  In the 1930s, leftists argued that capitalism was prone to ‘eternal stagnation”, while in the 1960s, they argued that capitalist economies had “grown too much” causing “excessive affluence” and exhaustion of the world’s resources.  And so on.

March 7, 2012 - Michael Lewyn

Mark Hinshaw calls an end to the use of the term "suburb" to describe the communities ringing Seattle, and the inferior connotations attached to it. It's a term that he thinks has outlived its usefulness.

March 6, 2012 - Crosscut

I had heard of “dense sprawl” and “density without walkability” in the past, but before spending a week in Jerusalem last month, I had never really lived through these problems. My parents (who I was staying with) rented a unit in a high-rise condo complex called Holyland Tower.  Although Holyland Tower was the tallest building in the area, there were numerous mid-rise buildings, and lots of two-and three-story apartment and condo buildings.  While walking through the idea, I saw nothing resembling a single-family home.  In sum, this area was a pretty dense neighborhood in a pretty dense city (Jerusalem’s overall density is roughly comparable to that of the city of San Francisco).

January 1, 2012 - Michael Lewyn

David Baker Architects latest public housing project in Oakland, California shows that high-density living can be attractive and feature a variety of housing types, writes Allison Arieff.

October 31, 2011 - The Atlantic Cities

In Vancouver, B.C., a newly approved plan to increase density along the Cambie corridor is sending housing prices skyrocketing and causing concern among residents about the character of their neighborhood.

October 28, 2011 - CBC News

Elizabeth Farrelly suggests that happiness is only a possible side benefit to the true goal of cities, which is "...getting stuff done and, more importantly, generating the ideas that get stuff done."

October 24, 2011 - The Sydney Morning Herald

In this article and accompanying video, architecture critic Michael Kimmelman and Planning Commissioner Amanda Burden tour the Melrose section of the South Bronx. Along the way, affordability and density are apparent hallmarks of the undertaking.

October 5, 2011 - The New York Times

In a recent post, Todd Litman criticized the Texas Transportation Institute's Urban Mobility Report.  In this post, I'd like to do something a little different: assume that TTI's congestion estimates are more or less reliable, and try to learn something from them.  So here are a few observations:

October 4, 2011 - Michael Lewyn

A new land use study based on the 2008 "comp plans" data reveals a significant shift toward mixed-use and transit-oriented developments (TODs) in the Twin Cities seven-county metro area.

September 8, 2011 - Finance And Commerce

Economist Ryan Avent writes that the statistics show that people who live in denser cities have better jobs and are more productive.

September 5, 2011 - The New York Times

Are skyscrapers the way to achieve great density, or a form of retro-urbanism that should be retired? With a debate simmering in the planning world over the energy efficiency and urban necessity of tall towers, Planetizen's staff decided to determine the answer once and for all.

September 1, 2011 - Tim Halbur

Scientific American presents evidence that "high density living" is hardwired in humankind, and as populations grow, density increases.

August 18, 2011 - Scientific American

Alex Steffen presents the idea that by focusing development into "hyperdense" communities you create a host of benefits that reduce climate change by reducing trips.

August 9, 2011 - TED

Jenny Sullivan of Builder Magazine spots a trend for slightly increased densities in suburban towns, creating urban-lite communities that are attracting city dwellers who would never have dreamed of living in the burbs.

August 3, 2011 - Builder Magazine