Livability

The Unkickable Can: Toward a 'Livability Synthesis'

Ben Brown points out the potential political upside to the aging population.

September 28, 2015 - PlaceShakers

Imagining Livability Design Tools

The "Imagining Livability Design Collection" by the AARP Livable Communities and the Walkable and Livable Communities Institute provides a visual portfolio of placemaking solutions that can be implemented quickly, for not too much money.

July 20, 2015 - AARP

Plaza Midwood Charlotte

Three Reasons to Use Livability as a Vehicle for Sustainability

Meghan Gough, assistant professor at the Virginia Commonwealth University, guest blogs about her work on balancing livability and sustainability.

May 27, 2015 - JPER

SimCity BuildIt

3 Good Reasons SimCity Should Adopt a Form-Based Code

And an update from Codes Study about the 600 places that really are upping their game with form-based codes.

January 27, 2015 - PlaceShakers

Ranking the Best and Worst Cities to Live and Work with Special Needs

WalletHub recently released the "2014 Best & Worst Cities for People with Disabilities" to highlight the economic power of providing employment opportunities and livable communities for people with special needs.

October 7, 2014 - WalletHub

27 Ideas for Keeping the Twin Cities Prosperous

A study prepared for the McKnight Foundation’s Food for Thought series has searched far and wide for lessons for keeping Minneapolis-St. Paul a prosperous and livable place.

November 23, 2013 - MinnPost

The Inputs Change, But Our Desire to Rank Places Never Wanes

Add a list of the "Top 100 Best Places to Live" to the seemingly endless series of rankings seeking to quantify what's best and worst about our cities and states. Though the inputs have changed over the last 80 years, our desire to rank hasn't.

October 17, 2013 - The Atlantic Cities

What is the Key to Improving New York City's Livability?

The candidates competing to emerge from today's mayoral primary confront a host of challenges that threaten the quality of life in the Big Apple. Five experts identify the issues they believe are key to improving the city's livability.

September 10, 2013 - The New York Times

Melbourne Retains World's Highest Quality of Life

The Economist's Intelligence Unit has once again ranked Melbourne as the top city in its annual Global Liveability Ranking. Damascus has dropped to the bottom of the list due to Syria's ongoing civil war.

September 1, 2013 - The Economist

Planning a People-Centered Renaissance for La Defense

Since it was begun in the late 1950's, Paris's La Defense business district 'has always worked better in architectural theory than in anthropological practice,' says Georgi Kantchev. A new plan seeks to humanize the spaces between its tall towers.

August 1, 2013 - The New York Times

Competition Aims to Shrink Miami's Public Space Deficit

Seeking to help improve the city's livability and boost its attraction to talented workers, the Miami Foundation has launched an open competition to identify, and ultimately build, neighborhood public spaces.

July 29, 2013 - Miami Herald

What Can Northern Europe Teach Us About Building Livable Communities?

In narrative and in images, Luis Rodriguez discusses the findings of a recent study tour to Germany and Scandinavia to discover the secrets to creating more livable communities.

March 19, 2013 - Sustainable Cities Collective

6 Easy Ways to Make a City More Livable

Baltimore has a lot of bold ideas for changing the face of the city. While we wait for them to happen, why not implement some simple solutions for making the city more livable, proposes Mark R. Brown, AICP.

February 2, 2013 - Car Free Baltimore

Who Gets Left Behind in the Pursuit of 'Livability'?

Richey Piiparinen explores the "original sin" of the quest for urban “livability” - economic development - and examines what the pitfalls are when cities are designed for high-valued consumers rather than people.

January 3, 2013 - New Geography

Chinese Cities are Huge, But What's it Like to Live There?

We get it, China's cities are big and getting bigger. But what's it like to live there? Isaac Stone Fish takes a closer look at the quality of life in Chinese cities, and finds them almost uniformly monolithic and unlivable.

August 15, 2012 - Foreign Policy

Who's Building Livability? And Where?

Several collaborative Google Maps cover Traditional Neighborhood Developments (TNDs) across the US and Canada as well as form-based codes globally. Are yours listed?

July 28, 2012 - PlaceShakers

A Wish List for Enlivening Downtown Phoenix

Edward Jensen responds to a recent attention grabbing op-ed in The Arizona Republic with his own list of priorities to help enliven the core of the sixth-largest city in the country.

July 14, 2012 - Technology for a Digital Generation

Reading Livability in Tehran

Tehran is known for being congested and polluted, but Elyana Javaheri credits mayor Mohammad-Bagher Ghalibaf for making the Iranian capital more livable.

July 4, 2012 - This Big City

Towers in the Park, 2012 Style

Julie V. Iovine laments that while walkability is the watchword of the day, architects have to design what they're hired to design -- and that often means designing iconic buildings that turn a blind eye to pedestrians.

June 24, 2012 - The Architect's Newspaper

Reno: The Biggest Little 'Livable' City in the World

Concerned about becoming a "western Detroit," the city of Reno, built around the gambling industry, seeks to shake off that trademark with new investments in other industries and amenities.

June 21, 2012 - The Atlantic Cities

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HUD's Office of Policy Development and Research

Call for Speakers

Mpact Transit + Community

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HUD's Office of Policy Development and Research

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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.