mental health
This Is Your Brain on E-Scooters
A survey from scooter operator Spin indicates that e-scooter users experience a boost in relaxation and positive feelings after a ride.
How Affordable Housers Perpetuate Past Harms, and How They Can Do Better
Some elements of affordable housing—from the development process to the way buildings are managed—are rooted in racist assumptions that dehumanize residents. Here are some simple ways you can be a better housing provider.
Improving Housing Through Trauma-Informed Design
A growing awareness of the link between the built environment and mental health has led some designers to examine the ways we can make housing feel more safe and welcoming for vulnerable populations.
Research Shows Urban Trees Stave off Depression
A new study shows that regular exposure to trees and green spaces has a powerful impact on depression and mental health.
What About all the Helicopter Noise?
New York's busy airspace can be an inescapable nightmare for residents who experience noise pollution on a daily basis.
Staying Healthy During the Pandemic
Local parks and green spaces that enable safe social distancing have never been more important to people living in cities. The Trust for Public Land has released a new report showing their importance and the challenges they are facing.
Homelessness Fuels a Backlash in California
The Golden State's ongoing homelessness crisis has residents on edge and is testing the limits of empathy in a state known for its liberal values.
San Francisco to Use Conservatorship for Some Mentally Ill Homeless People
Thanks to legislation by Sen. Scott Wiener passed last year, San Francisco will apply a new tool to force treatment on some homeless, mentally ill people who refuse it, but it's limited to five people annually. A new Wiener bill would expand it.
Where Care Meets Confinement
For doctors trying to provide mental health care to people who are incarcerated or detained by the New York City Department of Corrections, city jails pose a challenge — and provide an opportunity.
Can Density Prevent Diabetes?
In Australia, a new study will determine the best ways to make high-density developments healthy places to live.
London Releases Tunnels Map for Claustrophobic Tube Riders
Transport for London has responded to customer requests for a new accessibility measure: a map to help riders avoid long tunnels.
Study: Greenery Improves Quality and Length of Life
Living near vegetation appears to be linked to a longer life and better mental health—for women, at least.
West Side Chicago Votes to Tax Itself to Fund Mental Health Services
After the city's government cut funding to mental health services, closing many of the city's clinics, residents of Chicago's West Side voted overwhelmingly to tax their properties to reverse that trend.
L.A. Homelessness Plan Hitting Speed Bumps
City councilmembers express concern about progress of homelessness plan after receiving a first update report.
Urban Sanity: Understanding Urban Mental Health Impacts and How to Create Saner, Happier Cities
Some experts claim that city living causes mental illness and unhappiness, but a new study indicates that urban environments provide many mental health benefits. Better planning can help make sane and happy cities.
Public Transit May Boost Mental Health
A new study based on an analysis of the residents of Turin, Italy, a city of over 900,000, reveals that walkable access to public transit and urban services benefits mental health, particularly for women and seniors.
Urban Green Spaces Will Make You Happier than Winning the Lottery
A new study published in the journal Environmental Science and Technology finds that moving to a more-green area can have a long-lasting positive effect on mental health, unlike the short-term jolt from pay rises, promotions or winning the lottery.
Urban Revival Increases Need for Places for Mental Renewal
Kaid Benfield argues that amid our focus on placemaking, density, transit, and walkability we need to find room to talk about how to create sanctuaries, or peaceful places, 'where one can get away and be quiet and still'.
Public Gardens Provide Refuge for California's Alienated Communities
Patricia Leigh Brown looks at the community gardens funded by the California Mental Health Services Act of 2004, which help to heal disadvantaged refugee communities less inclined to use formal mental health treatments.
Are Cities Driving Us Crazy?
Scientists are studying whether the stresses of living in urban environments increases the risks of developing mental health disorders. Global urbanization is making the question an urgent one, writes Alison Abbott.
Resource Assistance for Rural Environments (RARE) AmeriCorps Program
Cornell University
Alamo Area Metropolitan Planning Organization
HUD's Office of Policy Development and Research
HUD's Office of Policy Development and Research
Mpact: Mobility, Community, Possibility
City of Spearfish
City of Lomita
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.
