NIMBYs
The Editorial Board of the New York Times offers perhaps the highest profile support to date for overthrowing the status quo of slow growth and development opposition.
The New York Times
A new satirical essay for McSweeney's provides a template for NIMBY opposition to planning and development, and does not pull any punches in the process.
McSweeney's
Upzoning without addressing speculation and finance could exacerbate the housing crisis for the nation’s most vulnerable communities, a professor of urban planning warns.
The Planning Report
"This particular solution, which has been very controversial in the Legislature, is not very controversial when it comes to the general public."
Los Angeles Times
Can a bike lane threaten the historic character of a parkway? One group of local advocates in Denver thinks so.
CBS Denver
People who can't vote can still have a say in the processes by which their neighborhoods are planned and developed. An example from New York City illustrates the point.
Next City
Recent studies have called into question the predominant narratives on gentrification. A more precise definition of the term as it works in the United States is required.
Slate
The Audubon Chapter of Minneapolis, Minnesota Citizens for the Protection of Migratory Birds, and Smart Growth Minneapolis sued Minneapolis on environmental grounds after the city approved its landmark Minneapolis 2040 Comprehensive Plan.
Star Tribune
This probably sounds familiar in more places than one: just a few stakeholders accounts for a clearly disproportionate number of the appeals made to the Planning Department in the Los Angeles neighborhood of Westwood.
Daily Bruin
The future of light rail in Phoenix is in voters' hands.
Arizona Central
Voters in Lakewood, Colorado, have a chance to enact anti-development policies that would place new limits on the number of new housing units that could be built in the city, while also placing new controls on the approvals process.
The Denver Post
Rent control is gaining popularity in cities and states around the country. Some economists urge caution when considering this form of tenant protection.
Brookings
Anti-light rail activists gathered enough signatures to qualify a controversial measure on the August ballot.
Arizona Republic
The Central SoMa Plan took more than seven years of planning and debate to approve. A new lawsuit, expected to be just the first of many, threatens to erase all that work.
San Francisco Chronicle
Three votes and several long-range transit plans should have sufficiently insulated transit plans in Phoenix from obstructionist tactics, according to the opinion piece.
The Arizona Republic
Angry public outcry wasn't enough to stop the Roanoke City Council from unanimously approving an ambitious transit station reconfiguration in downtown Roanoke.
The Roanoke Times
Neighborhood groups blocked the construction and completion of a Target-anchored retail complex and a 22-story residential high rise for years. Developers and the city have finally moved forward.
Urbanize.LA
Blog post
Government-subsidized housing is a useful complement to market-rate housing, but an affordability strategy that relies solely on low-income housing may be impractical.
A coalition of opposition groups claims that density is bad for the environment, and that the Minneapolis 2040 comprehensive plan should be stopped.
Star Tribune
One of the most controversial community planning documents in Los Angeles history was approved by the city in 2012 and thrown out by a judge in 2013. The new draft environmental impact report for the plan is now publicly available.
Urbanize LA
