Public Realm

Illinois

Another City Opens Street Space for Restaurants—This Time in Suburban Chicago

Tampa, Brookhaven, Vilnius, Hinsdale. These cities will be the answer to a COVID-themed trivia night some time soon.

May 8, 2020 - Chicago Tribune

Coronavirus Open Streets

Tampa Closes Streets to Open Outdoor Space to Restaurants

A pilot project in Tampa is closing select streets to cars to allow more space for dine-in restaurant service.

May 6, 2020 - That's So Tampa

Spanish Steps

How Coronavirus Has Transformed Italy's Urban Spaces

Italy has been hit hard by the pandemic, and slowing the spread of the virus has meant dramatic changes in urban life.

April 3, 2020 - The Conversation

San Francisco, California

Car-Free Market Street Benefits Micromobility, Transit Without Ruining Car Commutes, Studies Say

Multiple studies have quantified the early results from a project in San Francisco that blocked most private automobile traffic from Market Street in the city's downtown.

March 8, 2020 - Populus on Medium

Electric Scooters

Parking Study: Scooter Scofflaws Far Outnumbered by Car Scofflaws

The worst offenders of parking violations on the streets today aren't scooters—they're food delivery and ride-hailing drivers.

March 5, 2020 - Cornell Chronicle

Baseball

Legalizing Street Play

A Baltimore city councilmember thinks the city has misplace priority on parking by making it illegal to play in the street.

February 12, 2020 - WYPR

Buffalo Bayou Park

Planning Without Zoning: The Houston Story

Houston is famous in planning circles for lacking a zoning code, but that doesn't mean planners don't have plenty of tools to determine the future of the city.

February 4, 2020 - Planning Magazine

Linear Parks

The Atlanta Beltline—20 Years Later

The scope of the Atlanta Beltline's effect on the city has astounded most observers, including the person who came up with the idea first.

December 26, 2019 - Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Thailand

Is the End of Bangkok Street Food Vending Near?

Street food vendors are an integral part of the Bangkok urban landscape, but city planners want to see them gone.

December 19, 2019 - The New York Times

Supreme Court

Supreme Court Refuses Landmark Homelessness Case

A closely watched court case related to how cities deal with homeless people sleeping in public, Martin v. Boise, will not get hearing with the U.S. Supreme Court.

December 16, 2019 - Los Angeles Times

Homeless Seattle

Supreme Court Could Decide on Homeless Public Sleeping

The Supreme Court will be considering for the first time whether the Constitution gives homeless people a right to sleep on the sidewalk.

December 9, 2019 - Idaho Statesman

Sleeping in Public

Las Vegas Approves Homeless Camping Ban

The city of Las Vegas has approved a law that prohibits the homeless from camping in large swaths of the city. The measure provoked the opposition on most of the public in attendance at a City Council hearing this week.

November 7, 2019 - Las Vegas Sun

Food Carts

Unleashing the Food Vendors in New York

Newly proposed legislation in the New York State Senate would bar cities from setting limits on the number of food vendors operating in the public realm.

November 5, 2019 - New York Post

Electric Scooters

Self-Scooting Scooter Startup Wants to Solve Clutter Problem

Autonomous micromobility could solve some of dockless bike and scooter share companies' largest remaining challenges, like the local availability of scooters and conformity to local and federal regulations.

October 16, 2019 - Smart Cities Dive

Woman on Transit

The Case for Gender Mainstreaming in Transportation Planning

Like the curb cut effect achieved by the Americans With Disabilities Act, which benefitted a much larger cross-section of the population than the legislation originally intended, gender mainstreaming could multiply benefits in the public realm.

October 14, 2019 - MinnPost

Market Street San Francisco

$604 Million Market Street Redesign Nears the Finish Line in San Francisco

Private automobiles could be prohibited on San Francisco's primary downtown thoroughfare, and already-wide sidewalks could be extended and smoothed over. The Better Market Street project is ready for its close up.

October 9, 2019 - The San Francisco Chronicle

Chicago ADA Access

A Guide to Universal Design in the Public Realm

New universal design guidelines go a step beyond complete streets.

September 24, 2019 - Curbed

Car-Free Public Space

New Car-Free Public Space Remains a Challenge to Create

A new study from Drexel University's Lindy Institute for Urban Innovation surveys the obstacles and challenges making it more difficult to build car-free public spaces, like plazas and parklets, in Philadelphia.

September 23, 2019 - The Philadelphia Inquirer

Saenredamstraat, Parking Free Street

Watch What Happens When Parking Disappears From an Amsterdam Street

Eve Kessler shares news of a new film from Streetfilms that documents the efforts of a neighborhood in Amsterdam to activate a street liberated from parking.

September 17, 2019 - StreetsBlog NYC

Galveston, Texas

Improving Beach Access and Environmental Protection in Galveston

The city of Galveston has more to do to live up to its own standards in accessing and protecting the gulf coast.

September 12, 2019 - Associated Press via the Houston Chronicle

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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.