San Diego

Howard Blackson's "Next Urbanism Lab" series looks at recent trends and lessons learned for urban designers. While the Bilbao Effect, the Vancouver Model, the High Line, and Active Living may provide seductive role models, local insight is key.

November 30, 2012 - PlaceShakers

Howard Blackson walks through the planning layers of San Diego for a history lesson as well as a look to the Next Urbanism.

November 11, 2012 - PlaceShakers

Last Friday was annual PARK(ing) Day, and for Howard Blackson, who participated in a pilot park(let) project in San Diego, the reasons to enable context appropriate civic space was underscored again.

September 25, 2012 - PlaceShakers

As we increasingly relearn the lessons of city-building, just getting the ground floor right is no longer good enough.

September 21, 2012 - PlaceShakers and NewsMakers

Facing a staggering backlog of necessary street improvements after years of neglect, San Diego's potholes have emerged as a defining topic in this year's mayoral campaign, reports Tony Perry.

June 5, 2012 - Los Angeles Times

As libraries and and post offices are replaced by private development while streets and sidewalks lack funding, what can be done to enliven the public realm?

May 27, 2012 - PlaceShakers

Steven Erie, a professor of political science and the Director of the Urban Studies Program at UC San Diego, discusses how the San Diego County Water Authority's finger-pointing obfuscates the region's discourse on what is really driving water rates.

May 4, 2012 - The Planning Report

A bribery scandal recently uncovered by The New York Times is undoing years of hard work the retailer has engaged in to "polish its reputation and give elected officials, community groups and shoppers a reason to say yes to their stores."

May 1, 2012 - The New York Times

Allegations of conspiracy and bullying haunt access to water in the arid, Mediterranean climate of San Diego, Adam Nagourney and Felicity Barringer report.

April 25, 2012 - The New York Times

As Seattle considers ways to improve its waterfront, local architect and urban planner Mark Hinshaw evaluates a conflict brewing 1,250 miles to the south, for a lesson on what not to do with valuable downtown waterfront real estate.

February 15, 2012 - Crosscut

Felicity Barringer reports on the growing practice of recycling treated wastewater as drinking water in southwestern cities attempting to address diminishing water supplies.

February 12, 2012 - The New York Times

Cities and redevelopment agencies are pushing for legislation that give them a stay of execution. Meanwhile, cities are evaluating which projects will be impacted.

January 9, 2012 - California Planning & Development Report

The Cleveland National Forest Foundation is suing SANDAG over a $200 billion transportation plan that purportedly only promotes sprawl through freeway extensions.

December 4, 2011 - KPBS

The San Diego Planning Commission has rubber stamped a massive Zaha Hadid-designed private home. The dramatic architecture has had locals forming "anti-Zaha coalitions."

November 8, 2011 - The Architect's Newspaper

The new $98 billion price tag and 2033 completion date in the revised HSR Authority's business plan applies to the first phase, meaning that the extensions to San Diego and Sacramento will take even longer, leaving some San Diegan leaders seething.

November 7, 2011 - AP via The Sacramento Bee

Created in 2003, a pact between rural Imperial Valley to provide water to San Diego has become mired in litigation due to its potential effects on the Salton Sea. But just nixing the deal isn't so easy, as Tony Perry reports.

October 30, 2011 - Los Angeles Times

Cities across California are proposing new stadium projects in hopes of luring football teams and economic growth as a result of their new megadevelopments.

August 30, 2011 - The Architect's Newspaper

As the San Diego Planning Department folds into another department to save city money, locals and former officials grapple with whether it was the right move and how the city could change as a result.

July 13, 2011 - The Architect's Newspaper

Last month, the planning department of the City of San Diego was folded into the Development Services Department. Locals worry the shift in perspective will endanger plans being developed in a dozen different neighborhoods.

May 13, 2011 - OB Rag

As reporter Robert J. Hawkins notes, "It's like 2008 all over again." Back then, skyrocketing gas prices sent people fleeing to use public transit. Today, the pattern remains the same, at least in San Diego.

April 11, 2011 - San Diego Union-Tribune