Smart Growth
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Gentrification—more wealthy people moving into lower-income communities—often faces opposition, sometimes for the wrong reasons. It is important to consider all benefits and costs when formulating urban development policies.
Urban densities tend to encourage more liberal, tolerant values. Living among diverse neighbors can reduce fear and resentment, as everyday interactions break down stereotypes and misconceptions of ‘the other.’
Places Journal
The new Transit-Walkability Collaborative works to create safe, healthy, equitable, and sustainable communities by harnessing the synergy between walkability and quality public transit service.
Transit-Walkability Collaborative
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A new study uses night sky satellite images to measure urban development patterns in India. The results can help guide smarter growth.
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Has the smart growth movement succeeded? It depends how you measure "success."
Changes in state law that rolls back regulations on septic systems could spark more residential sprawl in Maryland's rural areas.
MyEasternShoreMD
A major study by the Harvard University Graduate School of Design, "Revitalizing Places: Improving Housing and Neighborhoods from Block to Metropolis," identifies planning strategies to improve housing and urban development practices.
Rethinking Social Housing in Mexico Project
Joe Mathews of Zócalo Public Square views with a great deal of skepticism the urban growth boundaries the voters of Ventura County adjacent to Los Angeles County have enacted since 1995 due to the lack of infill. Another measure is on the ballot.
San Francisco Chronicle
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Contrary to recent claims, the evidence really does indicate that compact, multi-modal neighborhoods tend to be most affordable overall, considering both housing and transportation costs.
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Smart Growth can provide many direct benefits to residents, businesses and local governments. Our challenge is to better answer the question that many stakeholders ask, "What’s in it for me?"
There's a new volley in the long-running battle between cities and suburbs. In his new book "The Human City," urban scholar Joel Kotkin contends that cities and their planners have lost sight of the residents who matter most: families.
California Planning & Development Report
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The new International Housing Affordability Survey contains various errors and biases. The author even claims that compact housing reduces fertility. Really? Smart policies can create affordable and family-friendly housing.
A Boston Globe columnist comes down strongly in favor of a mixed-use project in a Boston suburb, and laments the obstacles facing smart growth in this and other, similar, communities.
The Boston Globe
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Smart Growth critic Wendell Cox recently endorsed White House Economic Advisor Jason Furman's criticisms of zoning codes that limit infill development, essentially endorsing Smart Growth policy reforms.
Blog post
Smart policies can provide significant greenhouse gas emission reductions in ways that help achieve other planning objectives, including economic development, social equity, and public health. Who will implement these policies? We will!
Bloggers, pundits, authors, and researchers, have made the case for conservatives to embrace the effects of smart growth. Yet still, a distinctly partisan divide flavors the debate about how to make room for a growing number of Americans.
The Urban Edge
Of all the sub-topics in urban planning and design, the ones likely to generate the most anxiety are those where land use planning intersects with economic development. Ben Brown ruminates.
PlaceShakers
Critics often assume that newer buildings are inferior to old. The same was said when the old buildings were new.
City Commentary
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's 13th annual Smart Growth Achievement Awards recognize communities that lead the way in compact, walkable growth.
Better Cities & Towns
As companies like Uber, Lyft, and Bridj expand to small scale transit options, they are setting the stage for a new kind of small scale transit oriented development where the new station is the sidewalk.
Mobility Lab
