Next City
Opinion: The Time for ‘Yard Reform’ is Now
Replacing lawns with native plants and grasses saves water and improves biodiversity, but some cities make the practice illegal.
France’s ‘Universal Cycling’ Program Teaches Schoolchildren How to Bike
The program aims to reach 800,000 French children by 2027.
Philadelphia ‘Lights Out Pledge’ Seeks To Prevent Bird Deaths
Migratory birds are often lured away from their normal paths by the bright lights of cities, with deadly results.
How Houston’s Highways Impact Neighborhoods
A chapter in a new book highlights how highway construction forced changes and caused displacement in communities that included public housing developments.
‘Request Stops’ Make Bus Travel Safer and More Convenient, but Most Riders and Drivers are Unaware of Them
Many U.S. transit agencies have policies allowing riders to request dropoffs between stops, but fail to publicize them to passengers and operators.
Making Transit More Family-Friendly
Public transit can often be inconvenient or unsafe for people with children in strollers and riders traveling for purposes other than commuting. Agencies are working on ways to fix that.
Creating a Meaningful Community Input Process in Baltimore
Seeking to avoid the mistakes of the past, the city undertook a robust community engagement process when planning the reconstruction of the Baltimore & Potomac Tunnel.
Study: Electric Stoves Improve Air Quality
Air pollutants in housing units that received electric stoves as part of a pilot program dropped sharply, signaling that switching to electric appliances has public health benefits as well as environmental ones.
How Green Schoolyards Benefit Kids, Cities, and the Climate
Transforming asphalt schoolyards into green spaces with porous surfaces can improve the well-being of students and neighbors and contribute to more effective stormwater management in urban areas.
Wealth Building Program Promotes Native Homeownership in South Dakota
The program connects tribal communities with resources to help households in some of the nation’s most underresourced reservations access homeownership.
Hometown Bike Share Company to Launch in Youngstown
A Black-led, family-owned company is bringing e-bikes to the Ohio town.
How Philadelphia Prevented Mass Evictions
By requiring landlords to enter mediation before filing eviction cases, the city’s eviction diversion program has successfully kept thousands of people at risk for displacement in their homes.
Black Wealth Builders Fund Supports Black Homeownership
A Bay Area loan fund provides Black homebuyers with zero-interest loans to meet their down payments. But is it ‘reparations?’
Gentrification in Houston’s Rapidly Changing East End
Two approaches to redevelopment reveal the nuances of gentrification and neighborhood change.
How Mutual Aid Increases Community Resiliency
Recent devastating weather events highlight the importance of community connection in keeping people safe when infrastructure fails.
Between a Rock and a Hard Place: Housing and Fire Safety in California
A proposed development near the site of the devastating Camp Fire highlights the growing tension between building badly needed housing and protecting communities from heightened wildfire risk.
Texas Road Safety Messaging Blames Pedestrians, Ignores Structural Flaws
Critics of the state’s ‘Be Safe. Drive Smart.’ campaign say the messaging puts the onus on pedestrians and cyclists while failing to address the lack of robust pedestrian and bike infrastructure in many of its cities.
Advice for a Post-Parking Mandate World
After abolishing parking requirements, what can cities do to make the most of new space and revenue and avoid backlash?
Where Car-Free Streets Won Out
While some open streets experiments have met with backlash from community members, others were so successful they led to permanent changes.
‘Dignity Village’ Threatened by Anti-Camping Law
Portland’s ‘aggressive’ new camping ban could threaten the city’s most stable community of unhoused people, the two-decade old, self-governing Dignity Village.
City of Costa Mesa
Licking County
Barrett Planning Group LLC
HUD's Office of Policy Development and Research
Mpact Transit + Community
HUD's Office of Policy Development and Research
City of Universal City TX
ULI Northwest Arkansas
Town of Zionsville
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.
