California

Inland Empire

Is the Era of the 'Free' Freeway Coming to an End?

No one's suggesting that freeways will be converted to tollways, but a pattern is emerging that when freeways are widened, express lanes, financed in part by user fees, are being added rather than mixed-flow lanes. Case in point: the Inland Empire.

August 18, 2017 - Inland Valley Daily Bulletin

L.A. County Pilot Project Will Pay Homeowners to Add Granny Flats

A new pilot project doesn't have the funding to upend the housing market in one of the most expensive markets in the country, but it does set a precedent of support for new housing models.

August 18, 2017 - Curbed Los Angeles

Another Tool to Build Public Infrastructure in Post-Redevelopment California

UC San Francisco is using a Campus Facilities Improvement Association (CFIA) to help build its Mission Bay campus. Infrastructure financing wonk Jim Chappell explains how it works.

August 17, 2017 - UrbDeZine

Los Angeles

Cooling L.A.

Changing the color of L.A. streets and growing out the urban canopy are part of a campaign to fight the heat island in and around Los Angeles.

August 17, 2017 - Gizmodo

Screening

Testing New 'High Tech Security Screening' for Transit Users

Union Station in Los Angeles is featuring the latest in surveillance technology, meant to deter terrorists. The concern might also be that such technology is yet another impediment in the transit user experience.

August 16, 2017 - ABC7

Mixed-use waterfront

Is Brownfield Development Health Risk Tolerance Out of Whack?

Is the bar for health risks in brownfield development set too high? Environmental attorney Richard Opper thinks so and argues the case in this opinion piece.

August 16, 2017 - UrbDeZine

Muni

San Francisco's Muni Has a New $21 Billion, 20-Year Capital Plan

Some surprises and lots of blue-sky thinking are revealed in the new capital plan for the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency.

August 15, 2017 - San Francisco Examiner

Silicon Valley

Coastal Cities Setting the Sustainable Development Standard

Although no U.S. region has yet to even get halfway to sustainability goals set by the Paris Climate Agreement, certain U.S. cities are doing better than the rest.

August 14, 2017 - CityLab

Los Angeles

Five Big Ideas About the Future of Transportation and Land Use in Los Angeles

Los Angeles Magazine provided Los Angeles Director of City Planning Vince Bertoni an opportunity to speak in his own words on the ways planners are preparing for the future.

August 14, 2017 - Los Angeles Magazine

Jerry Brown

California's Housing Bills Fall Short

Three bills at the top of the Democratic leadership's housing agenda will have little impact on the state's chronic housing shortage according to multiple analyses, and wouldn't affect the outcome of a Bay Area mega-development controversy.

August 14, 2017 - Los Angeles Times

Market Street

$604 Million Makeover Coming to San Francisco's Market Street

The changes in store for the main corridor through San Francisco's central business district connect to a larger story about accessibility for people with disabilities.

August 12, 2017 - Next City

Affordable Housing

'CarsonWatch': New Housing Justice Coalition Fights Trump Agenda

National organizations are mobilizing around housing as a human right.

August 11, 2017 - Right to the City

Goods Movement

100-Year-Old Law Explains Why There Are So Many Trucks on the Highway

A powerful lobby is more in interested in protecting its monopoly than lessening congestion and pollution.

August 11, 2017 - Quartz

Ford GoBike

The New 'Mission Moratorium': Bikeshare

Neighborhood groups in the Mission District of San Francisco, already a hotbed of gentrification and displacement controversies, are opposing the expansion of the city's bikeshare system into a large, transit-adjacent area of the city.

August 10, 2017 - San Francisco Examiner

Santa Monica

Santa Monica Mayor: High Inclusionary Housing is Worth the Risk

Mayor Ted Winterer and Mayor Pro Tem Gleam Davis elaborate on the city’s new Downtown Community Plan, which includes what may be the state's highest inclusionary housing requirement.

August 10, 2017 - The Planning Report

Marijuana

Cannabis Company Buys Tiny California Town

Purchased for $5 million, Nipton, California is slated to become "the country’s first energy-independent, cannabis-friendly hospitality destination."

August 10, 2017 - Quartz

California

New Community Plan Poises Downtown L.A. for Transformation

In addition to a contemporary vision for Downtown, the plan debuts a new approach to zoning that could help transform the entire city.

August 10, 2017 - The Planning Report

Rail Redundancy Shouldn't Be Self-Destructive

Los Angeles Metro's new Gold Line light rail extension is attracting riders from the regional Metrolink commuter rail line that serves San Bernardino. The editorial board of the Daily Bulletin suggests that's not necessarily a problem.

August 8, 2017 - Inland Valley Daily Bulletin

Homeless Bans

California Cities Continue to Criminalize Homelessness with RV Bans

Coastal cities are taking a no-tolerance approach to RVs on their streets, even as they otherwise strive to mitigate and prevent homelessness.

August 7, 2017 - Pacific Standard

New Bridge in Fresno Makes Way for High Speed Rail

Though the news about the California High Speed Rail projects seems to oscillate between good and bad every month, there's at least one tangible sign of progress for the project: a new bridge in Fresno built to make room for the powerful trains.

August 6, 2017 - Fresno Bee

FREE Course: Walkable City 1: Why Walkability?

After describing his path towards focusing on walkability as the essence of good planning, Jeff Speck marches through his five principal reasons for making more walkable places.

Reinventing Malls: Planning Alchemy—Turning Gray Fields Into Gold

The course focuses on the opportunities and imperatives that shape reinvention of mall sites.

Top Books

An annual review of books related to planning.

Top Schools

The definitive ranking of graduate planning programs.

100 Most Influential Urbanists

The who's who of urbanism, according to Planetizen readers.

Urban Planning Creators You Should Know

A short list of voices on social, video, and podcasting platforms.