California

7 Ideas for Boosting Community Resilience

Resilient communities build on local strengths to anticipate change, reduce the impact of major events, and come back from a blow stronger than ever. Here are seven ideas from cities and towns working to boost local resilience.

January 15, 2015 - CommunityMatters

Los Angeles Lacks Plan to Address Affordable Housing

The Los Angeles media has recently turned their attention to housing, in a city ranked by some measures as the least affordable market in the country.

January 13, 2015 - KPCC

Palo Alto Electeds Oppose Dedicated Lanes for El Camino BRT

As the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority (VTA) considers the environmental analysis for a proposed bus rapid transit lane in Palo Alto, local officials are opposing the version of the plan that would remove parking for a dedicated bus lane.

January 12, 2015 - Palo Alto Online

Low Gas Prices

Three States Hope to Take Advantage of Low Gas Prices to Boost Gas Taxes

A movement at the state and federal levels would take advantage of low oil prices to boost gas taxes to pay for infrastructure. Michigan, Iowa, and Utah proposals, and a change to the federal Corker-Murphy plan, are described below.

January 12, 2015 - The Wall Street Journal

How To: Design a User-Friendly Museum Exhibition about Planning

John King writes that the "Gallery + Ideas Forum" at the Presidio in San Francisco provides an excellent model for presenting issues and ideas of planning and urban design to the public.

January 10, 2015 - San Francisco Chronicle

SF Cable Cars

Milken Institute Ranks 2014's 'Best Performing Cities'

The Milken's Institute report ranked San Francisco-San Mateo-Redwood City at the top of the performance index for the first time in the list's 15-year history.

January 9, 2015 - CityLab

The Potential Downside of Railroad Electrification—for Motorists

Electrification of the Caltrain will be great for train riders, the environment, air quality, and public health, but it might worsen traffic congestion between San Jose and San Francisco by increasing the frequency of commuter trains.

January 9, 2015 - San Jose Mercury News

Friday Funny: Critics Skewer High-Rise-with-a-Mouth in San Francisco

Kriston Capps shares the creative work of a couple of arm-chair architecture critics who took to Photoshop to express their opinions about the Snøhetta-designed tower proposed for One Van Ness in San Francisco.

January 9, 2015 - CityLab

Gov. Brown Sets Ambitious Agenda for Environment, Infrastructure Goals in Fourth Term

The California governor began an unprecedented fourth term by laying out goals to reduce carbon emissions and oil consumption, address road and bridge maintenance, build high speed rail, and construct two huge water tunnels under the Sacramento Delta

January 8, 2015 - San Francisco Chronicle

The Spinlister App: 'Airbnb for Bikes'

A new app is part bikeshare and part Airbnb.

January 8, 2015 - San Francisco Chronicle

California's High Housing Costs Drives Out-Migration

Same story, different year, though more data provided on which groups are leaving the Golden State: predominantly workers earning less than $50,000 a year. Conversely, those migrating to California from other states had higher incomes and education.

January 7, 2015 - Los Angeles Times

Report: San Francisco's City Parks Worth $959 Million

The Trust for Public Land’s Center for City Park Excellence released a report placing the value of San Francisco's park system at $959 million.

January 7, 2015 - City Parks Blog

Gas and Bikes

California's 'Hidden Gas Tax' Arrives, Goes Unnoticed

The oil industry was predicting motorist outrage and an increase in gas prices of around 70-cents due to the carbon charge effective in the state on January 1. Some prices increased 10-cents, but went largely unnoticed.

January 6, 2015 - San Diego Union-Tribune

California High Speed Rail Breaks Ground Today in Fresno

The long-beleaguered California High Speed Rail project will have a historic moment today, January 6. The media's coverage of the event indicates the yet-to-be-determined future of the project.

January 6, 2015 - Los Angeles Times

Bill Fulton Charts a Path for San Diego's Urban Evolution

William Fulton pens a column for the U-T San Diego assessing the city of San Diego's transition from suburban to urban after 18 months on the job as planning director.

January 6, 2015 - U-T San Diego

Streetsblog Presents 'Streetsie Awards' for the Best and Worst of Transportation

Tanya Snyder writes of the results of the 2014 "Streetsies Awards," based on the votes of Streetsblog readers.

January 5, 2015 - Streetsblog USA

Sunshine State Overtakes Empire State as Third Most Populous State

William H. Frey, Brookings Institution demographer, writes on the latest Census Bureau demographic data. California and Texas remain number one and two respectively. New York had 19.7 million residents on July 1, 2014, Florida 19.9 million people.

January 4, 2015 - Brookings

A Case Study of San Francisco's Evolution—at 10th and Mission

San Francisco Chronicle Architecture Critic John King dives into the economic and planning dynamics behind the remarkable transformation of 10th and Mission in San Francisco.

January 3, 2015 - The San Francisco Chronicle

How the Los Angeles Neighborhood Land Trust Gets the Job Done

In a city of increasingly scarce land, the Los Angeles Neighborhood land Trust has a track record of ushering community gardens and other public health resources in low-income communities.

January 2, 2015 - Seedstock

Surveying California's Recent Environmental Accomplishments

Jon Christensen and Mark Gold survey the environmental accomplishments of the Los Angeles region as well as the state of California over the course of the past year.

December 31, 2014 - LA Observed

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.

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.