California
NYC Transportation Head Offers Advice to LA
This video from Streetfilms shows excerpts from a recent speech in Los Angeles by New York City Transportation Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan, who had some advice for the traffic-plagued California city.
Transfers, Bus Lanes, and More: What LA Metro Isn't Doing to Attract Riders
Columnist David Lazarus looks at how L.A. Metro could increase transit usage, in the wake of reports showing how expensive it is to drive instead.
Adventure Tourism as Preservation
California City is a city in the desert that never came to be. But much of its skeleton remains. A recent tour explored the ghost of this unbuilt city.
Judaism and Food Deserts
Jewish groups in Los Angeles are taking on the lack of healthy groceries in certain parts of the city, the so-called "food deserts" of LA.
Regional Taxes For Transportation?
The NYT looks at a provision in a state assembly bill to restore transit funding to beleaguered CA transit agencies by allowing voters in regions to approve gas fees. Not only was the provision dropped by the Senate - the governor vetoed the bill.
Broken Inner-City Freeway Reborn as Garden
Activists have turned the site of a former inner-city freeway in San Francisco into a community garden.
Residential Growth Cap Overruling Could Reshape California
A recent court ruling preventing a California town from placing a cap on residential development could change the shape of the state, according to the San Francisco Chronicle's John King.
Introducing the "Parklet"
The streetscape of San Francisco is changing, one tiny piece at a time. Planners are slowly taking over pieces of the streets and turning them into tiny "parklets" for pedestrians.
Disney-Adjacent Development, For Sale By Owner
Built during the height of the boom, GardenWalk in Anaheim was a can't-fail mixed-use shopping center with condos. The retail opened just as the recession hit, and this week the developer has put the condo construction rights up for sale.
Town's Plan to Cap Residential Growth Violates State Law
A judge has overruled a voter-approved plan in the California city of Pleasanton to cap the number of new residences allowed in the city in an effort to curb the area's growing congestion.
Seeking Solutions to California's Drought
This piece from National Geographic takes a look at the three-year drought that's plaguing California's cities and farms.
L.A. Transit: Up a Hill and Out to the Sea
The historic Angel's Flight funicular reopened yesterday, as Mayor Villaraigosa announces his vision to transform Los Angeles' transit system in 10 years.
Density Uber Alles
Is density a goal unto itself? John Parman argues that a 38-story building proposed for San Francisco has little to do with walkable urbanism, and continues "a sorry tradition of case-by-case rezoning."
Redevelopment Agencies Circle the Wagons, Fight for Funding
Redevelopment agencies, lead by the CRA, are planning their strategy for how to keep their local redevelopment funding from the state. CP&DR blogs and tweets from the California Redevelopment Association conference.
Land Conservation Not Responsible For High Cost of Housing
High housing prices cannot be blamed on land conservation efforts, at least not in Silicon Valley, is the word from researchers at Stanford University.
Coastal Areas Prepare For The Other 'Big One'
California has just completed a landmark effort to assess the state's worst-case tsunami danger. Now emergency response officials, and even some planners, are considering how to keep the state's coastal populations safe.
A Green Mega Mansion?
Approved plans for a 10,000 square foot mansion in Berkeley, California have been classified "green" by the city's environmental rating system. Neighbors and environmentalists, however, say the house is hardly an environmental model.
Trying to Let the Sun Shine on San Francisco's Public Agencies
The City of San Francisco has for years had a "Sunshine" ordinance, requiring that public agencies make their documents and proceedings available to the public. But recent reviews show that sunshine has been hard to find in the city of fog.
Are California's Green Laws Killing Jobs?
California republicans are arguing that the state's environmental laws are hurting the economy. This editorial from the Los Angeles Times questions the wisdom of that argument and wonders what negative impacts would come from lifting CEQA.
Plan to Daylight Creek in Downtown Berkeley Hits Roadblock
Berkeley's popular plan to turn a section of Center Street into a pedestrian walkway with a stream and wetlands has been slowed by the fight over downtown development.
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.
City of Rosemead
Rutgers University, Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy
One Hundred Miles
University of Michigan School for Environment and Sustainability (SEAS)
Hunter College, City University of New York (CUNY)
The Architects Foundation
City of Cambridge
Montrose County
The Pocatello Development Authority
