California
Rents Rise As Housing Market Cools
While all eyes are on the potential housing bubble bursting, apartment rents are rising, over ten times more rapidly than home prices are falling in the Bay Area.
Dripping Through the Cracks?
A senior biologist writes about using CEQA to asess marginal or unprotected wetlands and waters.
Investing In The Inner City
Golden Boy Partners aims to produce affordable housing for working class neighborhoods in L.A.
Developer Makes NIMBYs Shareholders
The developer of a new condominium tower in Los Angeles gave local homeowner groups an equity interest in a future residential project in exchange for project approval.
Plans For An Urban State Park Unveiled In L.A.
Plans have been unveiled for a new state park near downtown Los Angeles, and though the plot is slated at 32 acres, many of the big-name architects presenting plans were not afraid to push the boundaries by a couple thousand percent.
Regulatory Takings Or Eminent Domain?
Property rights initiatives in four western states are hoping to draw in support from voters afraid of the spectre of eminent domain. But many see this as an inaccurate ploy.
Open Space, Growth, And Parks On Six Bay Area County Ballots
A ballot measure restricting growth on ranchland and hillsides in Santa Clara County is the most polarizing of the six county and two city measures that affect open space, parks, developments and urban growth boundaries.
California State Law Does Little to Limit Free Employee Parking
California's law to discourage car commuting is rarely followed; many companies breaking the law have never fined.
Hearings Begin About New S.F. Subway To Chinatown
The $1.4 billion, 5.1 mile Central Subway connecting the Caltrain Depot at Third and King Streets to Chinatown, is projected to be completed by 2016. Most of the funding has been secured and community meetings will start Oct. 17.
Maglev Is A Hard Sale In California
A California developer is pushing proposals for high-speed magnetic levitation trains. He's hoping private enterprise will help make the costly venture more attractive to state and regional governments.
Property Wrongs: Lessons from Oregon
Report by Seattle-based Sightline Institute documents a growing backlash against "property rights" initiatives in Oregon communities deeply affected by Oregon's Measure 37 and implications for western states.
USC Joins LA's Downtown Rennaisance
Urban universities including the Univ. of Southern California are working to transform their tough neighborhoods.
California's Prop. 90 and Its Impact On Redevelopment
Prop. 90 looks like a simple anti-Kelo bill...until you get to the part about regulatory takings. Officials in Los Angeles are waiting with baited breath to see if the proposition passes.
Streetcar Museum Comes To San Francisco
A new transportation museum celebrating the streetcar has opened in San Francisco, fittingly opposite the ferry building where they once took commuters from the East and North Bay ferries down Market Street.
A Million Trees For The 'Dirtiest Big City'
The City of Los Angeles has launched a program to plant one million trees over the next several years in an effort to naturally clean the city's air. Due to its smog, L.A. was recently reported as being one of the dirtiest cities in America.
Re-Defining Diversity
City planners in Santa Ana, California, a predominantly Mexican enclave, want diversity among types of businesses downtown to attract upscale shoppers, but Mexican business owners claim it's another form of gentrification.
'Liar's Loans' Could Trigger Wave Of Home Foreclosures
Experts believe increasing reports of suspicious loan activity and mortgage fraud could have serious consequences for Southern California's already slowing housing market.
Take The Bus To Bloomingdales
The new Westfield San Francisco Centre, billed as the largest urban shopping center west of the Mississippi, opened on September 28 -- without parking.
Riverside Considers Sweeping Capital Improvements Plan
The city plans to fund and complete approximately 20-30 years' worth of projects in as little as 5 years.
Second Homes In Tahoe Basin Force Out Local Workforce
As more wealthy Bay Area residents purchase second homes to vacation in the Tahoe basin, long-time residents and workers find themselves priced-out, moving to less expensive, rural Nevada and commuting long distances, or out of the area entirely.
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
The Pocatello Development Authority
The Urban Renewal Agency of the City of Pocatello
