New York

Pedestrian Accessibility the Key to Buffalo's New Green Code

An op-ed column for The Buffalo News explains the thinking behind Buffalo's new Green Code—especially its benefits for walking, bicycling, and public transit.

February 24, 2015 - The Buffalo News

Pushing Back on Mayor de Blasio's Ferry Service Idea

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio's recently announced an ambitious proposal to expand and extend ferry service around the five boroughs. Although the proposal has inspired support, one blogger offers a strongly dissenting stake.

February 23, 2015 - Second Ave. Sagas

Planning for Housing on Complicated Queens Rail Yard Continues

The 200-acre operational rail yard is the largest of six affordable housing sites that Mayor Bill de Blasio targeted for development. He hopes to build more than 11,000 units of affordable housing there, but Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo is not on board.

February 23, 2015 - The New York Times - N.Y. / Region

Levittown Long Island

Long Island Searching for Direction

Although it hosts some of the nation’s first and most successful auto suburbs, Long Island has experienced a downturn. This infographic-focused piece delves into the reasons why.

February 22, 2015 - CityLab

The Red Cedar: a Resilient and Adaptive Urban Pioneer

Dave Taft pens an ode to the merits of the red cedar—a common tree in New York City and dry, empty lots all over the East.

February 21, 2015 - New York Times

Accepting a Deadly Daily Commute

Responding to the New York train crash that killed six this month, Sam Tanenhaus reflects on how commuting got so dangerous and why we don't demand better.

February 21, 2015 - The New Yorker

Judge Evicts Rent-Stabilized Tenant for Listing on Airbnb

A judge's ruling in New York has evicted a rent-stabilized tenant in Hell's Kitchen. Renters might want to reconsider the terms of their lease before listing their apartments for rent—especially if they live in a rent stabilized apartment.

February 20, 2015 - New York Post

Shot by Shot, Brooklyn Histories Revealed

To build ties to its neighbors, a young arts organization embarked on a sprawling multimedia project exploring the past and present of Williamsburg's Latino community.

February 20, 2015 - Satellite Magazine

The Best and the Worst Airports to Access

If you want great access to an airport, go overseas—that's the main finding of a study by Golden Gateway Alliance, a Manhattan-based airport advocacy organization. Tied for dead-last in terms of access is Denver and a certain New York airport.

February 17, 2015 - New York Post

New York City Construction

Affordable Housing: the Hype and the Hope

Sam Hall Kaplan elucidates the inadequacies of affordable housing policy before introducing a new perspective to the conversation—a new book by Roger Katan with Ronald Shiffman called "Building Together."

February 17, 2015 - Sam Hall Kaplan

Unaffordable, Growing Cities Lag on New Housing Permits

Stephen Smith follows up on an earlier report of New York City housing permits with a report on the entire metropolitan area. Included for comparison are the numbers of housing permit filings for metropolitan areas around the country.

February 15, 2015 - New York YIMBY

A Valentine's Day Message from Diversity Plaza in New York City

We at Planetizen hope that there's lots of love in your day today.

February 14, 2015 - StreetsBlog NYC

Will Upzoning Destroy the Beaux Arts Legacy of Midtown Manhattan?

A development proposal for a 1,450 glass skyscraper adjacent to Grand Central Station prompted the Architectural Record to wonder whether New York is chipping away the "Beaux Arts heart" of Manhattan.

February 13, 2015 - Architectural Record

Op-Ed: New York's Affordable Housing More Corrupt than Helpful

A columnist takes the recent scandal involving disgraced former New York State Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver as a particularly heinous example of how far astray affordable housing policy is from its intended goal.

February 12, 2015 - Real Clear Policy

A bus next to the re-located light rail station at Denver's Union Station

Trains Are Always Better than Buses, Right?

Josh Barro provide examples galore of why the answer to that question isn't always yes—where costly rail investment has been to the detriment of existing transit. His column targets proposed projects, such as New York's LaGuardia Airport AirTrain.

February 11, 2015 - New York Times - The Upshot

Report: Balance Needed for New York's Manhattan-Centric Transit System

The Regional Plan Association released a report this week finding New York's transit system to be irrationally skewed toward Manhattan service. The report proposes a list of capital projects to correct the imbalance.

February 11, 2015 - Regional Plan Association

Renters Predominate in Low-Cost and High-Cost Cities

A report by New York University’s Furman Center found that renters made up the majority of households in nine of the 11 largest cities in the U.S. in 2013, up from five in 2006. The demand is straining the supply of rental housing.

February 10, 2015 - The Wall Street Journal

Proposal would Lower New York's Gas Prices by Cutting the Gas Tax

Call it $2 gas price envy. Though New York gas prices have dropped $1.20 from a year ago, they are also 25-cents above the national average. State Sen. Jim Seward hopes to spark a statewide movement to reduce prices by reducing state gas taxes.

February 9, 2015 - All Otsego.com

How New York's Luxury Housing Market Stashes Anonymous Foreign Wealth

The New York Times ran a massive feature documenting the rise of foreign real estate investment in New York City, enabled by the anonymity of limited liability corporations.

February 9, 2015 - The New York Times

Measuring Brainwaves to Map the Stress Level of Bike Routes

Anyone who uses a bike to navigate their city knows that every ride has stretches that are much more stressful than others. A new project collects data from brainwaves to map the stress levels of bikers in New York City.

February 8, 2015 - Wired

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.