United States

Coronavirus Social Distancing

Residents of Nonprofit Housing Have Lower Rates of COVID

Affordable housing providers have touted the connections between health and the places where people live for years. In a small city outside of Boston, the evidence is incontrovertible.

December 2, 2020 - Shelterforce Magazine

Platte River

Building Rural Resilience

Rural areas have been attracting a lot attention for news sources traditionally devoted to urban news and information. A new report from the Brookings Institution is the latest example.

December 2, 2020 - Brookings

Scooter Citations

An Atlas of E-Scooter Policies

Introducing the Micromobility Policy Atlas.

December 2, 2020 - Shared-Use Mobility Center

Pedestrian Crosswalk

U.S. DOT Releases First-Ever Pedestrian Safety Plan

Record numbers of pedestrians have been killed by drivers in recent years. The federal government says a "team effort" will be necessary to stop the carnage.

December 2, 2020 - Smart Cities Dive

Stormwater

Cars Pollute in More Ways Than One

Tires wear down and shed toxic microplastics into stormwater, which eventually ends up in rivers and the ocean. Recent research sheds new light on the extent of the damage.

December 1, 2020 - Hakai Magazine

Coronavirus and Transportation

Thanksgiving Air Travel Breaks Pandemic Records

As expected, air travel in the United States reached heights not seen since before the pandemic, but still fell well short of the norm.

December 1, 2020 - The Dallas Morning News

Parking

Opinion: Proposed Parking Tax Reduction Would Do More Harm Than Good

Recent investigations into the conditions facing workers in private parking lots in Philadelphia has produced a series of legislation reforms, but one idea, to lower the city's parking tax, isn't going to fly with this opinion writer.

November 30, 2020 - WHYY

Book in the Park

The Top Urban Planning Books of 2020

The public health crisis of the coronavirus pandemic upended all the normal day-today routines this year. At least there are plenty of great urban planning books to read.

November 30, 2020 - Josh Stephens

Pandemic Drive-Thru

Cities Double Down on Car-Centric Services During the Pandemic

The pandemic has created even more obstacles to participation in society for those without a car.

November 30, 2020 - Transfers

U.S.-Mexico Border

Flooded: How Natural Disasters Lead to Predatory Lending in the Rio Grande Valley

The devastation that communities in the Rio Grande Valley face is twofold: the initial destruction of the floods and the cycle of debt and poverty as a result of predatory loans.

November 27, 2020 - Shelterforce Magazine

South Mall Parking Lot

A Contemporary Update to the #BlackFridayParking Tradition

For years, Strong Towns readers have been pointing out the vast empty parking lots on the busiest shopping day of the year as evidence of poor land use regulations. Now the #iwishthisparkingwas hashtag imagines a different future.

November 27, 2020 - Strong Towns

Stay-at-Home Orders

The State of Commercial Corridors (And How to Protect Them During the Pandemic)

The pandemic is accelerating recent trends in commercial real estate with potentially catastrophic consequences for the commercial corridors that play such a fundamental role in the urban fabric.

November 25, 2020 - Urban Institute

Chicaho, Illinois

Trump's Legacy: Climate Change

The Biden administration and effects of time will erase some of the consequences of the Trump administration's methodical dismantling of the nation's environmental regulation. But climate change will be around longer than any of it.

November 23, 2020 - The New York Times

Social Media Apps

Social Media Bots and the Community Planning Process

Recently published research examines the "Role of Artificial Intelligence in Community Planning"—that is, the role of automated bots on social media in corrupting participatory planning processes.

November 20, 2020 - International Journal of Community Well-Being

Carpool Lane Sticker

Pandemic Emissions Prove How Much of a Difference the U.S. Could Make by Driving Less

Driving in the United States accounted for five percent of global carbon emissions before the pandemic, but U.S. cars and trucks account for 20 percent of the global emission reductions during the pandemic.

November 19, 2020 - Carbon Tax Center

Drunk Driving

A Small Step Toward the End of Drunk Driving

The federal government is finally ready to explore technology that could saves thousands of lives every year on the highways and streets of the United States.

November 18, 2020 - Streetsblog USA

Madison Bike

Watch: The Errors Behind 'Best Cities' Rankings

Despite its long history of ranking the best cities to live in the United States, Money Magazine should not be cited as an authority on the matter, according to this video.

November 17, 2020 - City Beautiful

Central Valley

3 Myths About Rural America and How to Debunk Them

The effort to debunk common myths about rural America in academia and the news media continues.

November 16, 2020 - Urban Institute

Coronavirus

National Rent Debt Projected to Reach $7.2 Billion by the End of 2020

The weight of the pandemic is hanging around millions of renters' necks.

November 16, 2020 - Orange County Register

Massachusetts State Capitol

Massachusetts Showed States How to Create an Eviction Ban. Now It’s Backpedaling

The Massachusetts eviction moratorium—one of the strongest in the nation—expired, just in time for winter. How did this happen?

November 16, 2020 - Shelterforce Magazine

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.