United States

Amazon's Second HQ Poised for Smart Growth

Amazon's second headquarters is huge, and their bias for walkable places says they are going to do it all over again in a new city. However, maybe they should take the high road and not beg for subsidies.

September 19, 2017 - Smart Growth America

New York City

Survey Finds That Americans Favor More Taxes If Transportation Improves

Survey finds higher taxes and tolls have powerful support when revenues are guaranteed for infrastructure; public-private partnerships seen as part of solution

September 19, 2017 - Modern Cities

Silicon Valley Looks To Kill The Corner Store

A new startup is either a disruptive technology that will forever change the corner store, or yet another example of Silicon Valley looking to gentrify neighborhoods.

September 19, 2017 - Modern Cities

Homeless Services

New Poverty and Income Data Reveals a Tale of Two Types of Cities

While the country overall made progress, larger cities are making stronger gains against poverty.

September 19, 2017 - Brookings

Commuter Traffic

Slowly But Surely, Commutes Are Changing

Finding the answers to the questions posed by the latest transportation data from the American Community Survey will determine the best use of limited resources for infrastructure investment and planning.

September 19, 2017 - U.S. News & World Report

Could the Humble Heat Pump Be a Decarbonization Hero?

Buildings are responsible for a little less than half of greenhouse gas emissions in the U.S. Break this figure down further and you'll find that building heating accounts for about a fifth of all U.S. emissions.

September 18, 2017 - Doggerel

Chicago Bike Trail

Sustainable for Whom? Large-Scale Urban Development Projects and 'Environmental Gentrification'

Large, adaptive-reuse projects are all the rage in urban planning today, but absent a fundamentally new approach—with affordability at the center of the process—they are likely to become engines of what's been termed "environmental gentrification."

September 18, 2017 - Shelterforce/Rooflines

European Village

Planning Utopia: Revisiting Thomas More's Classic

In this second installment of a three-part review of Thomas More's Utopia in its 500th anniversary year, L.A. area planner Jodie Sackett looks at More's ideas for planning a Utopian city. Do More's ideas have current relevance?

September 18, 2017 - UrbDeZine

Diamond Interchange

On the Rise of the Diverging Diamond Interchange

Its design can appear baffling at first, but the DDI presents drivers with far fewer opportunities to collide with each other than traditional four-way intersections.

September 18, 2017 - CityLab

Harvey Floods Houston

How the National Flood Insurance Program Sabotaged Itself

Having charged low rates during years of bumper development, the National Flood Insurance Program worked at cross-purposes with itself while development continued on.

September 18, 2017 - Vox

Pollution

Disregarding Trump, Corporations Adopt Internal Carbon Pricing

A new report from the Center for Climate and Energy Solutions reveals that over 1,200 global and domestic companies, recognizing the threat of climate change, are either pricing emissions or considering it.

September 18, 2017 - The Washington Post - Energy and Environment

Solar Power

Solar Power Beats DOE Cost Targets Three Years Early

With a set of 2020 affordability targets met three years early, the DOE can turn its attention to reliability, resilience, and storage.

September 18, 2017 - Quartz

Millennial Bike

Is This How Millennials Prefer Their Suburbs?

As more young people express a preference for suburban life, Alan M. Berger gives us a vision of tomorrow's suburbs: smart and sustainable, but still spread out.

September 17, 2017 - The New York Times

Renewable Diesel

From Buses to Trains, Renewable Diesel Catches On in California

For almost two years, MUNI's diesel-powered buses in San Francisco have run entirely on renewable diesel fuel. Diesel-powered Amtrak trains running from San Jose to Sacramento could be next.

September 16, 2017 - San Francisco Chronicle

Getting Raised in Gentilly, Loisiana

Will Americans Ever Move Out of Flood-Prone Areas?

After a series of hurricanes, experts discuss how guide people out of the way of the most deadly floods and storms.

September 16, 2017 - Vox

Frank Lloyd Wright Oak Park

National or Regional? Finding American Identity in Architecture

In an extended discussion, Keith Eggener examines what it means for a work of architecture to be "naturally" American, and why looking at modern American styles through an intensively regional lens may be unhelpful.

September 15, 2017 - Places Journal

Apple

Apple Stores to Become 'Town Squares?'

James Vincent finds the claim that Apple stores are on their way to becoming "town squares" laughably pretentious.

September 15, 2017 - The Verge

Highway Living

How Overly Restrictive Land Use Regulations Hurt the Nation's Economy

Two economics professors from the University of Chicago and the University of California, Berkeley argue that the housing crisis doesn't just affect booming coastal cities. It's a national problem.

September 15, 2017 - The New York Times - Opinion

Wildfire

Severe Fires After a Wet Winter? Experts Cite Climate Change

In the Western states, an especially hot summer stoked the yearly blazes, to many experts' surprise. For some, bigger wildfires are a "canary in the coal mine" for climate change.

September 14, 2017 - The Atlantic

Self-Driving Car

Trump Administration Issues New Rules for Self-Driving Cars

The U.S. Department of Transportation has updated its voluntary guidelines for companies looking to test self-driving cars.

September 14, 2017 - Mercury News

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.