United States

Homeless Bans

California Cities Continue to Criminalize Homelessness with RV Bans

Coastal cities are taking a no-tolerance approach to RVs on their streets, even as they otherwise strive to mitigate and prevent homelessness.

August 7, 2017 - Pacific Standard

Cars

Another Month, Another Mileage Record Set

Americans preference to travel in their own personal vehicles shows no signs of abating, reflected by May mileage data, the most recent compiled by the Federal Highway Administration, indicating a 2.2 percent increase compared with May 2016.

August 7, 2017 - Planetizen

Congestion versus mobility

Planning for the Rich by the Rich

Decision makers in cities can mistake their own preferences for the preferences of the city as a whole, which is doubly dangerous when elite preferences become the law of the land.

August 7, 2017 - Human Transit

Seattle Light Rail

Feds Removing Regulatory Roadblocks for Private Investments in Public Transit

A Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) announced by the Federal Transit Administration is designed to further the Trump Administration's goals to empower the private sector to rebuild the nation's infrastructure.

August 7, 2017 - Federal Transit Administration

U.S. Steel Plant

An Ambitious Plan for New Housing on Chicago's South Side

A South Chicago neighborhood will get 20,000 new residential units if a plan goes through.

August 5, 2017 - Chicago Tribune

Condos Smart Growth

Novel Solutions for Affordable Housing

The housing crisis calls for creative solutions.

August 5, 2017 - Curbed

City Hall

Impacts of AVs and E-Commerce on Municipal Budgets

A new report from Urbanism Next/SCI takes you through a city’s budget—both revenues and expenditures—and describes the areas that will be affected as AVs become commonplace and e-commerce takes on an even larger role in retail

August 4, 2017 - Urbanism Next

Eating and Driving

Friday Funny: Sarcastic Responses to Honolulu's 'Distracted Walking' Ban

The Onion's always-sardonic "American Voices" feature allows some totally fake people to respond to Honolulu's recent decision to make it illegal to text while crossing the street on foot.

August 4, 2017 - The Onion

Los Angeles in 1939, as determined by the  Home Owners’ Loan Corporation (HOLC).

New Mapping Tool Illuminates the Consequences of Redlining

According to Next City, a new mapping tool from the National Community Reinvestment Coalition reveals the roots of gentrification in addition to making stark a history of discrimination.

August 4, 2017 - Next City

Amtrak Pennsylvanian

Lyft Partnering With Amtrak for First-Last Mile Connections

Amtrak is partnering with Lyft to offer train passengers a discounted option for first and last mile needs. New Lyft riders qualify for a $5 savings on each of their first four rides.

August 3, 2017 - The Verge

Fort McMurray Fire

What Goes Together? Sprawl and Destructive Wildfires

Wildfires tend to start at the Wildland-Urban Interface: those border zones between cities and the open land surrounding them. Keeping the lid on sprawl, it can be argued, would tame the inferno.

August 3, 2017 - Wired

Arizona Suburb

On Poverty's New Suburban Look

Author Scott Allard debunks lingering myths about how people experience poverty in cities. Poverty's suburbanization, he argues, has more to do with the loss of jobs than migration from "inner cities."

August 3, 2017 - CityLab

Chevy Bolt

Are Reports Predicting a Future of Electric Vehicles Exaggerated?

David Yager, an oil industry consultant, writes that recent reports predicting electric vehicles will eventually outsell those with internal combustion engines are vastly exaggerated, notwithstanding national bans on future sales of such cars.

August 3, 2017 - Business Insider

Olympic Stadium

Quebec Olympic Stadium Now a Shelter for Asylum Seekers from the U.S.

The government of Canada is scrambling to build a policy in response to growing numbers of asylum seekers crossing the border between the United States and Canada.

August 3, 2017 - The Globe and Mail

Imperial Beach Border

Department of Homeland Security Will Skip Environmental Review for the Border Wall

Also, the House of Representatives has approved the funding president trump wants for the wall, but the Senate is likely to balk.

August 2, 2017 - Associated Press via Denver Post

Trump Administration

Is There Space for Planning in Trump's News Cycle?

An analysis of Planetizen traffic in the first six months of the Trump Administration reveals an audience still focused, despite so many distractions, on the future of communities.

August 1, 2017 - James Brasuell

Cleveland Heights

The Keys to Midwest Housing Markets

Detroit and Chicago are Rust Belt cities, and citizens need to understand just how different their situations are from the hot property markets of the coasts, Pete Saunders argues.

August 1, 2017 - Forbes

How Zillow's Approach to Data Reshaped the Real Estate Market

Zillow's chief analytics officer and chief economist offers insight into the company's approach to data, models, and the real estate market.

August 1, 2017 - ZDNet

Border Wall

Border Wall Plans Following the Path of Least Resistance

Planning of President Trump's proposed border wall is moving along very quietly, and quickly, at a federal wildlife refuge in Texas.

July 31, 2017 - The Texas Observer

transportation

Trump's Infrastructure Plan a Boon for Private Interests

President Trump's proposed infrastructure plans intends to shift ownership of much of America's infrastructure into private hands. Rebecca Burns argues that this approach will benefit the country's richest at the expense of the rest of the country.

July 31, 2017 - In These Times

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.