United States

Rethinking the Streetspace: What's Next?

July 21, 2011 - Amber Hawkes

U.S. Still Missing Bike Lessons from Europe

Bicycling is growing in popularity in the U.S., but it still isn't considered a serious form of transportation as it is in Europe, according to this piece from Yale Environment 360.

July 21, 2011 - Yale Environment 360

Graffiti Tags Up Cities Nationwide

Graffiti has cropped up this year in metropolitan areas like Los Angles to smaller communities like Florence, Alabama. The rise in graffiti has prompted a debate that it may reflect that anxiety and alienation are growing from the recession.

July 20, 2011 - The New York Times

Demographic Change Creates New Types of Regional Metropolises

Though population growth rates have slowed in cities and suburbs, their increasing interconnectedness has created sets of diverse metropolitan areas, according to the Brookings Institution's Alan Berube.

July 20, 2011 - The Brookings Institution

Band of States Struggle Through Drought

From Florida to Arizona, 14 states are in the midst of a major drought. The effects have been far-reaching and devastating to both the environment and economy.

July 20, 2011 - The New York Times

Public Parks Online

As the desire for wireless internet increases, some public parks are finding that Wi-Fi networks are becoming a new and important amenity.

July 18, 2011 - Time

Creating America's Super Highways

Tom Vanderbilt reviews The Big Roads by Earl Swift, subtitled "The Untold Story of the Engineers, Visionaries, and Trailblazers Who Created the American Superhighways."

July 18, 2011 - The New York Times

Fusion Businesses as Indicators of Urban Change

Chuck Wolfe explains how the fusion of laundromats and dining are evidence of the evolving city and the ongoing need for regulatory reform.

July 17, 2011 - Sustainable Cities Collective

Urban Parks for Healthy Cities

Urban parks have an important role to play in solving the health and fitness crisis, but too many acres of parkland are not helping people become healthier. How can park systems be designed to be better-used and live up to their potential?

July 16, 2011 - Philadelphia Daily News Digital / The Inquirer Digital

Worst-Dressed U.S. Cities

Sprawl is so last season. GQ ranks the "most sartorially-challenged metropolises in the greater United States" based solely on the five-letter S-word rarely mentioned in planning: Style.

July 16, 2011 - GQ

Friday Funny: A New Direction for Transportation Policy?

James Sinclair points out that the cover of the Republicans' newly announced transportation reauthorization proposal, picturing an empty freeway overpass, makes the title - "A New Direction" - pretty ironic.

July 15, 2011 - Stop and Move blog

MIT Develops New Fuel, Dubbed "Cambridge Crude"

A post at The Polis Blog asks the question, "how might Cambridge Crude change cities?"

July 15, 2011 - The Polis Blog

How Do US Cities Measure Up in Broadband Accessibility?

According to this piece from CivSource, US cities have fallen considerably behind other developed world cities when it comes to broadband accessibility. The influence of private sector "incumbents" is to blame, writes the author.

July 15, 2011 - CivSource

The Future of Los Angeles' Union Station

On Wednesday, LA Metro started the process of soliciting proposals for the redevelopment of the 42 acres of land it owns around Union Station.

July 15, 2011 - The Architect's Newspaper

McMansion No More

2010 Census offers telling evidence of America's shifting demographics. Diana Olick of CNBC contextualizes the new U.S. household data in terms of real estate development.

July 15, 2011 - CNBC

Richard Florida Explains "The Geography of How We Get to Work"

In a piece from The Atlantic Richard Florida discusses the factors that shape Americans' commuting patterns. Some of his assertions are counter to commonly accepted explanations for commuting behaviors.

July 15, 2011 - The Atlantic

Have Electricity, Will Travel

Washington state fulfills its share of the West Coast Green Highway initiative by installing nine fast-charging stations for electric cars along the 580-mile Interstate 5 corridor from Oregon to Canada.

July 14, 2011 - The Washington Post

Behavioral Shift in the Way We Drive

When "peak car use" is reached, the only way to go is down, claim Australian scholars Peter Newman and Jeff Kenworthy. They say we're already there - between 1995 to 2000, per capita VMT in some major cities around the world decreased.

July 14, 2011 - The Infrastructurist

Preservation's Need for Diversity

Preservation will have to include a more diverse and multi-ethnic population in order to stay relevant, writes Kenneth Caldwell for The Architect's Newspaper.

July 14, 2011 - The Architect's Newspaper

Clean Economy Shows Potential for Rapid Growth

In the Brookings Institute's pulse check on the nation's clean economy, researchers found that most of the country's clean economy jobs and recent growth were held in the largest metropolitan areas.

July 14, 2011 - The Brookings Institute

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.