United States
Five Ways To Fight McMansions
MSN Real Estate publishes a special on McMansionization, detailing the backlash, a new "less is more" movement, and ways to fight the trend.
Perform Building Inspections From Your Desk
While Pictometry's new mapping technology is being used for public safety, it's also being used by building officials who don't have to leave the office to see who's building without a permit.
Wal-Mart Enters Cities
A new company initiative calls for over 50 new stores in blighted urban areas, with the promise of help for local businesses and chambers of commerce.
Can Community Networks Save Lives?
In the event of a flu pandemic, the federal government will be largely unavailable to cities across the country. Municipalities should prepare for a long disruption, relying on schools, churches and other social networks to develop response plans.
17 Projects Win New Urbanism Awards
Congress for the New Urbanism honors 17 diverse projects in affordable housing, transit-oriented development, high-density infill plans, wilderness preservation, and freeway-taming strategies, with the 2006 Charter Awards.
Small Cities' Tax Systems Kowtow To Developers
Through reliance on tax revenue and tax increment financing (TIF) projects, small cities must attract developers to sustain themselves, according to this op-ed.
Yosemite, Sponsored By Target?
Controversy erupts over a plan to let corporate donors display their names and logos at attractions like Yosemite.
Guaranteed: The Most Recognizable Names In Home Product Quality
From Good Housekeeping to Underwriters Laboratory and the Energy Star label, different names register different levels of confidence for consumers.
Without Capital Gains Tax, Second Homes More Likely
Thanks to a 1997 change in the federal tax code, more homeowners are retaining profits from sales, with the opportunity to buy two homes as a result.
How Congress Is Subsidizing Big Oil
Lobbyists helped the oil industry secure billions in subsidies from the U.S. Congress for oil drilling in the Gulf of Mexico.
Suburbs: Walk This Way
Can a walking lifestyle really make it in the 'burbs?
Wal-Mart Goes Organic
The retail giant plans to offer organic produce, but how will the move impact the nation's farmers?
The Galactic Suburban Frontier
As growth continues farther and farther from traditional urban cores, defining a sense of place among the myriad "exopoli" becomes increasingly difficult.
Black America 'In Trouble'
The National Urban League's annual report, released March 29, finds that when collectively considering economic status, health, education, civil rights, and civic engagement, blacks are 27% below whites.
Wal-Mart CEO Lee Scott Announces Ban On PVC
Wal-Mart CEO and eco-convert Lee Scott announces that beginning in 2009, the mega-chain will no longer sell any item made of PVC. The impacts will be felt globally.
U.S. Cars Become More Powerful and Less Efficient
Automakers have used improved technology to make cars peppier and bigger, instead of improving fuel economy.
The Geography of Somewhere: Civic Tourism
Author Scott Russell Sanders offers a perspective on how civic tourism can serve to help improve American cities and towns that "feel like jumbles rather than communities, without pattern or purpose."
From Ports To Highways: Selling Out Nation's Infrastructure?
In Indiana, selling a 157-mile toll road to Spanish and Australian investors joins the growing trend of selling pieces of underfunded U.S. infrastructure to foreigners.
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.
City of Rosemead
Rutgers University, Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy
One Hundred Miles
University of Michigan School for Environment and Sustainability (SEAS)
Hunter College, City University of New York (CUNY)
The Architects Foundation
City of Cambridge
Montrose County
The Pocatello Development Authority
