Chris Stines is Planetizen's former Editor and the founder of Urban Insight, a leading digital agency. Chris has 25 years of experience in technology consulting and urban planning and has served as a consultant to public sector state, county, and local agencies, Fortune 500 private firms, educational institutions, and nonprofit organizations.
Shopping Malls Are Dead -- Long Live Lifestyle Centers
<p>The Economist offers a fascinating review of the evolution of the suburban shopping mall into the hot new "lifestyle center." The conclusion: "It was necessary to kill the American city centre before bringing it back to life."</p>
A New Approach To Economic Development Help For Entrepreneurs
<p>Nearly every community talks about attracting more entrepreneurs. But aside from programs like SCORE, which assists entrepreneurs with business plans, and some efforts at growing venture-capital funds, most communities scratch their heads over how to</p>
Rethinking Parking In NYC
<p>An editorial by Alex Garvin and Nick Peterson calls for NYC's planners and officials to rewrite outdated off-street parking regulations. The authors point out contradictory parking requirements and proposes a more efficient market-based system.</p>
The Myth Of Resource Sustainability
<p>John Brätland, senior economist with the U.S. Department of the Interior, offers his observations on how economists have let the myth of resource exhaustion persist from the nineteenth century to the present, and why it is misguided.</p>
Four Options For Ranking Urban Planning Programs
<p>UCLA urban planning professor Randall Crane offers his observations on the four options that planning schools have for helping applicants decide to which schools they should apply and attend.</p>