Community Development

Community Participation Shapes Katrina Recovery

4 September 2008 - 6:00am
The Planning Report
Steven Bingler of Concordia Planning and Architecture discusses the process and thinking behind the Unified New Orleans Plan, which engaged large numbers of citizens to plan the recovery of their neighborhoods in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.

Tornado Clears Way for LEED Platinum Building

13 June 2008 - 10:00am
Kiowa County Singnal
The 5-4-7 Arts Center in Greensburg, Kansas gets a LEED platinum designation- evidence that the town, which was 95% destroyed by a tornado in May, 2006, is making good on its sustainable rebuilding plan.

Developer Smackdown in San Diego

5 June 2008 - 7:00am
San Diego CityBEAT
A real estate developer in San Diego is turning activist, claiming a new residential development isn't working within the community guidelines. San Diego CityBeat suspects something else is happening here.

Students Bring Neighborhood's Plans to Life

1 June 2008 - 11:00am
Columbus Alive
Students in Ohio State University's City and Regional Planning department worked closely with the Franklinton neighborhood in Columbus to create a new vision for the community.

Minnesotans Split Over Sod Farmland

26 May 2008 - 11:00am
Star Tribune, Minneapolis-St. Paul
Ham Lake, Minnesota, residents are torn over the best way to preserve the rural character of their St. Paul suburb.

Is Suburbia Avoiding Reality?

8 April 2008 - 7:00am
Boston Review
Michael Gecan uses the Chicago and New York City areas as examples of the challenges facing mature suburbs, examines the ways many are avoiding reality, and draws a series of conclusions.

Two Things People Hate: Density and Sprawl

26 March 2008 - 3:13pm

We’ve been conducting public meetings for years. And it used to be easier. Present the plan. Discuss the plan. Talk about how your plan is better for the neighborhood/community/city/region and provide the conclusion. But things have changed.  

A Guide to Taser-Free Public Meetings

27 September 2007 - 7:15am

 We all saw it on the Internet—the fellow at a public meeting being hauled away from the microphone before getting wrestled to the floor and tasered during a Q&A with John Kerry. Fortunately, silencing argumentative speakers with a taser is not a common occurrence at most public meetings. While I might confess that there have been meetings where, in retrospect, one might have secretly wished one was armed with a stun gun, facilitators generally try to avoid confrontation. Yet there’s no denying that sometimes people show up at public meetings looking for a fight, begging for outrage, and hoping to irritate and inflame.

Taking The “Short View” On Shrinking Cities

1 July 2007 - 11:20am

I’m not basing this quick observation on any specific historical research or book, so bear with me. Cities grow and shrink; in effect they change rapidly (although sometimes it doesn’t seem rapidly enough and at other times all too rapidly). Where we operate in that continuum I think shapes much of how we see our role as professionals. Planning to address either shrinking cities or growing ones can seem, at times, like totally different professions. A colleague of mine remarked that planning for shrinking cities is definitely a niche market. With so much discussion surrounding growth and how we grow, there is much less dialog that defines the opposite.

A Tale of Two Public Processes

25 June 2007 - 9:23am

Over the last few weeks I’ve had the opportunity to attend public meetings in Europe and the American South. I find public meetings to be an entertaining challenge. Let’s face it, a public meeting is always a gamble. You’re at the mercy of whoever shows up and whatever they perceive about the project. You have to think on your feet and make quick decisions to guide the process, without looking like I’m-in-control-here-Alexander-Haig. 

Planning Lessons from an Olympic Beauty Contest

23 April 2007 - 11:24am

Last week, my home city, Los Angeles, lost out to Chicago for the right to represent the United States in the international competition to host the 2016 Olympics.  Since an Olympic city selection represents the ultimate inter-urban beauty contest – dare I say, a kind of urban “International Idol” – what did this process tell us about the state of urban planning in two of America’s largest cities? 

Where were the planners?

20 April 2007 - 2:10pm

This post is a few weeks after the fact but the recent APA conference only solidified my resolution to say something.  In early April Teddy Cruz gave a lecture here in Philly at the School of Design.  For those of you not familiar with his work, he has a unique and thoughtful perspective on the relationships between culture, planning and design. 

Revisiting Robert Moses

5 March 2007 - 7:59pm

The message from last weekend's two-day symposium at Columbia University, the Queens Museum and the Museum of the City of New York on Robert Moses: many aspects of the master builder's place in history haven't been told, despite Robert Caro's 1,162-page Pulizter Prize-winning biography; and that New York may need to rethink the paradigm for big plans and community engagement as the unique metropolis makes new investments in transit, roadways and large redevelopment projects from Ground Zero to Hudson Yards.

Diminutive Offerings from a Grocery Store Giant: Will They Fill the Grocery Store Gap?

28 February 2007 - 5:44pm

The impact of the urban grocery store gap, particularly on low-income communities, has been well documented. The presence of full-service grocery store can raise the economic value of surrounding property, serve as an anchor in commercial districts, provide an important source of jobs, and lower the daily cost of living for residents. In an era of skyrocketing obesity rates, public health research shows a strong correlation between the presence of a grocery store and the consumption of fruits and vegetables.

Syndicate content