Exclusives
FEATURE
A Return to Physical Planning
Planetizen talks with Peter J. Park, Manager of Community Planning and Development for the City of Denver, Colorado, about the return of physical planning, the city's form-based code, and more.
BLOG POST
Planning for Tea Parties
<p style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"> <span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small">Republicans appear set to make significant political inroads in Congress this November, perhaps taking control of the U.S. House of Representatives and knocking on the door of majority control of the U.S. Senate. Their success will be in no small part due to the so-called Tea Parties, a grassroots political movement reacting to the perceived excess of the federal government. Planners should take note. While the Tea Party Movement is largely a national and statewide, its effects may well be felt on the local and regional level as well.</span> </p>
BLOG POST
Halloween Costumes for Urban Planners - 3rd Edition
It's Halloween time again, the day when dressing up in silly costumes is required of every conscionable person. Some opt for the scary ghost or the sexy nurse, but others, more thoughtful others, make more of this opportunity.
BLOG POST
The Selfish Automobile
<p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt" class="MsoNormal"> <span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small">Why are otherwise generous and smart people sometimes selfish and irrational? </span> </p>
BLOG POST
Hoboken Begins 'Twenty is Plenty' Driving Speed Campaign
<span style="widows: 2; text-transform: none; text-indent: 0px; border-collapse: separate; font: medium 'Times New Roman'; white-space: normal; orphans: 2; letter-spacing: normal; word-spacing: 0px; color: #000000" class="Apple-style-span"> <div style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 10px"> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in"> This week, Hoboken is announcing its version of a highly successful awareness campaign practiced throughout Europe and, more directly translatable, the UK. In the UK, the <a href="http://www.20splentyforus.org.uk/">campaign</a> is called “20's Plenty for Us”, and in cities that adopt this policy, a 20mph speed limit area is established and signs are posted requiring drivers to obey the lower speed limit.
BLOG POST
ULI's Odd Notion Of 'Global Excellence'
I write this blog from the concrete cradle of Nokia Plaza, an urban space so wondrous that the global arm of the Urban Land Institute has bestowed upon it one of five “<a href="http://www.uli.org/sitecore/content/ULI2Home/News/PressReleases/2010%20archives/Content/GlobalAwards2010.aspx" target="_blank">2010 Global Awards for Excellence</a>." In winning such a distinguished award, you’d think that developer AEG would have invited the Laker Girls and be pouring Champagne for an ebullient crowd here in one of the world’s great public spaces. Except they’re not. In fact, I’m pretty much alone. <p class="MsoNormal">I don’t suppose the pigeons are carrying Cristal underwing? </p>
FEATURE
Rebuilding America through Equitable Development
The objectives of urban redevelopment and meeting the needs of underserved communities are not mutually exclusive goals, says Carlton Eley.
BLOG POST
What does TOD Stand for: transit-oriented development — or just the same Tired Old Development?
<p> <span style="line-height: 115%; font-size: 12pt"><span style="font-family: Calibri">I’ve worked on designing, planning and preparing the way for Transit-Oriented Development (TOD) projects around the world. For some reason this particular proposed TOD caught my attention. Maybe because I thought I was an expert and in this case I was caught off guard. Or maybe because TOD advocates have made so much progress collectively and yet there is still so far to go. Probably a bit of both. </span></span> </p>
BLOG POST
How Winnipeg Became a Casualty of War
With the passing in February 2010 of Canada's last surviving Great War veteran, we no longer have a living link to that conflict. Its infamous miseries, desolate battlefields, poison-gas attacks and industrial-scale slaughter are known to us now only through history. <p> While the veterans themselves are silent, Manitoba historian Jim Blanchard reminds us in his new book <a href="http://www.amazon.ca/Winnipegs-Great-War-City-Comes/dp/088755721X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1287069475&sr=1-1"><em>Winnipeg's Great War</em></a> that the city of Winnipeg has its own story to tell about the First World War.
BLOG POST
The "Contrarian" Myth
<p> Every so often, I read something describing defenders of sprawl as "contrarians", implying that they are underdogs fighting against the elitist, anti-sprawl Establishment. For example, when I did a google.com search for sites including Robert Bruegmann (author of one of the better defenses of the status quo) and the word "contrarian" I found over 1400 "hits." Similarly, a search for websites using the terms "smart growth" and "elitist" yielded over 6000 hits. </p> <p> But realistically, most of the U.S. built environment is sprawl by any concievable definition. So how can it be "contrarian" to defend the status quo? </p>
FEATURE
Measuring the Broader Impacts of Transportation
CEOs for Cities recently published a blistering criticism of The Texas Transportation Institute's "Urban Mobility Report", saying that the way they measure mobility helps justify sprawl. Norman W. Garrick says CEOs for Cities doesn't go far enough.
BLOG POST
NJ Governor's ARC Tunnel Plug-Pull Can Lead to Better Plan
<p> Ostensibly, the <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE69648520101007">actions today</a> by NJ Governor Chris Christie to cancel the "Access to Region's Core" (ARC) tunnel project seem like a vicious blow to the future of rail in our country (fatal even, given the <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/05/us/05rail.html?_r=1&hp">recent commentary</a> from conservatives country-wide on opposition to the national high speed rail network projects). I myself am extremely disappointed that our state's fiscal circumstances have led the Governor to make this decision, and I am sincerely empathetic to the construction and operational jobs and potential to improve mobility conditions that this cancellation jeopardizes. </p>
BLOG POST
Hoboken Challenges Residents to "Surrender" Their Permits (Read: Cars)
<p> Over the past year, we've been guiding the City of Hoboken, NJ towards providing sufficient alternative modes of transportation such that owning a car for a large number of residents becomes more than unattractive, it's simply not necessary. The goal is not to tell residents that they can't own a car, but to make life without a car so easy that every single family in Hoboken can freely choose whether owning a car is what they want to spend their money on. For those who decide that a daily commute by car is most practical, my job is to make it possible to find a parking space and travel in and out of town without too much friction. However, for the overwhelming majority of Hobokenites who commute daily on foot, bicycle, or via transit, life without a car should be as
BLOG POST
Of Bricks and Bixis
<span>My hometown of Winnipeg is going through a <a href="http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/breakingnews/Bike-path-should-be-finished-before-lawsuit-settled--103638144.html">particularly nasty battle over cycling infrastructure</a>. Its current mayor, Sam Katz, while he may be reviled by rapid transit advocates for cancelling one BRT scheme and <a href="http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/local/epc-endorses-light-rail-transit-98007694.html">then muddling another </a>(will it be a bus? A train? A streetcar?), has nonetheless managed to accomplish more for cyclists than his predecessors. In recent years we have seen new bikelanes, multiuse pathways and a cycling culture invigorated by such events as Winnipeg's <a href="http://www.downtownwinnipegbiz.com/home/events/ciclovia/">Cyclovia</a>.</span>
BLOG POST
How Cities Will Survive Global Warming
<p style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"> <span style="font-size: small; font-family: Times New Roman">Climate change has become a focal point of urban planning in the U.S. and abroad as cities grapple with so-called sustainability. </span><a href="http://www.emeraldinsight.com/journals.htm?articleid=1562561&show=html"><span style="font-size: small; font-family: Times New Roman; color: #800080">I’ve been a critic</span></a><span style="font-size: small; font-family: Times New Roman"> of many attempts to implement sustainability plans, not so much because I disagree with the intent as much as I believe the tools used to achieve sustainability are not particularly effective.
FEATURE
The Landscape Urbanism: Sprawl in a Pretty Green Dress?
The latest in a series of academic challenges to the New Urbanism turns out to be weak in all the areas that matter most, argues author Michael Mehaffy.
BLOG POST
What is Green Urbanism?
<p> The term Green Urbanism keeps showing up unexpectedly in newspaper articles, conference session titles, blog posts, and casual conversation. While there is an innate, intuitive sense of the meaning, green urbanism may also seem as elusive as it is evocative. Having given this topic a fair amount of thought over the past several years, I, and my colleague and collaborator Ted Bardacke, arrived at the following working definition: </p> <p> <strong><em>green urbanism:</em></strong><em> the practice of creating communities mutually beneficial to humans and the environment </em> </p>
FEATURE
A New Urban Park for Dallas
Clanton & Associates, Inc.
Jessamine County Fiscal Court
Institute for Housing and Urban Development Studies (IHS)
City of Grandview
Harvard GSD Executive Education
Toledo-Lucas County Plan Commissions
Salt Lake City
NYU Wagner Graduate School of Public Service
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.
