Exclusives

FEATURE

The popularity of the agora, or central marketplace, has waxed and waned throughout the centuries. Park designer Richard Light looks back at the history and meaning of the agora from Ancient Greece to today.

April 15 - Richard Light

FEATURE

Could this be the end? Two recent events signal a dramatic shift in American attitudes towards transportation and the proper role of transportation in making American cities, says Norman Garrick.

April 12 - Norman Garrick

BLOG POST

<p class="ecxMsoNormal"> A few weeks ago, Randall O’Toole  (a leading anti-anti-sprawl commentator) and Matthew Yglesias (a Washington-based pundit who primarily writes about politics, but occasionally veers off into planning issues) had an interesting discussion about the extent to which sprawl is a result of land use regulation.(1) </p>

April 11 - Michael Lewyn

BLOG POST

<p> &nbsp; </p> <p> <em>Walkable Los Angeles</em>. Casual visitors may be surprised to learn that this is not an oxymoron. </p>

April 10 - Diana DeRubertis

BLOG POST

<p class="MsoNormal"> Planning history is often taught in the first semester of planning programs. However, many students find that their interest increases with time and that with more knowledge they have more questions. Below I list some basic books and journals for finding out about planning history. In an upcoming entry I will discuss important plans, places, and programs that the historically literate urban planner should at least recognize. </p> <p class="MsoNormal"> Two books typically set in planning history introductory courses in the United States are an easy place to start: </p>

April 10 - Ann Forsyth

FEATURE

How many people live in California? The current count could be off by 1.5 million people, and a lot is riding on the results of the 2010 Census. Josh Stephens talks to planners and state leaders about the flaws in the Census and how they'll shape state policy.

April 8 - Josh Stephens

BLOG POST

<p> When I inherited the Hoboken Parking Utility last year, it was hobbling along with all of the forward planning of a Friday night Rock-and-Bowl last call.  With no time to build a new budget from the bottom up, I was left to remold what I found into something a little less status-quo and a little more innovative.  In a scrutinizing political climate and tough economic conditions, the changes had to be both necessary and serve as an example of ways to reduce costs. </p>

April 6 - Ian Sacs

BLOG POST

<p> <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt">The 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics and Paralympics are over now. City Planner <a href="/user/10088"><span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none">Brent Toderian</span></a> described in a recent Planetizen blog how the event showcased <a href="/node/43096">Vancouver’s Urbanism</a>, including the quality of its neighborhoods, streets and public transit system, and the delight of a shared community experience.</span> </p> <p> <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt"><img src="http://www.daily-jeff.com/images/media/20100213/photos/d505f58a8fe6bcfb05fe5c41c92152dd9d647e8b_oly2.jpg" width="358" height="212" /></span> </p>

April 5 - Todd Litman

FEATURE

Jennifer Evans-Cowley, Phd, AICP, spends a couple of hours exploring the phenomenon that is chatroulette.com. Chatroulette sets you up to videochat with a complete stranger. Are there applications for the future of public participation in planning?

April 5 - Jennifer Evans-Cowley

BLOG POST

<p><img src="/files/u10085/ipad.jpg" alt="iPad" title="undefined" width="300" height="186" align="right" onmouseover="undefined" onmouseout="undefined" />Earlier this week I read a <a href="http://mitatlawrence.net/projects/classes/dusp-lawrence-practicum-2004/">report about creating a geographic data system</a> for a community group in Lawrence, Massachusetts. The document contained detailed technical documentation for how to use iPAQ handheld computers to collect geocoded data. Since the data was collected and managed in geographic information system (GIS) software, it required pages of technical instructions. This case seemed a prime example of how GIS tools missed the mark for planners who need to work with geographic data, but in a different way than technical analysts. The purpose of the project was to empower community youth to collect basic data, a task ill suited to software designed for data management by experts using hundreds of attributes and a fine degree of precision.<br /><br />One day later, I found myself reading Newsweek&#39;s <a href="http://www.newsweek.com/id/235565">cover story</a> about the iPad, which reported that Apple expects to sell hundreds of thousands of the sturdy, easy-to-use devices in the coming months. Could the iPad be used for planning? I have <a href="/node/40512">previously written</a> about the potential for the iPhone to augment city life. Since then the types of apps I described have only grown in popularity: navigation apps that use transit data, apps to report potholes or other issues to city officials, augmented reality apps providing information about your surroundings, and geographic networking and gaming like <a href="http://foursquare.com/">FourSquare</a>.<br />

April 2 - Robert Goodspeed

FEATURE

To inaugurate the launch of our new website with exclusive coverage of high-speed rail, we asked David J. Carol, Market Leader of High-Speed Rail at Parsons Brinkerhoff to tell us what we need to know about the U.S.'s exciting new endeavor.

April 1 - David J. Carol

BLOG POST

<strong>Even when the circuitry is beyond us mere mortals, DIY comes to the rescue</strong>  <p class="MsoNormal"> In town meetings we use the Internet for a wide variety of uses, from photo walls to display images collected during our <a href="http://vimeo.com/9719936" title="Walkshop Tours">WalkShop tours</a>, to brainstorming and voting with our <a href="http://vimeo.com/9719829" title="AnyWare Suite of Tools">AnyWare suite of tools</a>, to collecting ideas using Google Docs or Google MyMaps at round tables.<span>  </span>The latest WiFi cards are making connecting to the Internet possible in places where the Internet normally is not available.

March 30 - Ken Snyder

BLOG POST

<p style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"> <a href="http://www.planning.org/"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small">Planning</span></a><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small"> magazine recently (December 2009) published a story on the benefits of economic impact studies for planners. Most professional planners have run across them at one point or another: they are used to evaluate economic impact and the effectives of various types of programs on job creation. Unfortunately, the article did little to also illuminate the pitfalls and weaknesses of these studies.</span> </p>

March 29 - Samuel Staley

FEATURE

Planners in Cary, North Carolina were tasked by the mayor to make their complex planning process more accessible.

March 29 - Tim Halbur

BLOG POST

When Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood’s suggested that bicyclists’ needs should be accommodated in federally-funded road projects, the road lobby responded with something approaching hysteria.

March 28 - Michael Lewyn

BLOG POST

<p> The beauty of street paint is that it costs next to nothing and it can have a huge effect in a very short period of time.  Anyone watching how New York City Department of Transportation Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan transforms public streets into public spaces with paint, planters, seating, and signs knows how the installation of these materials overnight works like magic. </p>

March 27 - Ian Sacs

BLOG POST

<p class="MsoNormal"> <span style="font-size: 9pt; font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif'">Many thanks to Wired’s Jeff Howe who’s 2006 article “The Rise of Crowdsourcing” put an effective label at what the internet was doing to business.<span>  </span>Building from Web 2.0 applications focused on social media like Facebook and on-line communities, it’s become a popular and controversial term in tech circles.<span>  </span>For those not as familiar with the idea, let’s consult the most often used example of crowdsourcing – Wikipedia.<span>  </span><span> </span>“Crowdsourcing is a distributed problem-solving and production model. Problems are broadcast to an unknown group of solvers in the form of an open call for solutions.

March 24 - Scott Page

FEATURE

Like the U.S. in the mid-20th Century, much of the growth in Abu Dhabi over the last 35 years has catered primarily to the automobile. But new plans are re-wiring the city to make Abu Dhabi's streets more hospitable to pedestrians.

March 22 - Gary Toth

FEATURE

A recent study shows that for every significant freeway that gets built in a major city, population declines by about 18%. Nathaniel Baum-Snow, author of the study, talks with Planetizen.

March 18 - Tim Halbur

BLOG POST

<p style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"> <a href="http://www.reason.tv/"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; color: #800080; font-size: small">Reason.tv</span></a><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small"> has launched a multipart series of videos </span><a href="http://www.reason.tv/video/show/reason-saves-cleveland-with-dr"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; color: #800080; font-size: small">on how the city of Cleveland can turn itself around</span></a><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small"> using free-market approaches and limited government reforms.

March 16 - Samuel Staley