Exclusives

FEATURE

Being Urban Minded: Three Current Debates Around Urban Design Practice

March 9 - Alex Krieger

BLOG POST

Planning Foreclosures

As the economy continues to lumber through the most protracted period of recession since the early 1980s, the financial sector has received the brunt of the blame. It’s been easy for the planning profession to distance themselves from what seem at first to be macroeconomic trends. That view, however, is becoming increasingly difficult to uphold.

March 7 - Samuel Staley

BLOG POST

Finding a First Job in Planning

Finding a first full-time “real” job in planning seems a daunting task at present. However, cities are growing, infrastructure is being funded, and there will be jobs for planners. The following tips can help one navigate the market. Be prepared to go to Kansas. By this I mean that there are certain places much loved by young planners—New York, Boston, San Francisco—and these are not the best places to start looking for early planning jobs. Sure they have them. For low pay. Where you’ll find yourself at the very bottom of the totem pole with years of photocopying ahead of you before you make it to the zoning counter.

March 7 - Ann Forsyth

BLOG POST

So Where Should We Plan on People Living in the Future?

Having become something of a junkie who overdoses on political and economic news, it is only natural that I try to help justify that time investment by scouring the news for tidbits that have professional relevance. Just this past week several things have come across my monitor that have made me reflect.

March 6 - Steven Polzin

BLOG POST

TinyURL points to Harlem ghost-lady

Once again, US Air (a.k.a. <a href="http://tinyurl.com/dcedrj" target="_blank" title="US SCARE">US-SCARE</a>) has made my life difficult. I was hoping to fly back from Myrtle Beach, SC to Denver yesterday and they cancelled my flight (Myrtle Beach is where the <a href="http://www.csc.noaa.gov/geotools/" target="_blank" title="GeoTools Conferencce">GeoTools</a> conference was and a meeting of the Ecosystem Based Management Tools <a href="http://www.ebmtools.org/" target="_blank" title="EBM Tools Network">Network</a>).

March 6 - Ken Snyder

BLOG POST

Can Vancouver "shift form"?

A new design competition thinks it can. In a recent post, I discussed the value of open design competitions in strengthening a city's "culture of design". I explained how Vancouver, often described as a city by design but in past years perhaps lacking a competition skill-set, is seeking to strengthen that culture, albeit by small steps and grass-roots efforts thus far. Here's the link - you might want to <a href="/node/37189" target="_blank">read that post first</a>.

March 3 - Brent Toderian

FEATURE

Better Transportation Needs Better Cities

A new design competition is seeking solutions to L.A.'s transportation problems. But the real solution may not have anything to do with transportation at all.

March 2 - Nate Berg

BLOG POST

Architecture's Big Bang

Architecture is certainly headed for its own version of the Big Bang. A density of firms are simmering with scarce backlog, delinquent collections, looming layoffs, high overhead, low morale as weakened management relies on a foggy stimulus package to forestall an explosion of great magnitude. After the inevitable, our profession will reconstitute based on a new chemistry.

March 1 - Rick Abelson

BLOG POST

The More Things Change...

Community Development Work Avoidance Local government across the nation is knee deep in the work of figuring how to do with less. No community is immune from the challenges posed by reduced sales and property tax revenue and the constant if not increasing demand for services. Invariably, and appropriately, locating the proper balance between the two becomes a matter of setting priorities. And to do that, criteria are needed to rationalize why one municipal activity should be funded, but not another. It was ever thus, of course.

February 26 - Charles Buki

BLOG POST

The New Urbanist Omelette

On this week's <a href="http://www.kunstlercast.com/">KunstlerCast</a> (James Howard Kunstler's podcast, with host Duncan Crary), you can hear me leaving a comment. I just listened to the episode, and I sound like I took a shot of codeine cough syrup before recording it. I think the point is relevant enough to reiterate in the safety of print.

February 26 - Tim Halbur

BLOG POST

One Way To Save Transit

In much of the United States, day-to-day transit service is under assault as never before; state and local treasuries have been depleted by the recession, and the federal stimulus package is unlikely to be helpful because federal dollars are more likely to flow into capital programs (English translation: shiny new railcars) than into preserving existing service (1). Thus, Americans will have the worst of both worlds: billions thrown at transportation while existing bus routes get whittled away.

February 25 - Michael Lewyn

FEATURE

Top 8 Public Space Design Books

Managing Editor Tim Halbur selects his favorite books for designing and planning public spaces.

February 23 - Tim Halbur

FEATURE

Why Is Fare-Free Transit The Exception Rather Than The Rule?

February 23 - Dave Olsen

BLOG POST

“Who Am I?” And Other Very Practical Questions

From the first day of the semester, I could tell my Urban Design Methods course was going to be different from the others I've taken in planning school so far. “Call me at home. I’m up till midnight,” the professor told us. I’m not up till midnight. He asks us questions like, “What is your design identity?” “What three adjectives describe you as a designer?” “Who are you?” It makes grad school feel kind of like therapy. Really, really expensive therapy.

February 22 - Jeffrey Barg

BLOG POST

Walkability and the City Beauty Quotient

There's no shortage of writing and conjecture on New York City when it comes to urban and city issues. But one subject that has been neglected in the urban academic discourse is the city's incredible concentration of beautiful women. It's amazing. It's like you can't avoid them, not that you'd want to. Walking down the street in New York City is like walking down a fashion runway. With cross traffic. And no security guards trying to tackle you.

February 22 - Nate Berg

BLOG POST

Who Watches the Planners?

In her 1998 book <a href="http://www.amazon.ca/Towards-Cosmopolis-Planning-Multicultural-Cities/dp/0471971987/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1235094976&sr=1-1">Towards Cosmopolis</a>, Leonie Sandercock deconstructs what she calls the “heroic” story of planning history as found in leading texts. These mainstream histories, she says, may champion various (male) heroes such as Ebenezer Howard, Patrick Geddes or Daniel Burnham, but the real hero, she observes, is the planning profession itself.

February 20 - Michael Dudley

BLOG POST

Laneway Housing Getting Lots of Attention

Since Vancouver Council unanimously supported the preparation of bylaws to introduce <a href="/node/35805" target="_blank">laneway housing across the City</a> in single family zones, the housing idea has been getting consistent media attention. Although we're in the process of using modeling and dialogue to answer the last few questions - what the parking standard should be, and the exact dimensions of the 1 1/2 story model - the most common question I get is "when can we apply for one?"

February 18 - Brent Toderian

FEATURE

The MTA As Stealth Development Agency

The 'Subway to the Sea' project in Los Angeles isn't just about transportation- it also opens up a world of development opportunity, say architects Ernesto Vasquez, AIA and Jeff Mayer, AIA of MVE & Partners.

February 18 - Jeff Mayer

BLOG POST

Look South!

A week ago I spent some time with Enrique Peñalosa, urban strategist and provocateur. North Americans don’t often look south for innovation, but Peñalosa made remarkable changes in the public environment as Mayor of the city of Bogotá, Colombia. Nearly impeached for his actions to push cars aside in favor of people, now he is invited to provoke and inspire others. “We have Environmental Impact Statements; why don’t we have Human Impact statements,” is a sampling from last week.

February 17 - Barbara Knecht

FEATURE