Exclusives
BLOG POST
Some Lessons from the Credit Crisis
<p class="MsoNormal"> The on-going foreclosure and subsequent credit crisis should offer important lessons for housing policy and public policy more broadly. Chief among these lessons might be the falsity of the notion that government regulation is always bad.<span> </span>But some conservative commentators cling to the dogma that government intervention is the root of all evil. An explanation being offered by some is that government intervention in the form of Community Reinvestment Act encouraged irresponsible lending and led to the subsequent housing bust.
BLOG POST
The Meltdown on Wall Street and America's Cities
<p> With the subprime mortgage and housing bubble crises now metastasizing into the full-blown implosion of the U.S. economy, global markets have been gasping to keep up with the turmoil. Later this week Congress will be pressured to approve a <a href="http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2008/09/23">mind-boggling $700 billion "bailout" package</a> which would effectively transform Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson Jr. into an <a href="http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/0923/p01s06-usec.html">"overseer" of the entire economy</a>, with complete and unassailable power to purchase so-called "toxic" debts from any bank he chooses.<br />
FEATURE
Park(ing) Day in L.A., 2008
Some 'parkers' faced police harassment, but on the whole Park(ing) Day 2008 was sunny and positive, as Los Angelenos put their own stamp on the celebration. In this video slideshow, we take a tour of some of L.A.'s parking spot parks.
BLOG POST
Sprawl Hell and Sprawl Heck
<br /> <p class="MsoNormal"> Last Friday, I was in two different suburban environments in Atlanta.<span> </span>Both are sprawl by any normal definition of the term - car-oriented environments where residential streets are separated from commerce, sidewalks are rare, and densities are low.<span> </span>But the two places are as different as sprawl and new urbanism. </p>
BLOG POST
My Pre-Professional Paradigm Shift
<p> More than anything, I remember laughing at them. While I, as a bright-eyed undergrad, woke up at 11 to enjoy my very liberal arts classes in everything from gerontology to the physics of music, the business students would trudge out the door in suits and ties. For class. In late-summer Philly humidity. Eighteen years old and already soulless pre-professional slaves. </p> <p> Poor bastards, I thought. </p> <p> Now that I’m in graduate school, two things keep the schadenfreude at bay as Wall Street drowns in its own excesses. One, karma’s a bitch. And two, as a soon-to-be planner, I’m quickly realizing I’ve become one of them. </p>
BLOG POST
Testing Vancouver's Urbanism by Pedal and Foot
<span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: 'Courier New'">I occasionally get accused locally of being too much of a "booster" for Vancouver's success and reputation in city-building and urban design. Although I usually tend to mix in a healthy dose of "constructive</span><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: 'Courier New'"> candour</span><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: 'Courier New'">" on how we need to improve, if there's truth to this accusation, I'd say I come by it honestly. First off, I've been an admirer and careful student of the Vancouver approach to urbanism, as imperfect as it might still be, long before I arrived in the City as Director.
BLOG POST
post-Starbucks planning
<p class="MsoNormal"> <span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'">Starbucks stores have seen a lot of protests. Due to its international brand recognition, the chain became an easy mark for activists looking to draw media attention to concerns from <a href="http://www.dailyprincetonian.com/archives/2002/09/30/news/5504.shtml">genetic engineering</a> to <a href="http://www.iww.org/en/node/4267">union busting</a>, from <a href="http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16692792/">store placements in historically sensitive locations</a> to <a href="http://laughingsquid.com/reverend-billy-arrested-at-astor-place-starbucks/">the company’s opposition to Ethiopia’s application to trademark three types of coffee</a>.
BLOG POST
Driving Versus Public Transit Costs
<p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt" class="MsoNormal"> I often hear debates over the costs of different modes of transportation, particularly between driving and public transit travel. Rising fuel prices have made public transit more attractive for some trips, boosting ridership, but critics point out that for most trips, transit fares are still comparable with fuel costs (for example, at $4 a gallon, fuel costs about $2 for a typical 10-mile trip, comparable to a bus fare in a typical city), and generally take longer. It is therefore legitimate to ask whether public transit really saves money. </p>
FEATURE
Planners: Embrace the Technical!
Chuck Donley argues that planners should get over their fear of being pigeonholed as "the technically-savvy" one in the office and learn to embrace new graphics technologies like Google Earth.
BLOG POST
McCain, Obama, and urbanism
<p> The battle for the White House has reached my inbox, as even listservs about urbanism crackle with endorsements and denunciations of Obama, McCain, Palin, etc. <br /> <br /> But all of this frenzied activity assumes that what a President says or thinks is particularly relevant to urban issues. But this need not be so. The policy areas most relevant to sprawl and urbanism, land use and transportation, are not likely to be directly affected by the results of the presidential election. <br /> <br /> In particular, zoning and similar land use issues are generally addressed by state and local governments. Even the most pro-urban president is unlikely to take on anti-infill NIMBYism (1), make strip malls more walkable. or make streets narrower. <br />
BLOG POST
The Magnetic Parking of Tomorrow!, or Ghost Ride Your Whip
<p> Earlier this month, researchers performed a test run of a bus that basically drives itself. It follows a line of magnets embedded in the pavement, coursing exactly along its route and eventually to the bus stop. The tiny magnets on the bus and in the street guide the bus to the perfect parking position at the stop for picking up passengers. It's a cool idea, and a lot of transit agencies are interested. But there are wider applications. Take, for example, my neighborhood, where nobody knows how to park.<br />
BLOG POST
Five Funny Planning YouTube Videos
As the summer winds down, here are a list of the five funniest urban planning videos I've found on YouTube over the years, covering news for Planetizen.
BLOG POST
Orientations, Courses, and Riding the Figurative Bike
<!--StartFragment--> <p class="MsoNormal"> This week will be my first full week of classes at MIT; however, I have actually been here for three.<span> </span>I arrived into Cambridge at the end of August to attend the weeklong department orientation, which was as orientations are – full of very important yet-easy-to-forget information.<span> </span>Alone, the pressure of learning nearly 65 names can induce periodic episodes of amnesia.<span> </span> </p>
BLOG POST
Should we use zoning to preserve manufacturing?
<p class="MsoNormal"> Deindustrialization has wreaked havoc across many American cities and towns.<span> </span>One only need visit the landscape of the rust belt, places like Buffalo, Detroit or Flint, Michigan to get a sense how damaging this transformation can be.<span> </span>Behind the ugly ruins of abandoned factories and shuttered stores are the lives of real people who have suffered.<span> </span>Manufacturing provided jobs, good paying ones at that, that helped create a blue collar middle class. </p> <p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
BLOG POST
On Blogging and Planning
<p style="text-align: justify" class="MsoNormal"> <span><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> <!--[endif]--></span> </p> <p style="text-align: justify" class="MsoNormal"> <span><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> <!--[endif]--></span> </p> <p class="MsoBodyText"> <span>Blogs are emerging as important information sources in the contemporary discourse on cities and city planning. <br /> </span> </p>
FEATURE
Changes to AICP Certification Maintenance Program a Positive Step Forward
Leonardo Vázquez, AICP/PP, applauds recent changes to the AICP Certification Maintenance Program that reduce costs and improve access.
BLOG POST
The Origin of New Urbanism's Persistent Image Problem
Decades after its founding, New Urbanism design movement retains a serious reputation problems among American urbanists.
BLOG POST
Planning for Planning School
<p> I used to have interns. Probably hundreds of them, if you add them up over the years. I lorded over them all—benevolently, of course—while they, with doe eyes and studied eagerness, did whatever they could to impress me and my colleagues. </p> <p> Then this week, at orientation for the University of Pennsylvania’s master of city planning program, I sat in the crowd, one face out of about 70. A plebe once again. </p> <p> Talk about humbling. </p>
BLOG POST
The Accidental Planner
I clearly remember the day that I received a call from MIT faculty notifying me of my acceptance into the Master of City Planning (MCP) program. I could not believe that a department within the illustrious MIT (and I do not say that facetiously), the epitomic bastion of computer geeks, rocket scientists and the like selected me for its MCP program. Moreover, the path that led me to that moment was somewhat accidental. My interest in urban planning, though earnest and fervent today, was not grounded in even the slightest exposure to urban planning or urban design in my pre-MIT life. <br />
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
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Learn the tools for implementing Universal Design in planning regulations.
