Exclusives

720 Bus at Vermont and Wilshire

BLOG POST

The Twitter Spat Heard 'Round the Planning World

It's understandable if you were too busy reveling in the holidays to catch the details of a controversy between Elon Musk and Jarrett Walker. The disagreement took on a life of its own on social media.

January 2 - James Brasuell

White House

FEATURE

The Most Popular Posts of 2017

All the planning news that's fit to print.

December 26 - James Brasuell

Walking the Dog

BLOG POST

Eyes on the Street

The concept of "eyes on the street" is relevant to a wide variety of neighborhoods, not just the low-rise urban areas that Jane Jacobs wrote about.

December 21 - Michael Lewyn

Washington D.C.

FEATURE

D.C.'s Wharf Makes the City's Housing Problems Worse

Did The Wharf, a new mixed use mega project in Washington, D.C., deliver enough public benefit to warrant its large public subsidy?

December 19 - Jerrod A. Laber

Freeway houses

BLOG POST

A New Traffic Safety Paradigm

Despite numerous traffic safety programs, traffic death rates have not declined in a decade and recently started to increase. We can do better! A new paradigm identifies additional safety strategies that reduce both crash rates and risk exposure.

December 18 - Todd Litman


Theater

FEATURE

2017's Best Songs About Places

Our favorite genre of music is the one that celebrates places.

December 18 - James Brasuell

Furnicular

FEATURE

Forget 'Smart'—We Need 'Context Cities'

Frequent Planetizen contributor Charles R. Wolfe reflects on reconciling global forces and local context in cities across three continents.

December 17 - Charles R. Wolfe


Watershed

BLOG POST

3M Co. and Others Sued in Tennessee River Pollution Case

Another large corporation is accused of misleading the public about its impacts on the environment. This time, drinking water is at stake.

December 13 - Kayla Matthews

Poverty in the Depression

BLOG POST

No Place to Call Home: A Review of 'Homeless: Poverty and Place in Urban America'

In a history of the skid rows in American cities from the late 19th century until the urban renewal era of the 1960s, Ella Howard tells of the impoverished people who inhabited them and the policy choices that supported their existence.

December 13 - Linda Day

Los Angeles

BLOG POST

A Sermon for the Homeless

A recent conference hosted by the American Institute of Architects in Los Angeles shined a light on efforts to reduce homelessness in Los Angeles—and demonstrated just how much work must be done nationwide to solve this humanitarian crisis.

December 10 - Josh Stephens

High Line Crowds

BLOG POST

No, Your City Is Not Overcrowded

One common argument against new housing (especially in Manhattan) is that the city is "overcrowded."

December 6 - Michael Lewyn

Library

FEATURE

Planetizen's Top Ten Books of 2017

Planetizen is pleased to release its list of the best books published in 2017 on the subjects of planning, design, and development.

November 30 - Josh Stephens

Christmas Tree

BLOG POST

All I Want for Christmas Is a New Transportation Planning Process

I put my Christmas wish in a little early this year—wanted to give Santa time to deliver, and it's not an easy wish to grant. No data, no graphs, no citations, just some thoughts to share.

November 30 - Steven Polzin

London High-Rise Fire

BLOG POST

Unfortunate Lessons for City Planners From the Grenfell Tower Fire

The Grenfell Tower Fire in London took the lives of 71 people, and investigators are still searching for lessons from the tragedy. American planners shouldn't neglect these lessons, either.

November 29 - Kayla Matthews

Cul de Sac

FEATURE

The Block Fallacy, or How Not to Build a Circulation System

An examination of the Block Ordinance as a panacea for the ailments of modern cities.

November 28 - Fanis Grammenos

Public Comment

BLOG POST

The Truth About Creating Policy: It Can't Be Evidence-Based

Research in cognitive sciences is dictating that we can no longer rely on the presentation of scientific facts when building policy.

November 19 - Steven Snell

Glen Ellen, California

FEATURE

Could Autonomous Vehicles Save Lives in Disasters?

Autonomous vehicles could provide life-saving assistance in the event of a large-scale evacuation, if a shared fleet of autonomous vehicles is built with this purpose in mind.

November 15 - Michael R. Boswell

Brooklyn Construction

BLOG POST

High Rents: Are Construction Costs the Culprit?

Rejecting the common argument that cities can never be affordable because of high construction costs.

November 12 - Michael Lewyn

Germany

BLOG POST

Planners for Climate Action to Launch at COP-23 Bonn

As part of Human Settlements Day at COP-23 on November 11, Planners for Climate Action will feature representatives of professional planners associations and planning school associations worldwide.

November 9 - Bruce Stiftel

Tianjin, China

BLOG POST

Urban Planning Helps to Control Air Quality for Chinese Cities

Yuan Man guest blogs about a recent article in the Journal of Planning Education and Research.

November 9 - JPER

Top Books

An annual review of books related to planning.

Top Schools

The definitive ranking of graduate planning programs.

100 Most Influential Urbanists

The who's who of urbanism, according to Planetizen readers.

Urban Planning Creators You Should Know

A short list of voices on social, video, and podcasting platforms.

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.

Write for Planetizen