Exclusives
BLOG POST
Transit and seniors
<p> I occasionally have speculated that our aging society would lead to increased transit ridership, as seniors lost the ability to drive. But I recently discovered that seniors are actually less likely to use public transit than the general public. One study by the American Public Transit Association showed that 6.7% of transit riders are over 65 (as opposed to 12.4% of all Americans).(1) The oldest Americans are even more underrepresented on America's buses and trains: only 1.5% of transit riders are over 80, about half their share of the population (2). The only other age group that is underrepresented on public transit is Americans under 18. </p>
BLOG POST
"Willingness and Ability" as Drivers of Community Development
<p> The work of planning at some point becomes the work of doing. </p> <p> Few communities move from planning to executing easily. This is especially notable in weak markets, though it occurs in strong markets too. In weak markets, planning does not typically require anyone to make a commitment. Or to put it more directly, it too seldom requires the community to really make choices. </p>
FEATURE
Top 10 Websites - 2012
Our annual list of the 10 best planning, design, and development websites represents some of the top online resources for news, information and research on the built environment.
BLOG POST
Choosing Ignorance is Stupid
<p class="MsoNormal"> People love statistics. They let us understanding the world beyond our own senses. <em>USA Today</em> publishes a daily <a href="http://www.usatoday.com/news/snapshot.htm">Snapshot</a> which presents a graph of random statistics. Sports talk and business analysis are dominated by statistics. We measure our progress, or lack thereof, and compare ourselves with others, based on statistics about our size, activities and accomplishments. </p>
BLOG POST
Urban Design Graduate Study for Planners
Each year a lot of students ask me "how can I get a degree in urban design?". This is a very big question but in this blog I outline some key questions that those interested in urban design in planning need to consider.
BLOG POST
Does Twitter Support a Better Global Urbanism?
A few weeks ago I had lunch with a friend and fellow urbanist, Bob Ransford. Lunches with Bob are never boring, as we get right into things, and often debate. Bob’s a communications specialist and a longtime member of the Twitteratti (<a href="http://twitter.com/BobRansford" target="_blank">@BobRansford</a>), so amongst discussions about strengthening urbanism in the Cascadia Region, and affordability debates in Vancouver, I asked him a question that’s been on my mind for the last month: Is Twitter a positive tool for global urbanism? Put another way, is twitter facilitating smarter discussions on international city-building, or are we all getting dumber, 140 characters at a time?<br />
BLOG POST
The True Cost of Driving and Travel Behavior
<p style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt" class="MsoNormal"> <span style="font-size: small"><span style="font-family: Calibri"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman"> </span>Over the past few years a variety of documents ranging from contemporary media to more serious research efforts have addressed the cost of auto ownership and use.<span> </span>These estimates are often used to address two important transportation issues, the household benefits of using transit in lieu of auto ownership and/or the consideration of household location decisions in the context of the total cost of housing and transportation.<span> </span>Two often referenced sources of research on these issues are the Center for Neighborhood Technology’s (CNT) initiatives in developing a housing and transportatio
BLOG POST
Traffic deaths and safety: who's really the safest?
<p class="MsoNormal"> William Lucy of the University of Virginia has written extensively on the question of whether outer suburbs are safer than cities or inner suburbs; he argues, based on traffic fatality data, that outer suburbs are certainly less safe than inner suburbs, and maybe even less safe than cities. (1) </p> <p class="MsoNormal"> However, Lucy’s analysis is not particularly fine-grained: it analyzes data county-by-county, rather than town-by-town. What’s wrong with this? Often, suburban cities within a county are quite diverse: some share the characteristics of inner suburbs (e.g. some public transit) while others look more like exurbs. So I wondered whether there is any significant 'safety gap" between inner and outer suburbs. </p>
BLOG POST
Tea Parties and the Planning of America
<p> I recently had the pleasure of sitting on a panel convened by the <a href="http://www.lincolninst.edu/">Lincoln Instititute of Land Policy</a> to discuss the Tea Party and its effects on local planning (a <a href="/node/46583">topic I've discussed earlier on this blog</a>). At one point, the moderator asked if there were any successful techniques that planners could use to effectively deal with Tea Party activists. This was an intriguing question, but also one that I thought was a bit odd. Controversy and conflict are not new to planning; they are built into the very process of American planning because of its inherent openness and inclusiveness.
BLOG POST
Betting on the Enduring Attraction of the Printed Word
<p> Like the rare <a href="http://www.huntington.org/huntingtonlibrary.aspx?id=4132" target="_blank">Corpse flower</a> that blooms every several years, the Los Angeles chapter of the American Institute of Architects is planning to publish yet <a href="http://www.aialosangeles.org/article/advertising-opportunities-with-larchitecture-aia-la-s-new-annual-full-color-magazine" target="_blank">a new magazine</a> exploring and extolling local design, how it impacts “our everyday life,” and “who architects are as people.” Such an effort at such a time deserves notice.<br />
BLOG POST
USA Today: A Rude Wake-Up Call For Cities
<p style="margin: 0px; color: #000000; font-family: arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; font-size: small" class="MsoNormal"> LOGAN AIRPORT, Boston – I’m on my way home from the <a href="http://www.lincolninst.edu/">Lincoln Institute of Land Policy’s </a>Journalists Forum , an annual event, co-sponsored by the Harvard Graduate School of Design and the Neiman Foundation, in which journalists from around the country convene to discuss, jointly, the fate of our industry and the fate of American cities. </p>
BLOG POST
Was Governor Romney Right Suggesting (Perhaps) that HUD Should Be Eliminated?
<p> Set aside whether or not you agree with anything Governor Romney has to say about anything. Set aside whether or not you think it is axiomatic that the people of the United States need a federal agency generally charged with the mission of housing the poor and attending to urban issues. </p> <p> Candidate Romney may be doing us a favor by putting HUD on the table for us as an American community to evaluate. It does not matter if the world that favors the elimination of HUD is largely comprised of what Senator McCain called Tea Party Hobbits; the question as to the merit of keeping HUD or not deserves our attention. </p>
BLOG POST
Winds of Change Blow Through APA 2012
<p> As the APA national conference draws to a close after four days of connecting, collaborating, and conversing, another c-word has been running through my head -- change. Of course, introducing and disseminating change is the currency of such conferences, where sessions are intended to facilitate professional development and transition by introducing attendees to the progressive practices and policies being spearheaded across the professional world. I mean, why else would we attend such events? Surely not only for the raucous opening night party, right? Right?? </p> <p> However, it seems there was more than the usual dose of change in the air during this year's proceedings. </p>
BLOG POST
The End of Exurbia? Not Yet
<p> After the Census Bureau released population estimates showing that core counties were (at least in some metro areas) growing faster than exurban counties, the media was full of headlines about this alleged trend. An extreme example came from the Washington Post: "An end to America's exurbia?" (1) </p>
BLOG POST
Sanitary City vs. Sustainable City - Who Wins, Who Loses?
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BLOG POST
City Planning LOLCATS
<p> APA’s <a href="http://www.planning.org/conference/program/search/activity.htm?ActivityID=157536" target="_blank">Fast, Funny, and Passionate</a> sessions at the national American Planning Association conferences are designed to entertain and educate. I’m serving as the moderator and a speaker at the Sunday morning session. My talk is called “Pin, Post, and Push to Promote Planning.” The purpose is to share lessons about how planners can use social media to promote planning. <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
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.
