Humor

Friday Funny: Gated Community Doubles Down
The Onion skewers suburbia.

An Urbanist’s Guide to St. Patrick’s Day Celebrations
Festivities in these five U.S. cities and towns honor Irish and Irish American culture with an urban planning twist.

Chicago Rat Hole Becomes Viral Urban Sensation
The rodent-shaped sidewalk imprint has captured hearts and imaginations on social media but has proven a headache for neighbors.

Planning for the Snow and an Open Right of Way
The Planning Commission Podcast presents their Chrismas episode.

Friday Fun: Best Cities for Rooftop Dining and Drinking
Just in time for summer’s last hurrah, a list of cities with a reputation for rooftop entertainment.

Friday Funny: How Much Parking Does That Parking Spot Need?
The Onion takes parking requirements to their logical conclusion.

Lawsuit Challenges Arlington County Zoning Reforms
A lawsuit brought by residents charges the county with failing to follow statutory procedures and provide accurate information about recently passed ‘missing middle housing’ reforms.

Friday Funny: Chicago Transit Has Imposter Syndrome
The Onion posits that the CTA’s failures stem from a debilitating fear of having riders rely on them.

Friday Funny: Tired of Walkability? Try the ‘15-Hour City’
Worried that a 15-minute city will restrict your freedoms? Welcome to the alternative.

Should We Continue to Ignore Induced Vehicle Travel Costs?
A recent Planetizen blog claims that urban highway expansions reduce traffic congestion and benefit everyone. That must be a joke! Most planners now recognize that such projects tend to be economically wasteful and contradict community goals.

Friday Funny: ‘Deregulation Works’
A tongue-in-cheek piece from The Onion calls the disastrous train derailment in Ohio a “deregulation success story.”

Friday Eye Candy: Covid-19, Then and Now
The New York Times compared images from readers portraying similar scenes in 2020 and 2022.

Songs About Places 2022: Songs of Protest
An annual list of songs about the places we call home, the places we miss, and the places we visit. In 2022, one of the most conspicuous songs about places took a stand on an ongoing moral crisis.

City-Building Video Games for Planners
Hopefully you got one of these games as a gift today. If not, don’t worry. There are a lot of other occasions to celebrate—maybe try the day after Christmas?

The Best, Worst, and Most Questionable in 2022 Architecture and Design
A list of innovative projects, intriguing design, and flummoxing failures.

‘Roku City’ Would Be a Desirable Place to Live—if it was Real
A streaming box screen saver exhibits better urbanism than many real-life cities.

Friday Funny: Crossing the Street? Good Luck!
The Onion says the quiet part out loud to illustrate the real philosophy behind many road safety strategies.

Keanu Reeves, Daniel Burnham Dream No Longer a Reality
Keanu Reeves will no longer portray Daniel Burnham in a film adaptation of The Devil in the White City.

"Imagineering" Versus Planning
The conference of the California chapter of the American Planning Association took place across the street from Disneyland this week. What Disney does for fictional landscapes, planners must do for real landscapes.

What Is a Woonerf?
The woonerf, a type of road design that encourages multimodal transportation and blends pedestrian and vehicle space, was born as a reaction to the car-centric development that began dominating American and European city planning in the mid-twentieth century.
Pagination
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.
Heyer Gruel & Associates PA
City of Moreno Valley
Institute for Housing and Urban Development Studies (IHS)
City of Grandview
Harvard GSD Executive Education
Salt Lake City
NYU Wagner Graduate School of Public Service
City of Cambridge, Maryland