North America
The Best Rec Centers of the Recent Past
Writing in Urban Land, Ron Nyren identifies ten community/recreation centers completed in the last five years that go far beyond merely providing exercise opportunities, to better serve their communities.
Hard Road Ahead
Michael J. Coren has a preview of an MIT report that lays out the economic and environmental benefits of stiffer pavement.
Can Nonprofits Tap Into the $17.5 billion Market in Distressed Mortgages?
The sale of distressed mortgages is far less publicized than talk of the market for foreclosed properties. But these loans are being actively traded—in 2011 this activity included 149,000 loans which translates to roughly $26 billion in trades.
Suggestions for Harnessing the Power of the Crowd
As cash-strapped and technologically savvy governments increasingly look to harness the power of the crowd, William D. Eggers and Rob Hamill offer suggestions for "Five Ways Crowdsourcing Can Transform the Public Sphere."
A Manifesto for New Urbanism's Next Movement
Building on one of the reverberating themes from this month's CNU 20 in West Palm Beach, Joe Nickol proposes the path of evolution for a movement that has become the new norm, but may have overlooked some critical issues in the process.
The Housing Market Revolution
Haya El Nasser describes the housing market's fundamental structural changes as the housing industry rethinks what type of housing to build and where to build it.
Haggling Over High-Speed Rail Funds
Burgess Everett and Adam Snider look at the growing debate over where to allocate limited high-speed rail funds: on the East Coast, where rail already has a foothold, or out West, where California has the land and starter funds to make it happen.
What Are the Most Bikeable Cities?
The folks behind Walk Score, the incredibly popular walkability measure, are beta testing a new metric that judges the bikeability of cities, writes Jess Zimmerman.
Has New Urbanism Reached a Midlife Crisis?
On the occasion of the 20th Congress for the New Urbanism, running through the weekend in West Palm Beach, Anthony Flint looks at what happens when a revolutionary movement becomes part of the establishment.
America's Greenest Colleges
The sustainability of an institution is becoming an increasingly important factor in decisions of where to attend college. As a result, Princeton Review has teamed up with the USGBC to produce a green guide to 320 U.S. colleges, writes Ben Schiller.
How Can We Create Effective Regional Planning?
Kaid Benfield looks at shortcomings of the dominant national apparatus for regional planning - the Metropolitan Planning Organization - through the lens of transportation, and pines for new mechanisms for regional cooperation.
How Much is a Tree Worth to a City?
Nate Berg reports on several recent pilot studies that have quantified the economic, aesthetic and energy saving benefits of urban trees and why the costs for replacing them can be formidable.
America's Most Economically Sustainable Small Communities
Ben Schiller delves into recent rankings that aim to demonstrate how smaller sized counties can achieve sustainable economic impacts.
As the Enclosed Mall Era Fades, Learning Lessons, Both Bad and Good
For all the bad press that the traditional enclosed mall receives today from planners, there are certainly retail strategies they excelled at that will be pertinent long into the future, argues Geoff Dyer.
More Signs of the Big-Boxalypse
The era of big-box retail dominance is coming to an end. That's the opinion of David Welch, Chris Burritt and Lauren Coleman-Lochner, writing in Bloomberg on the occasion of Best Buy's recent announcement that it is closing 50 big stores.
Do Urban Minds Think Alike?
Ryan Sager looks at the results of two recent studies that explore the ways in which cities, commonly lauded as bastions of diversity, actually incubate groupthink.
What is the Future for Tradititional Neighborhood Design?
John Handley looks at the popularity of New Urbanism over the past two decades and asks whether traditional neighborhood design will continue to flourish in the 21st century, as the housing market rebounds.
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.
City of Albany
UCLA Lewis Center for Regional Policy Studies
Mpact (formerly Rail~Volution)
Chaddick Institute at DePaul University
City of Piedmont, CA
Great Falls Development Authority, Inc.
HUDs Office of Policy Development and Research
