Berkeley
Bay Area Not Prepared for Next Big One
As the death toll from Mexico's 7.1 magnitude earthquake on Sept. 19 climbs above 300, the San Francisco Chronicle investigates how well prepared the Bay Area is for an earthquake of comparable magnitude. Not very well.
White Communities in the Bay Area Don't Plan as Much Low-Income Housing as Their Neighbors Do
Goals for low-income housing were lower in majority white cities and communities than they were in their more diverse neighbors.
Putting Teeth into the California Housing Accountability Act
A 35-year-old law is not living up to its moniker, the 'anti-NIMBY law'. A bill co-sponsored by a group associated with the YIMBY movement would fine cities $10,000 per housing unit if they fail to comply with the law.
Berkeley Wants to Fund a Tent City for the Homeless
The city of Berkeley has a radical idea for how to build more transitional housing for its sizable homeless population.
Homeless People and Expensive Housing Cause an Identity Crisis in Berkeley
The city of Berkeley is suffering the consequences of the urban revival—soaring housing costs and humanitarian crises don't reconcile with the city's famously progressive politics.
A Plan to Revolutionize Biking in Berkeley
The city of Berkeley, California released its new Bicycle Plan in October. The plan includes a cycletrack network that would look right at home in Denmark.
California Environmental Law Continues to Frustrate Bike Planning (for Now)
Help is on the way. The law that requires the governor's planning office to devise an alternative method for measuring vehicle traffic for environmental compliance will also take up where an earlier law that exempted bike lanes from CEQA left off.
Berkeley Releases Resilience Plan
Berkeley's Resilience Strategy is one of the first in the nation, and one of the first work products of the Rockefeller Foundation's 100 Resilient Cites network.
Cities Try To Figure Out How To Be 'Resilient'
The organization 100 Resilient Cities has funded 'chief resilience officers' in 66 cities worldwide. It's helping four California cities prepare for 'stresses and shocks' including earthquakes, sea level rise, and even poverty.
Second Largest Bikeshare in U.S. will be Bay Area's by 2017
Bay Area Bike Share will grow from 700 to 7,000 bikes by 2017 after the expansion proposal was approved by a unanimous vote of the Metropolitan Transportation Commission. It is a regional, not a city program, though most usage is in San Francisco.
Bay Area Bike Share Poised to Grow from 700 to 7,000 Bikes
The regional system would expand to the the East Bay cities of Berkeley, Oakland and Emeryville. Bikes would be added in San Jose and San Francisco.
Early Returns for the 'goBerkeley' Market-Pricing Parking Experiment
A three-year pilot program of market-pricing for parking in the university town of Berkeley, California is already revealing surprising realities about parking demand in the city.
East Bay BRT Project Receives $81 Million in Federal Grants
Don't confuse East Bay Rapid Transit with Bay Area Rapid Transit: one's a bus, the other heavy rail. But calling it a bus does not do justice to what will be the Bay Area's first bus rapid transit (BRT) line composed primarily of dedicated lanes.
Campaign 2014 Results: Bay Area Transportation, Land Use, and Soda Tax Measures
Votes exceeded the two-thirds threshold to pass two vital transportation funding measures in San Francisco and Alameda counties. In Berkeley (which passed the nation's first soda tax) and Menlo Park, voters resoundingly reject anti-growth measures.
Anti-Growth Measures Adopting Pro-Growth Language to Survive
John King has reason to believe a cultural shift toward taller buildings and mixed-use neighborhoods is underway in the Bay Area. How? The language used by opponents of those causes.
Are We Approaching Peak Land Use Control?
With an increasing reliance on development regulations and requirements on land owners to satisfy policy goals, are we approaching an unsustainable point in land use controls?
A Primer on Innovative Parking Regulations
Writing for Smart Growth America, Neha Bhatt provides a survey of innovative parking regulation and management strategies in cities around the country.
Downtown Berkeley Getting the Permeable Pavement Treatment
The city of Berkeley is undergoing a pilot installation of permeable pavement for a road calming project by Berkeley High School. The pilot has better storm water drainage, a smaller carbon footprint, and less maintenance than traditional asphalt.
How Streets and Social Justice Intersect
A look at how streets affect health, social interaction, and economic development by Marissa Reilly, a Berkeley-based urban planner and Lillian Jacobson, a master’s candidate at MIT.
Community Gardens as Harbingers of Gentrification
Lauren Markham examines the value of community gardens to the bottom lines of developers—because one person's blighted back yard can easily become another person's veggie garden marketing pitch.
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.
Caltrans
Smith Gee Studio
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
