Community Engagement
Will Social Media Revolutionize the Planning System?
Joe Peach understands "that online technologies and the city are becoming increasingly integrated," and argues that social media should have a democratizing effect on the planning process.
Giving Neighborhoods a Role in PlaNYC
New York City's long-term sustainability plan is coming up on its three-year anniversary. Tom Angotti says that now's the time to take its broad citywide efforts down to the neighborhood level.
Connecting New York City's Immigrants With Parks
This piece from Urban Omnibus looks at a collaborative effort in New York City to get immigrant populations better engaged in the city's public parks.
The Highs and Lows of The Pittsburgh Marathon
The Pittsburgh Marathon was canceled for five years due to budget constraints, but a recent study shows that the 2009 race generated over $22 million in spending.
A Life Creating Community
A review of a new book Building Commons and Community by Karl Linn, a landscape architect and psychologist who worked to create vibrant community spaces in abandoned lots and boring institutional settings.
Virtual Planning
An interview with Eric Gordon, who was part of a team that recently won a MacArthur grant for using Second Life as a community planning tool.
A Community Vision for Boise
Residents in the greater Boise area are teaming up for a community visioning process they hope will help guide future physical and economic development in the region. It's been tried before, but organizers argue this time will be different.
Sprawl To Blame for Lack of Community Involvement
In central New Jersey, all the signs that usually indicate extensive community involvement are there: affluence, education, and diversity. But in reality, participation levels are low. A new study shows that sprawl may be the culprit.
Community Participation Shapes Katrina Recovery
Steven Bingler of Concordia Planning and Architecture discusses the process and thinking behind the Unified New Orleans Plan, which engaged large numbers of citizens to plan the recovery of their neighborhoods in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.
Students Bring Neighborhood's Plans to Life
Students in Ohio State University's City and Regional Planning department worked closely with the Franklinton neighborhood in Columbus to create a new vision for the community.
Green Neighborhood Plan Has Residents Riled
As Mayor Bloomberg moves forward with an eco-friendly redevelopment for the crumbling Willets Point neighborhood, locals feel pushed aside and complain that eminent domain is out of control.
DIY Urbanism
I think many planners, in principle, agree that public involvement and grass-roots approaches to planning are necessary. The emphasis on the sheer numbers of people a plan "includes" is only one recent example of our profession’s emphasis on public involvement. But I think deep down, many colleagues see a distinctive split between involving the public and empowering them to implement. Involving is necessary and important to get any plan endorsed. But once that plan is complete, the public (residents, business owners, local stakeholders) is many times not regarded as an implementation partner except perhaps in roles of advocacy.
A Guide to Taser-Free Public Meetings
We all saw it on the Internet—the fellow at a public meeting being hauled away from the microphone before getting wrestled to the floor and tasered during a Q&A with John Kerry. Fortunately, silencing argumentative speakers with a taser is not a common occurrence at most public meetings. While I might confess that there have been meetings where, in retrospect, one might have secretly wished one was armed with a stun gun, facilitators generally try to avoid confrontation. Yet there’s no denying that sometimes people show up at public meetings looking for a fight, begging for outrage, and hoping to irritate and inflame.
Revisiting Robert Moses
The message from last weekend's two-day symposium at Columbia University, the Queens Museum and the Museum of the City of New York on Robert Moses: many aspects of the master builder's place in history haven't been told, despite Robert Caro's 1,162-page Pulizter Prize-winning biography; and that New York may need to rethink the paradigm for big plans and community engagement as the unique metropolis makes new investments in transit, roadways and large redevelopment projects from Ground Zero to Hudson Yards.
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 Santa Clarita
Ascent Environmental
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
