Public Health
Acceptable Deaths
What can we learn from our Covid response?
Federal Funding Boosts California Effort To Seal Abandoned Oil Wells
The state’s oil-producing regions are dotted with oil wells that contribute to water and air pollution and threaten public health.
Extreme Heat as a Public Health Crisis
Cities can take action to improve conditions during extreme heat events and prevent heat-related deaths, many of which occur in low-income communities.
Report: The West Is the Worst for Air Quality
Thanks to longer fire seasons and increasingly intense blazes, Western states are experiencing the nation’s worst air quality.
After Waiting Two Days, Justice Department Appeals Transit Mask Ruling
Mystery surrounds the decision by the Biden administration to not ask for an immediate stay of an unanticipated district court ruling to vacate the CDC's masks-on-transit rule. Two days later they appealed as coronavirus cases increase nationwide.
How To Preserve Both Affordable Housing and Urban Trees
Housing and environmental activists are calling on the city to commit to a ‘Trees and’ approach, rejecting the perceived conflict between housing affordability and a healthy urban tree canopy.
Where Redlining and Oil and Gas Drilling Intersect
Research shows neighborhoods historically redlined by the federal government have twice as many oil and gas extraction projects as “desirable” neighborhoods.
How Repairing and Modernizing Aging Homes Can Contribute to Housing Affordability
Weatherization and efficiency upgrades can reduce energy costs and keep older homes habitable, but many low-income households are excluded from federal funding.
What Is CEQA?
Designed to assess the environmental impacts of new projects and provide mitigation measures, the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) has a controversial history, sometimes serving as a convenient tool for groups intent on stopping or slowing development.
Reimagining Public Space in the Post-COVID Era
The pandemic forced a large-scale reexamination of how public spaces and urban form impact public health and equity. Now, policymakers can learn from those innovations to plan for the future of cities.
More Unhoused New Yorkers Died in 2021 Than in any Prior Year
New York City saw its deadliest year for people living in shelters or public spaces, with the pandemic and a rise in deadly overdoses fueling a fatal epidemic.
Where Urban Design And Public Health Intersect
As the pandemic emphasized, the way we design our cities can have lasting impacts on residents' health and wellness.
The Relationship Between Walkability and Public Health
New research indicates that improving public health requires targeted investments in more than just pedestrian facilities.
Let the Endemic Planning Begin
The first state in the nation to issue a stay-at-home order to slow the spread of a novel coronavirus that humans had no immunity from became the first to release an actual endemic plan, complete with a fancy acronym, SMARTER.
Residents Call for Highway Removal in Seattle Neighborhood
As more planners begin to question the value of urban freeways, communities that have long borne the negative impacts of highway construction are fighting back with data.
Bike Helmets No Longer Required in Seattle After Research Reveals Enforcement Disparities
The data on bike helmets have changed. Laws are starting to change too.
Supreme Court: OSHA Exceeded its Public Health Authority
The Supreme Court ruled that the Occupational Safety and Health Administration had overreached its authority to protect the health of workers in large private companies. In a separate decision, it upheld a vaccine mandate for most healthcare workers.
Racial Disparities in Life Expectancy Are a Place-Based Problem
New research from the Brookings Institution illuminates the racial disparities of public health outcomes both during and before the pandemic.
Seattle Neighborhood Calls for Highway Removal
South Park becomes the latest community to call for the removal of a highway segment that has cut off the neighborhood from local amenities for decades.
What Can Lessons From Traffic Safety Teach About the Covid Response?
Finger waggings aren't effective for pedestrian safety—so why should they work for public health? A "safe system" approach, created for traffic safety in Sweden, offers a model for improved pandemic public health outcomes, according to this opinion.
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
