Scott Doyon
Planning for People
Instead of planning cities around shiny, tomorrowland dreams of our own invention, how about planning them around something we can count on: the needs of people! Complete with a groovy, vintage planning video mash-up.
Community Dynamics: Stoking or Choking Collective Planning Efforts?
Does your community allow the perfect to become the enemy of the good? Scott Doyon kicks off an ongoing look at community-unfriendly behaviors.
Public Process and the Perils of Dismissive Engagement
Steve Jobs said, "People don’t know what they want until you show it to them.” So why do planners keep asking people what they'd like to see? Scott Doyon believes it's time to dig deeper.
Social Connections and Resilience
Are we growing more connected, yet further and further apart? And how does this bode for the resilience of the communities we share? Scott Doyon finds promise as of yet unfulfilled.
Reduce, Reuse, Recycle Housing
South Front, in Wilmington, NC, made use of an abandoned and decayed, 40s-era public housing project, salvaging and renovating every building rather than scraping the site. Scott Doyon talks about several of the reasons that's cool.
Traditional Cities and Towns: Incubators of Incompetent Children
With tongue firmly in cheek, Scott Doyon asks urban dwellers, "Are your enviable surroundings crippling the children?"
Do You Walmart?
Saying "no" to Walmart does not remove the wants and needs they exist to serve. If you want a more locally-oriented community, you need a more local-friendly system, says Scott Doyon.
Seed Money for Walkability: Who Should Pay?
Who should be required to take the first step in suburban retrofitting? The city, in the form of providing walkable, bikeable streets, or developers, by conforming to pedestrian-oriented building standards?
Constructing a Homebuilding Revolution - Brick by Brick
Is Clay Chapman the Joel Salatin of homebuilding? At $80/SF for a custom, multi-century, structural masonry and timber frame home, he just might be. Scott Doyon enumerates the similarities, and challenges others to get involved.
Seven Social Capital Building Blocks
In the triple bottom line of profits, planet, and people, it's people that tend to get the shaft. Scott Doyon lays out seven ways to change that.
On Authenticity and 'Traditional-Style' Development
Scott Doyon takes on the oft-expressed gripe that Traditional Neighborhood Development somehow feels fake. Doyon sees value in incorporating the collective wisdom learned over generations, regardless of whether it's reminiscent of another time.
Time to Eat the Dog? On the Cost of Casting Judgement
Scott Doyon discusses the dangers of simplification and the counter-intuitive soundbite, which work against the creation of partnerships that are essential to solving some of our biggest challenges.
The Peril of the Pedestrian Mall
Pedestrian malls have had a very mixed success ever since Victor Gruen debuted them back in the 1960s. Scott Doyon says the problem is that going pedestrian-only is the flipside of being autocentric.
Message and Media: Connecting in a Noisy World
Scott Doyon argues that getting the next generation of collaborators involved in community improvement efforts will require more than simply using the tools of social media - it will require connecting with what people are passionate about.
Durable, Custom, and Affordable Homes: This Builder Shows It Can Be Done
Simplify some steps, delete a few details, and you can get an affordable, multi-century house for under $80 a square foot.
Do's and Don'ts for Planning in a Web 2.0 Environment
Is your city looking to engage residents online? The latest generation of tools just might be your savior. Or your demise.
Parenting in the Post-McMansion Era
As oversized homes fall out of fashion, is Junior's private lair disappearing? And is that really so bad?
Innovation when Good Planning Policy Has Become the Norm
Scott Doyon argues for a stripped-down, back-to-basics 'punk rock' approach to urban growth and development to replace the 'rock and roll' excesses of planning during the housing boom; and he profiles the new innovators who are doing just that.
Gas Prices and the Value of Walkable Communities
The average family paid 25% more in gas in 2011 than they did in 2010. With that trend expected to continue into the foreseeable future, the case for the importance of walkable neighborhoods will grow along with it.
Preservationists v. Urbanists
Preservationists are all about preserving our past. Urbanists are all about harvesting lessons from what the preservationists fight for -- to create better places in the future. Seems like these two groups would get along quite well. But no.
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
