Sprawl
Should Retrofitting Our Suburbs Take Center Stage?
In this opinion piece from The Huffington Post, Alex Becker argues that retrofitting suburban landscapes with denser development trumps all other sustainability agendas as the single most important path to a more sustainable future.
How Can Montreal Curb Sprawl?
Officials and thinkers from all over came together to brainstorm with Montrealers on how to go about reigning in decades of sprawl. A new Quebec law requires the city to come up with a land use plan by next year.
New L.A. Planning Codes Could Create 'Transit Sprawl'
A new group of activists in Los Angeles is warning that recently approved changes to the city's planning code could make it easier for transit-related projects to be approved even if they are not in alignment with neighborhood planning documents.
The Art of Sprawl
Aerial photographs by photographer Christoph Gielen turn sprawl into beautiful, abstracted images.
Dissecting Wendell Cox
Bill Fulton looks at Wendell Cox's new study linking regulation to high home prices and concludes that it is based on self-fulfilling assumptions.
Cities and Suburbs at War?
There seems to be a lot of rhetoric pitting suburbs and cities against each other in some sort of ideological war. But, as this piece from Grist asks, is that war even real?
Duany and Speck on the Results of Sprawl
In an op-ed, Andres Duany and Jeff Speck discuss how the effects of sprawl they revealed years ago with the release of their book Suburban Sprawl is today being proven.
The "Circus Tent" of Beijing
Dense cities, argues Daniel Garst, are shaped like a pyramid, with the most density in the middle and sloping sides. Beijing, on the other hand, has developed more like a circus tent, with density at the sides but single-story homes in the middle.
The "Contrarian" Myth
Every so often, I read something describing defenders of sprawl as "contrarians", implying that they are underdogs fighting against the elitist, anti-sprawl Establishment. For example, when I did a google.com search for sites including Robert Bruegmann (author of one of the better defenses of the status quo) and the word "contrarian" I found over 1400 "hits." Similarly, a search for websites using the terms "smart growth" and "elitist" yielded over 6000 hits. But realistically, most of the U.S. built environment is sprawl by any concievable definition. So how can it be "contrarian" to defend the status quo?
Measuring the Broader Impacts of Transportation
CEOs for Cities recently published a blistering criticism of The Texas Transportation Institute's "Urban Mobility Report", saying that the way they measure mobility helps justify sprawl. Norman W. Garrick says CEOs for Cities doesn't go far enough.
New Jersey Moves Away From McMansion Trend
In the face of a recent report showing that sprawl was rapidly eating up developable land in New Jersey, developers have begun to ditch the McMansion in favor of taller and more dense projects.
A Post-Sprawl Los Angeles
CNN's Richard Quest takes an incredulous look at the changes brewing in Los Angeles as downtown revitalizes and the city densifies.
Stopping Sprawl, Slowing Emissions, Improving the Economy
A new report suggests that making policies in Canada to avoid urban sprawl development will reduce pollution and boost the economy.
Transportation Research Helped Create Sprawl, New Report Says
We've been measuring traffic congestion all wrong, a new report shows, and that's been making more highways look like the solution to long commutes. They're not.
Sprawl and the Long Commute
Sprawl affects the length of commutes, according to a new study from CEOs for Cities. GOOD visualizes the data with this infographic.
New Study Reexamines Causes and Costs of Congestion
Analysis indicates that compact development reduces the time urban residents spent in traffic and requires less spending on highways.
Urban Sprawl and Development Threatening Biodiversity in Animals
Habitat fragmentation linked with urban sprawl and development has been shown to negatively impact biological diversity in animals, according to new research.
Looking Down on Sprawl
Writing in The New York Times, Geoff Manaugh looks at Christoph Gielen's aerial photography of urban development and sprawl.
Church Goers on the Defense Against New Urbanism's Anti-Sprawl Crusade
This commentary from church architect Randy Bright argues that New Urbanists unfairly attack church sprawl, and that the cost of developing denser communities is the freedom of the people.
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.
Clanton & Associates, Inc.
Jessamine County Fiscal Court
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
