Urban Revitalization
Stagnant Sales Hamper Chicago's Revitalization Efforts
Failing to attract buyers even with deep discounts, developers are starting to bail out on Plan for Transformation, an ambitious program that seeks to replace moribund public housing projects with mixed-income housing.
Using Adaptive Reuse as a Tool for Urban Redevelopment
Architect Alan Pullman talks about how adaptive reuse and green architecture can be used to revitalize urban neighborhoods and springboard economic growth, using a recent project to demonstrate.
Intercity Bus Travel Outstrips Air and Rail in Growth
A recently released report reveals that intercity bus travel has reversed a decades-long trend of decreased use and shows that the industry is growing at double the rate than air travel, reports Jonna McKone of TheCityFix.
Transit Transformation in New Orleans
Jonna McKone asks, "How can transportation and urban development—from housing to public spaces to landscaping—repair a blighted American city?"
A Good Mayor is Hard to Find
Steven Malanga looks at how Newark's Cory Booker and Detroit's Dave Bing are reforming their troubled cities.
Recession Chic in Braddock, PA
Braddock has become the poster child for a sort of bootstrap revitalization - an attitude that Levi's wants to rub off on their jeans. In exchange for using Braddock as a brand enhancer, the company built Braddock a community center.
The End of Sprawl As We Know It...NOT
As the housing market collapsed and gasoline prices spiked in 2007, many planners may have read Cornell University law professor Eduardo Penalver’s essay in the Washington Post with more than a little satisfaction.
Commuting By Escalator
A system of escalators in Hong Kong, installed in 1993 to create a new connection between districts, has become an unusual and popular way to commute Hong Kong's steep streets.
Revitalization, Without Gentrification
That's the trick architect Gregory Henriquez is trying to pull off in a rundown section of Vancouver, in one of the biggest redevelopment projects the city has seen yet.
A Little Green Goes A Long Way
St. Louis' Citygarden Sculpture Park is already being compared to NYC's High Line for its success in revitalizing a previously unused parcel of land.
Big Ideas Take Hold of Detroit
The American dream is alive and well in Detroit, as artists, urban farmers, and intellectuals see opportunity.
Tea Leaves in Cleveland
In January 1992, The New York Times Sunday Magazine ran a piece by Columbia’s Nicholas Lemann, titled “The Myth of Community Development”. It was then - timed to provoke critical thinking about the Clinton Administration’s vanilla urban policy of Empowerment Communities (EZ/EC) - a poignant evaluation of community development, and it asked hard questions. Questions about the capacity of local organizations, the wisdom of economic development efforts in the hands of anemic CDCs. Neither wholly right nor wrong, the piece put on the table a necessary skunk: was it sensible to try to revitalize the inner city using the tools and thinking then at hand?
Phoenix Hopes for Light Rail Revitalization
Phoenix is counting on a new light rail system to revive one of the city's long-ignored commercial corridors when trains start operation at the end of the year.
Urban Renewal: Tragedies and Ironies Yesterday and Today
One of the most interesting things that I have learned in school thus far is the history of the urban renewal program. As a budding urban planner, I have often used the term “urban renewal” interchangeably with “urban revitalization” to describe the process of neighborhood improvement via economic and housing development. Regardless of the term I used, I was very clear that revitalization – or renewal – was a catch-22. The implementation of business and housing developments would jumpstart a neighborhood deemed blighted and consequently, only affluent residents could afford to enjoy the amenities of the revitalized neighborhood.
Bake Sale Revitalization
Elvira's Cakes is a home business that outgrew the kitchen and settled into Kansas City's ailing downtown. The city is looking to small business people like Elvira to breathe new life into Kansas City's struggling districts.
'It's A Little Like Add Water, Instant Neighborhood'
...so says one resident of Atlanta's Inman Park neighborhood, which has gone from deserted industrial buildings to dense, urban community in four years.
Preservation vs. Revitalization in Seattle
Planners in Seattle want to add housing to Little Saigon, a neighborhood with a strong Vietnamese culture, without disrupting the district's character or displacing residents.
Giant Public Sculptures to Transform Ailing Region
Artist Anish Kapoor, creator of the famous "mirrored jellybean" in Chicago's Millennium Park, is creating a new series of massive sculptures for five depressed cities in Yorkshire. Backers hope the art will transform the region.
The Transformation of a Neighborhood
Steven Malanga writes about the resurrection of Bushwick, a Brooklyn neighborhood, from its decrepit past.
Emptying Suburbs Sign of Things to Come
CNN reports on the growing chaos in suburbs emptied by the mortgage crisis, and what they tell us about the future of the American dream.
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
