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Beloved and Abandoned: A Platting Named Portland
For American planners, Portland, OR is held up as a shining example of urban planning, and credit is given to its compact grid. But is Portland's grid worthy of adulation? Perhaps not, say Fanis Grammenos and Douglas Pollard of Urban Pattern Associates.
19 October 2009 - 5:00am
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A Backyard Battle: Trials of a Garden-Variety NIMBY
Nandita Godbole advocates for parks and greenspaces around Atlanta. But when faced with a struggle over keeping her own quarter-acre backyard open and free, she found she was powerless.
8 October 2009 - 5:00am
Time for HUD to Rethink Rental
HUD needs to rethink its emphasis on home ownership and refocus on rentals, argues John Kromer of the Fels Institute of Government.
28 September 2009 - 5:00am
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Let's Teach Children Planning
Planners often encounter ineffective public participation because of the fact that citizens often are not taught planning skills in school, says Michael A. Rodriguez.
24 September 2009 - 5:00am
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Goodbee Square: the Quest for a Contemporary Urban Pattern
Duany Plater-Zyberk and Company was hired to turn a greenfield about 50 miles north of New Orleans into a 1,280-unit blend of town and rural living. In the process, they proposed a radical new way of looking at the street grid. Fanis Grammenos explains.
24 August 2009 - 5:00am
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Placemaking Through Zoning
Zoning is often portrayed as the great evil of city planning, but Les Pollock of Camiros argues that we shouldn't dismiss the power of zoning to create great communities.
13 August 2009 - 3:00am
Building for the Multicultural
Builder Fernando Pagés Ruiz discovered by accident that the multicultural groups in his community had special needs that weren't being met.
3 August 2009 - 5:00am
Planners Needed As Building Rebounds in Australia
Australia, like most of the world, is feeling the hurt of the economic recession. But the rebound is happening, a fact that's especially evident in the building and development world. As new projects get going, the need for planners is on the rise. To meet that need, Australia is increasingly looking beyond its shores.
16 July 2009 - 5:00am
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Don't Fear the 'Dozer
Opinions are flying in the debate over whether or not ailing cities like Detroit should bulldoze their empty neighborhoods. John Kromer of the Fels Institute of Government adds a rational note with this op-ed, explaining what The Flint Model for shrinking cities actually entails.
13 July 2009 - 5:00am
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Greening America's Roadways
Our nation's roads must be greener, says David Wenzel of HNTB. A green road is one that is designed, built and maintained in a manner that protects and enhances the environment, lessens the impact on its surroundings, and encourages mass transit.
6 July 2009 - 5:00am
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Joining Up Transportation, Housing, and Environmental Policy
Robert Puentes argues that a new federal interagency partnership, debuted before the Senate this week, could provide the federal leadership necessary for a unified vision of transportation, housing, and environmental policy designed to tackle our interrelated economic, energy, and climate challenges.
22 June 2009 - 5:00am
Reinventing America's Cities: Discovering Opportunities by Challenging Biases
Dr. Aseem Inam takes writers on urbanism and architecture to task for spreading stereotypes about "third world cities", particularly when used to generalize about urban form.
15 June 2009 - 9:47am
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Community Energy Planning and the Stimulus -- Take a Time Out!
Stimulus money is available for a variety of energy efficiency projects, but many understaffed cities are having trouble meeting the impending deadlines. Jessica Millman, Joe Schilling, and Kathryn McCarty have found a loophole that can help.
11 June 2009 - 5:00am
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Crafting the Next Generation of Smart Growth Policies
The Lincoln Institute of Land Policy spent two years looking at smart growth policies in a number of states to see how well they've achieved their goals. Gregory K. Ingram, President of the Institute, explains the results.
8 June 2009 - 5:00am
Making Grocers More Appetizing to Developers
Last week, Mayor Bloomberg's office announced an initiative to encourage developers to include grocery stores in new projects. Nevin Cohen, whose research focuses on urban food system, reviews the plan.
25 May 2009 - 5:00am
Capturing the Value of Transit
With stimulus funding creating new transit projects across the country, now may be a great time to use innovative methods for funding development around transit, say Nadine Fogarty and Gloria Ohland of the Center for Transit-Oriented Development. Portland and Denver are just two communities that have seen property values rise around rail.
11 May 2009 - 5:00am
Should Fuel Taxes Pay For Alternative Transportation?
Planetizen has teamed up with National Journal, a weekly politics and policy magazine, to explore transportation issues. As part of National Journal's Transportation Experts blog, we've asked Planetizen Interchange bloggers and National Journal's Transportation Experts whether money from the Highway Trust Fund should be used for non-highway projects like bike lanes and pedestrian walkways.
4 May 2009 - 9:00am
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Small Town Sustainability: Prospects for Collaboration in a Global Age
Slow Cities? Swedish sustainability? Collaborative networks of small towns across the world are coming together to share knowledge and drive innovation, particularly when it comes to sustainable living. Heike Mayer and Paul L. Knox of Virginia Tech are authors of a new book on small town sustainability.
20 April 2009 - 5:00am
The Disproportionate Costs of Resort Developments
A new report out of Oregon suggests that the fiscal costs of successful resort developments significantly outweigh their benefits -- and taxpayers are burdened with the tab. Erik Kancler of Central Oregon LandWatch explains.
16 April 2009 - 5:00am
Citizen Recovery Efforts Hit Government Barriers in New Orleans
When architects Anne Van Ingen and Wes Haynes set out to aid the New Orleans recovery effort by restoring a home in the Ninth Ward for low income buyers, they thought their work would be welcomed. But bureaucratic interference and misguided policies have turned a good deed into a nightmare, writes Roberta Brandes Gratz.
23 March 2009 - 5:00am
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