Community / Economic Development
Retail Outlook Improving, Fewer Stores Closing
And more stores are opening, according to Retail Traffic Magazine. An estimated 35,000 new stores are predicted to open in 2011, while closings will likely be less than last year.
Christmas Downtown is Saved
Downtown Elizabethtown, North Carolina is in the middle of a huge redevelopment project, and customers were avoiding the mess causing a blue Christmas for shopowners. City Hall stepped in and put a hold on revitalization, and Santa is back in town.
Niagara Falls, New York: The Epitome of Bad Urban Planning
An extensive piece in Bloomsburg BusinessWeek uncovers the bad ideas and worse decisions that led to the downfall of Niagara Falls, New York. Step one? Replacing the historic downtown with "a bunch of modernist follies."
Mapping Demographic Change in the West
High Country News offers a look at the Western U.S., based on recently released data from the U.S. Census Bureau, using a mapping tool from The New York Times.
Big Boxes Going Urban
Big box retailers are continuing to target urban markets, and finding new ways to squeeze their large sizes into dense urban settings.
How Cities Can Survive Rising Temperatures
Temperatures are warming all over the planet. The new book "Climatopolis" looks at what cities can do to survive.
Israel's Urban Outlier
Capitalism and bourgeois values built the city of Tel Aviv, which stands today as an outlier in Israel, according to this article.
Status Quo Sprawl Lives On in Fresno
The approval of a massive shopping center in Fresno, California, highlights the city's inability to move beyond its sprawl-centric tendencies, according to this piece from The Fresno Bee.
Shrinking Cities Means Shuttered Churches
The Archdiocese of Detroit is working with city planners and local demographers as they develop their plans for Catholic parish closures.
Big Signs May Top Downtown Seattle Buildings
Seattle is considering a new policy that will allow companies to place large signs atop buildings downtown. It's part of an effort to lure companies downtown, but many locals are outraged.
Physicist Tackles Urban Theory
Physicist Geoffrey West of the Santa Fe Institute applied his talents to unraveling urban issues like population growth in a similar vein that he did earlier with biology. He found answers that explain how all cities work if enough data is supplied.
The Spatial Divide of Income Levels
Writing for Next American City, Yonah Freemark reviews recently released Census data to find increasing income levels in inner cities, and a growing spatial divide between poorer populations.
Streetcar the Savior?
Streetcars are increasingly seen as boons to local economies. And with a $130 million federal fund aimed at streetcar projects, some are expecting more systems to develop, according to this article. Others, though, still question the investment.
Census Proves That Downtowns Are Coming Back
Earlier this week, the new American Community Survey data was released. Daniel Nairn writes that the new data show "a reversal of the 20th century story of urban decline."
Federal Fiscal Reform's Impact at Lower Levels of Government
The Obama Administration is hoping to address the nation's huge deficits. Neal Peirce looks at how proposed solutions might trickle down to states and municipalities.
Five Technologies That Matter For Cities
Mobile broadband, government-sponsored cloud computing, smart devices - these are a few of the technologies that cities should be thinking about for the future, says the Institute for the Future in a new report.
A Voluntary Property Tax?
More cities are exploring the use of PILOT programs (Payments In Lieu Of Taxes) as a way to supplement ailing city coffers. The gist is that large non-profits, which are used to paying no property taxes, are being asked to chip in for city services.
Cities: Art and the Creative Class Aren't Going to Save You
Thomas Sevcik says that hoping for an economic benefit by attracting the creative class and artists is a wrongheaded strategy.
'Ugly' Tourism in Belgium
An entrepreneur in a declining industrial city takes visitors on an 'Urban Safari.'
The More Cars You Own, The More Likely You'll Default
That's the conclusion of a new study published in the Journal of Sustainable Real Estate. Higher WalkScores also show a decrease in defaults, unless you're in a low-income area, which results in an increase in defaults.
Pagination
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EMC Planning Group, Inc.
Planetizen
Planetizen
Mpact (formerly Rail~Volution)
Great Falls Development Authority, Inc.
HUDs Office of Policy Development and Research
NYU Wagner Graduate School of Public Service