Exclusives
BLOG POST
Planning History: A Few of the Late 19th and 20th Century Places you Should Know
<p style="margin-top: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 0in" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'"><span>Earlier blogs have explored books and journals for finding out about the basics of planning <a href="/node/43730" target="_blank">history</a>. In this blog I add to this by listing a just </span>few of the places it is important to recognize as a planner. It is of course difficult to make such lists but students ask for them with some frequency. Of course, places are one thing and planning processes quite another--and in planning process is very important. Upcoming blogs will deal with plans and processes.</span></span> </p>
BLOG POST
Externalities, Meet Externalities
<p style="text-indent: 0.5in" class="ecxMsoNormal"> (NOTE TO READERS: An expanded, footnote-filled version of this article is online at http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1632935 ) </p> <p style="text-indent: 0.5in" class="ecxMsoNormal"> </p> <p style="text-indent: 0.5in" class="ecxMsoNormal"> <span>Externalities are costs (or benefits) imposed on third parties by another individual’s voluntary action. Government regulations exist at least partially to protect us from externalities created by others.</span> </p>
BLOG POST
Sacrificing Pelicans To Petroleum Gods: Deep Water Horizon Spill Forces Energy Policy Rethink
<p> <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt">Many ancient religions required animal sacrifice to satisfy their gods’ desires. We now sacrifice pelicans, marine mammals and sea turtles to satisfy our desire for cheap oil. </span> </p> <p> <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt"><img src="http://protectfloridasbeaches.org/blog/bird_in_oil_epa.jpg" width="414" height="298" /></span> </p>
BLOG POST
Do You Read These Planning Magazines?
I'm frequently asked for recommendations for good planning magazines. As editors of Planetizen, we come across a staggeringly impressive and diverse array of web-based content. But sometimes there is nothing quite like browsing a good magazine in y
FEATURE
Placemaking for Pot Smoking
Potential legalization of marijuana presents California cities the chance to do a different type of 'greening.' Josh Stephens reports on the land use challenges of regulating California's most lucrative crop.
BLOG POST
Enjoyable voice recognition, is it FINALLY here?
<p> Given today it the release date of the new iPhone, I want to talk about something else at Apple the really caught my attention -- their automated customer care. Last week I had to call Apple to find out how to get the sales tax removed from a purchase given our 501(c)3 status. It was a complicated set of questions I needed to ask -- and yet the conversation was as smooth as talking to a live person. It struck me I was getting a sneak preview of something that is going to radically transform how we use technology on a daily basis -- FINALLY. </p>
BLOG POST
Don't Let Time Dilute Outrage Over BP Gulf Spill
<div> <div> <p> Just because our media-ravenous culture inundates us with more news than we can stomach doesn't mean we should give up on the long term prospects of the BP catastrophe. As the poorly secured well beneath the exploded BP rig <em>Deepwater Horizon</em> continues its high-pressure torrent of not-yet-quantified-but-something-in-the-order-of-tens-to-hundreds-of-thousand-of-gallons-per-day of oil into the gorgeous waters of the Gulf of Mexico, we must not let the drone of time allow us lose sight of the result of horrendous and unforgivable destruction, weak industrial controls, and even weaker environmental morals. We must also not ignore that efforts to “contain” the spill were devised simultaneously with an effort to spare the well. </p>
BLOG POST
What a bus rider wants
<p style="text-indent: 0.25in; line-height: 200%" class="ecxMsoNormal"> <span>As I began to type this, I was on a Greyhound bus somewhere in southern Ontario, on the first leg of my return from Toronto (where I have spent the past year getting an extra degree) to the United States. <span> </span>As I type, it occurs to me to ask myself: what are the interests of the long-distance bus rider?<span> </span>Are they the same as users of other forms of public transit, or closer to those of drivers and truckers?<span> </span>My short answer to these questions is: a little of both.</span> </p>
BLOG POST
Parking Garages Are So Last Century
<p> The parking “epidemic” in Hoboken is so bad that no parking garage conceivable by man can contain our demand. So this week, Hoboken ventures where no city has gone before; we are <a href="http://www.hobokennj.org/news/hoboken-and-hertz-launch-first-city-wide-car-sharing-service-in-america/">rolling out</a> the nation’s first city-wide on-street car-sharing program as a public-private partnership between Hoboken and Connect by Hertz. </p> <p> <img src="/files/u20603/Corner_Car_5_Minute_Walk_Map.jpg" width="503" height="539" /> <img src="/files/u20603/cornercars_sign.jpg" width="415" height="531" /> </p>
FEATURE
Road Diets: Making Streets Slim Down Is Good For Pedestrians, Businesses And Even Traffic
Cities are greatly in need of slimming down their roads, says architect Michael Bohn. A recent project in Long Beach, California shows how curb extensions and street furniture can have a huge impact on the economics of downtowns.
BLOG POST
Valuing The Precious Hours Of Our Lives
<p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt" class="MsoNormal"> <span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small">Time is a limited and valuable resource. As much as possible, people should spend the precious hours of their lives in the most satisfying and productive possible ways. This has important implications for transportation planning, since most people spend a significant amount of time in transport, and travel time savings are often the greatest projected benefits of transport projects such as roadway and transit service improvements.</span> </p>
BLOG POST
In Memoriam: William Mitchell
<div>I learned with great sadness about the loss of William Mitchell, 65, this past friday after a long battle with cancer. Bill was the chair of my Ph.D. committee, a mentor and a friend.</div><div><p> </p>
BLOG POST
Beyond the Trail
<p> A recent Planetizen interview on the <a href="/node/44392" target="_blank">relationship between park space and active living</a> got me thinking about what spaces inspire physical activity and what spaces discourage it. </p> <p> In my old apartment complex, the indoor fitness centers were jammed while the nearby riverside walking trails were desolate, despite nearly perfect year-round weather. Why? The trails were perceived as unsafe because they were completely isolated from view. </p>
BLOG POST
Kentucky's Second Sunday Ciclovia Takes Flight
<!--StartFragment--><p style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-weight: normal; font-family: Cambria">Jay McChord is as energetic and passionate a person as you’ll find in America. While many know him as a generational communication consultant, a Lexington, Kentucky City Councilman, or even as a former University of Kentucky “Wildcat” mascot, livable streets advocates should know him as the chief architect of the only statewide ciclovia program in the United States: Kentucky’s <a href="http://www.2ndsundayky.com/Second"></a>(2S) initiative (<span style="font-family: Cambria, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" class="Apple-style-span"><a href="http://www.2ndsundayky.com/index.htm">http://www.2ndsundayky.com/index.htm</a>).</span></span></p>
BLOG POST
Being Productive On The Bus
<p> In a recent blog post (at http://www.planetizen.com/node/44518) Steven Polzin argues that drivers are more productive because they get places faster. His post, in turn, generated an avalanche of critiques noting the negative externalities of auto travel (e.g. pollution, death and injury from traffic accidents, health costs of obesity, etc.). </p> <p> But what I'd like to address is something else: the positive productivity benefits of transit use. Let's suppose that it takes me 30 minutes to reach destination X on the bus, and 15 minutes by car. Obviously, the car is more productive. Right? </p>
BLOG POST
The Cost of Slow Travel
<p style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt" class="MsoNormal"> <span style="font-size: small; font-family: Calibri">One of the most widely cited numbers in contemporary transportation media coverage and policy discussions is the cost of congestion estimates that Texas Transportation Institute (TTI) annually produces as part of the Urban Mobility Report series. <span> </span><span> </span>The 2009 version of that report (</span><a href="http://mobility.tamu.edu/ums/)"><span style="font-size: small; font-family: Calibri">http://mobility.tamu.edu/ums/)</span></a><span style="font-size: small"><span style="font-family: Calibri"> <span> </span>shows an estimate of the cost of congestion of $87.4 Billion for the top 439 U.S.
BLOG POST
The Search for Community One Sleepover at a Time?
<!--StartFragment--><p class="MsoNormal">I have to admit, listening to Peter Lovenheim talk about his book “In the Neighborhood, The Search for Community on an American Street, One Sleepover at a Time”, spiked my planner’s radar. In his novel, the journalist, quite intentionally, well, the title is self-explanatory isn’t it? It sounded a bit hokey and contrived at first, as did the interview. Lovenheim explained that the only way to truly get to know someone and develop a real sense of intimacy and bond was to sleep in their home and shadow them for the day. But the real story is about the loss of intimacy and comfort among neighbors.
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
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