Exclusives

BLOG POST

Water City Design: Vancouver

Since arriving in Vancouver, I've realized that we are part of a "peer group" of international water cities. Through waterfront design conferences where the same cities seem to get invited time and time again, or through deeper and more interactive collegial opportunities for shared learning such as summits or study trips, these global water cities are taking every opportunity to learn from each other's successes and failures around water-edge planning and design.

October 31 - Brent Toderian

BLOG POST

If You Stripe It, They Will Come

The most recent bicycle counts from two of America's most progressive cities, New York City and Portland, have been made public. The results are impressive as much as they are instructive.

October 31 - Mike Lydon

BLOG POST

Stuart Smalley was a planner!

One of the perks of my job is getting to know new cities and neighborhoods. We research, create a lot of graphics and talk with a lot of people. In the course of those discussions, while people often exhibit pride in where they live, there is also an underlying concern that frequently goes something like this: <ul> <li>“We feel like a last place team – the one that can never get out of the cellar.”</li> <li>“There is a real self-image problem here.”</li> <li>“You can’t do that in [insert name of place here] because we

October 30 - Scott Page

BLOG POST

Championship City

The following post will likely result in the revocation of my Philadelphia residency. It’s heretical to say, especially on a day when the city is on fire (not literally; okay, <a href="http://www.philly.com/philly/gallery/World_Series_Damage.html?index=3">mostly</a> not literally) with excitement. But the city planner in me almost wishes the Phillies hadn’t won last night. Of course I wanted them to win the World Series. Twenty-five years is a long time for any city—let alone a four-sport city—to wait for a championship, and it’s definitely Philadelphia’s time. I’m thrilled to pieces they pulled it out.

October 30 - Jeffrey Barg

FEATURE

The Work of Neighborhood Stabilization

Foreclosures are blighting neighborhoods across the country. There's no question that something needs to be done. But to react effectively, the field of community development needs to carefully consider which areas should be targeted and how much can be saved, argues Charles Buki.

October 30 - Charles Buki

BLOG POST

Halloween Costumes for Urban Planners

It's Halloween and that means it's costume time. But, what's that you say? Too busy updating your comprehensive plan to find a costume? Well, don't fret! I've got some last-minute costume ideas for the busy urban planner that are both fun and planning related.

October 29 - Nate Berg

BLOG POST

Laneway Housing moves forward in Vancouver

When Vancouver City Council approved the new EcoDensity Charter and Initial Actions earlier this year, among these was a prioritized action to further develop the idea of laneway housing. The issues and options report relating to this work program is now available for downloading from the <a href="http://www.vancouver-ecodensity.ca/content.php?id=42" title="EcoDensity">EcoDensity website</a>.

October 28 - Brent Toderian

BLOG POST

The Global Transit Space Race: China's $272 Billion Advantage

This morning I was reading through my daily dose of planning related blogs and dropped in on <a href="http://theoverheadwire.blogspot.com/">The Overhead Wire</a>, Jeff Wood's excellent transit soapbox. One of Jeff's most recent posts links to an October 25th <a href="http://www.news.com.au/story/0,27574,24551437-38197,00.html">Reuters article</a> announcing China's $272 billion dollar investment in new rail infrastructure. Yes, you read that correctly. 272 billion. Can't you see president <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hu_Jintao">Hu Jintao</a> bringing his pinky to his lips, à la Dr. Evil?

October 28 - Mike Lydon

BLOG POST

DIYcity.org - Leveraging Web 2.0 for Smarter Cities

Here in New York City, there is an incredibly popular burger stand in Madison Square Park called The Shake Shack. It's one of the touchpoints for Silicon Alley, and a great meet-up spot. The problem is that its usually insanely crowded, with an hour-long line stretching well across the park.Not to be defeated, Silicon Alley geeks created the Shake Shack Twitter Bot, which serves as a sort of chat room for people to report wait times at the Shake Shack. It's a few dozen lines of code that leverages Web 2.0 technology to make the city smarter, more efficient, and more fun.

October 28 - Anthony Townsend

FEATURE

Stop Development, Stop Traffic?

October 27 - Nate Berg

BLOG POST

Business Not As Usual

Out in the bar, the world as we know it was coming to an end. In the backroom, meanwhile, smart people were trying to figure out the future of suburbia. The bar was in the lobby of a classic desert resort in Arizona. On the TV, CNN was delivering headlines of imminent doom. It was the last days of September, and the foundations of American finance were cracking under the strains of default and distrust.

October 26 - Gordon Price

BLOG POST

Energy Crisis Solved

Technology innovation – that’s all we need to solve the energy crisis! Unleash American ingenuity and we’ll be able to cope with higher energy costs. The Windmillmobile, should go a long way toward reducing petroleum consumption. It seems to work fine unless there is a strong tailwind. The engineers are still working on the sensor to fold down the windmill for garages and overpasses.

October 24 - Steven Polzin

BLOG POST

YouTube For Your Data: Many Eyes on Obama & McCain

<img src="/files/u2/20080827-clip.png" align="right" />Is it possible to condense two weeks of soaring rhetoric by politicians into a single graphic? Let's find out. In my last post I covered free online tools for <a href="/node/34623">creating information graphics</a>. Here is a look at another free online tool that can be used to easily create sophisticated visualizations and information graphics.

October 23 - Abhijeet Chavan

BLOG POST

'Death Wish' and the Life of Great American Cities

City streets need only few things to make them safe, according to the famous urbanist Jane Jacobs. She says safe streets need people walking around, places for them to go, things for them to do and other people for them to interact with. Simple as that. But Jane forgot one more thing: a sock full of quarters.

October 23 - Nate Berg

FEATURE

Curing Urbanitis – the Metropolitan Disease

The problems of today's inner cities and the problems of the suburbs are inextricably linked, says William E. Finley, author of Curing Urbanitis.

October 23 - William E. Finley

BLOG POST

Is the bad economy good for cities?

A few days ago, someone asked a question on one of my listservs about the likely impact of America’s economic crises upon urbanism. The best answer is: it depends.

October 22 - Michael Lewyn

FEATURE

When Financial Bridges Fail

Martin H. Krieger compares the lack of oversight involved in today's financial crisis with the transparency and responsibility involved in making bridges.

October 20 - Martin H. Krieger

BLOG POST

Crises Come And Go, But Smart Policies Live on

A recent report that I coauthored, "<a href="http://www.ltsa.govt.nz/research/reports/357.pdf">Managing Transport Challenges When Oil Prices Rise</a>" provides practical policy guidance on how to manage the risks of rising oil prices by increasing transport system efficiency. People with short attention spans might think that this report is already outdated, since global financial uncertainty has replaced rising fuel prices as the crisis-of-the-month. Leading businesses are bankrupt, employees are frightened, consumers are cautious, and fuel prices plummeting.

October 17 - Todd Litman

BLOG POST

A Vote for the City

The answer is: “Because people today would rather not work and instead just sit at home collecting welfare checks.” And the question? If you guessed, “What should you not say in a room full of city planning students?”, congratulations! You win. We would have also accepted, “FDR began a ton of new federal programs during the New Deal. As long as we have a $700 billion financial bailout, what programs would you enact or not enact as part of a New Deal today?” Thanks for playing. We have some lovely parting gifts for you.

October 16 - Jeffrey Barg

FEATURE

News Summary: Cities and the Financial Crisis

How is the financial crisis impacting urban planning and land use policy? Managing Editor Tim Halbur takes a look at some early indicators drawn from recent news headlines and conversations with planning professionals.

October 15 - Tim Halbur