Exclusives
BLOG POST
Primaries vs. Caucuses from a Planner's Perspective
In the middle of presidential primary season, the debate about the caucus vs. primary processes is hot with criticisms being leveled on both sides. What can planners learn about this debate to help improve community engagement for planning?
BLOG POST
Inside the Planetizen Redesign
Planetizen Managing Editor James Brasuell describes some of the recent changes to the Planetizen site.
BLOG POST
The Resource Cost of Where We Live
Environmental impact isn't just a measure of what people buy, where we live affects the environment more than what we own or choose to drive.
BLOG POST
The Neighborhood Veto and the 'Missing Middle'
Community resistance may explain why smaller apartment buildings are hard to build.
BLOG POST
Community Engagement Highlights from APA 2016
As I do every year at the APA National Conference, I did my best to catch as many community engagement sessions as possible. Here are highlights, takeaways, and the common threads I noticed this year.
BLOG POST
Bruce Rauner's Highway to a Shrinking Chicago
How a proposed expansion of Chicago's I-55 could further disperse Chicago's population.
BLOG POST
The Best Reasons to Go to Grad School in Planning
As the 2016 admission season winds down, thoughts turn to the 2017 application process. For students considering the idea, there are several good reasons to attend graduate school in 2017, and a few that may cause problems later.
FEATURE
Better Parking, Better Cities
Reformed parking regulations will improve the quality of urban environments. They might even allow to once again construct building types we appreciate only in older cities, but could never imagine building with today’s parking requirements.
BLOG POST
Public Transportation Ridership: Three Steps Forward, Two Steps Back?
Recent data showing declining transit ridership is only the latest news to cast doubt on expectations of a public transit renaissance.
BLOG POST
Trends from the APA 2016 Conference
The American Planning Association 2016 National Conference included a wide variety of topics and a significant amount of tweeting. This blog shares the highlights from the conference.
FEATURE
Book Review: From Steel to Slots
Chloe E. Taft explores the transition of Bethlehem, Pa., from Rust Belt company town to gambling mecca.
FEATURE
Let's Talk About Civic Crowdfunding and Government Responsibility
A reply to skeptics about the democratic power and potential of civic crowdfunding platforms.
BLOG POST
A Utopian Solution to NIMBYism and High Housing Costs
The housing shortages caused by restrictive zoning are easy to solve in principle—even if the solutions are politically impossible.
BLOG POST
Scraping Social Media to Analyze Public Engagement
Planners are increasingly using social media for public engagement. How can you analyze what people are saying? NodeXL is an easy to use free tool for scraping and analyzing social media. I use this tool to report from the APA National Conference.
BLOG POST
Is Face to Face Community Engagement Dying Out?
With disruptions at public meetings on the rise and a growing number of online engagement tools to choose from, is face to face community engagement destined to die out? What's at stake if we let that happen?
FEATURE
No Business as Usual in an Autonomous Vehicle Future
Among the reasons to reconsider new investments in expanded roadway capacity: the impending revolution in transportation that will arrive when cars start driving themselves.
BLOG POST
Evaluating Affordable Housing Development Strategies
There are many ways that communities can support and encourage affordable housing development. Let's compare them.
BLOG POST
Sprawl and the Declining City
Sprawl lowers real estate values in cheap, declining cities—but it may also have social costs that aren't as relevant elsewhere.
BLOG POST
About That Shocking Twitter Storm by @SFBART
The word "shocking" above could also have been "depressing," and the word "storm" could have also been "rant." Or it could have been "honest" and "victory." When it comes to transit, everyone sees what they want to see.
FEATURE
Empowered Design, By 'The Crowd'
Crowdsourcing offers a viable resource for planners to empower communities and engage citizens to collectively innovate solutions to complex urban problems.
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
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.
