Land Use

Lamenting the lack of a single big, transformative urban idea during President Obama's first term, Richard Florida urges the president to establish a new cabinet-level Department of Cities to build a "lasting urban legacy."

February 4, 2013 - New York Daily News

Three months after Sandy struck New York, the city took an important step in the recovery process by waiving select zoning rules rules to speed rebuilding, reports Matt Chaban.

February 4, 2013 - Crain's New York Business

Former New York City mayor Ed Koch passed away on Friday at the age of 88. For the popular figure who was known for stopping constituents on the street to ask, “How’m I doin’?”, Joseph Berger endeavors to deliver an answer.

February 4, 2013 - The New York Times

Michael A. Harper, FAICP worked over 32 years as a public sector planning manager. During that time, he used paid and unpaid interns extensively. Harper's article focuses on the many ways to effectively engage interns and use their talents.

February 3, 2013 - The Western Planner

Baltimore has a lot of bold ideas for changing the face of the city. While we wait for them to happen, why not implement some simple solutions for making the city more livable, proposes Mark R. Brown, AICP.

February 2, 2013 - Car Free Baltimore

As we reported last week, the central question facing the Board of Supervisors was how could they approve a project that appeared to violate a regional sustainability plan - one that they voted for as MPO members? They did - by a 4-1 vote.

February 2, 2013 - The Sacramento Bee - City News

Montgomery County planner John Marcolin details the ongoing creation of an urban core in Silver Spring, Maryland, the thriving unincorporated area just northeast of Washington, D.C.

February 2, 2013 - Terrain.org: A Journal of the Built + Natural Environments

As cities across the country consider ways to limit teardowns and large home construction in established neighborhoods, Anthony Flint argues that communities should be flattered by "mansionization" and accommodating to this form of smart growth.

February 1, 2013 - The Atlantic Cities

Former adversaries - developers along with labor and the construction industry - have formed "an unusual alliance" to push the Bloomberg administration to consider more expansive development rights for the area around Grand Central Terminal.

February 1, 2013 - The New York Times

An editorial in the Los Angeles Times praises the Cornfield Arroyo Seco Specific Plan as a model for how the city can break free of outdated zoning laws that force residents into obsolete living, working and commuting patterns.

January 31, 2013 - Los Angeles Times

Norman Chan uses a beta version of the new SimCity game to test the merits of three familiar types of suburban subdivision design - a rectangular grid, circular sprawl, and cul-de-sacs.

January 31, 2013 - Tested.com

A Detroit-based maker of "crowdfunding and social mapping systems," has developed an interactive map of the tax status of every property in Detroit. In bright yellows, oranges, and reds, the city's property tax "black hole" is brutally clear.

January 31, 2013 - The Atlantic Cities

Brendan Crain responds to recent criticism of placemaking as a counterproductive and superficial pursuit with a defense of the social and economic capital building elements that are the foundation, and outcome, of the process.

January 31, 2013 - PPS: Placemaking Blog

Dollar stores were already a presence in rural communities, but recession has caused dollar chains to ramp up development to keep pace with the public's growing need to stretch their paychecks. Urban communities aren't immune from chain creep either.

January 31, 2013 - Rooflines

Kaid Benfield spotlights an innovative federal program that is "not very well known but deserves to be." The "Greening America’s Capitals" program aims to make America's state capitals showpieces for green infrastructure and green building practices.

January 30, 2013 - NRDC Switchboard

Writing in The Atlantic Cities, Chuck Wolfe provides ten illustrated examples of enjoyable environments that reflect an evolving recognition for the qualitative aspects of the urban experience.

January 30, 2013 - The Atlantic Cities

Patrick Kennedy proposes an elegant and cost-effective way to deal with Dallas's aging elevated freeway and the city's "massive pent-up demand for walkable urban housing" - tear the sucker down.

January 30, 2013 - D Magazine

Driven by "the fantasy of the almost-reality," hobbyist mapmaker Andrew Lynch gives new life to plans that never happened with hypothetical maps of the city that almost was.

January 30, 2013 - The Atlantic Cities

The publication of the 24 chapter volume “The Emerging Asian City: Concomitant Urbanities & Urbanisms”, brings together some of the most significant emerging voices and thoughts on the forces and phenomenologies shaping urban Asia today.

January 29, 2013 - Jonathan Nettler

Montreal recently doubled a special tax assessed on non-residential downtown parking lots in the hopes of spurring residential development. But could the tax drive employers out to the suburbs?

January 29, 2013 - The Gazette (Montreal)