Los Angeles

Bike Ridership Booms in Some Unlikely Cities
A fitness tracking app reports dramatic increases in bike ridership since the onset of the coronavirus pandemic.

The Causes of California's Development Malaise
A spate of recent articles has taken a critical look at the regulatory obstacles to a progrssive planning vision in the state of California.

Keeping Gentrification From Following Green Space
Los Angeles organizers work with park professionals on policies to allow green space investment in neighborhoods that have lacked it without paving the way for displacement.

Has The Moment Arrived To End Political Interference in L.A. City's Land Use Decisions?
Writing under the nom de plume of the ghost of Ed Logue, an L.A.-based land use professional offers this modest proposal for eliminating political interference and campaign cash from L.A. city planning.

Creativity Needed to Meet Recreational Needs During a Pandemic
With COVID-19, the Los Angeles County Department of Parks and Recreation modified its popular Parks After Dark program so that it could still meet community needs, while complying with public health orders.

Keeping Bees Away from Honey? Corruption Cases Expose Flaws in L.A. City’s Land Entitlement Process
Three former Los Angeles public officials share their collective perspective on how best to reform the city of Los Angeles' corrupted land use approval process.

Gehry's Latest Downtown L.A. Project Rises While Workers Stay Home
A high-profile project in the heart of the cultural and civic center of Downtown Los Angeles is rising quickly, and practically in secret, as the area's daytime population stays home during the pandemic.

How Urban Form Created Classic Rock
A great many factors converged to create the culture and music of the 1960s. A powerful, but often overlooked, factor was the Los Angeles neighborhood of Laurel Canyon. A new documentary provides a case study in urban creativity.

Seeing the Los Angeles River in Whole New Way
We seem to have an app for everything. Now we have one that walks a viewer through the river’s history from the pre-historic era to the present.

Book Review: Discovering Griffith Park
There is finally a guidebook for one of the country's largest city parks. Learn more about it in this L.A. Times review.

Considering the Legacy of the Metro Green Line after 25 Years of Service
25 years of the Metro C (Green) Line means reckoning with a history of destruction and displacement while looking forward to upcoming improvements.

Resilient Los Angeles: Preparing for Overlapping Disasters in Pandemic
L.A. City Chief Resilience Officer Aaron Gross elaborates on how the pandemic is shaping the city’s understanding of resilience and the cascading impact that overlapping disasters of earthquake or wildfire could have on the city’s limited resources.

Los Angeles City Planning Hires First Chief Equity Officer
Faisal Roble, the newly appointed chief equity officer of the Los Angeles Department of City Planning, will be tasked with crafting a Racial Equity Action Plan for the department.

Inclusionary Zoning Adopted in L.A. County
The county of Los Angeles is looking for policy tools that will add affordable housing units to the housing market. Inclusionary zoning is its policy of choice.

'Rail Excursions' From L.A. to Las Vegas, $500 a Trip, Planned for Spring
The race to connect Southern California to Las Vegas by private passenger rail continues.

One U.S. State Boasts 33% Fewer Carbon Emissions Per Capita Than Any Other
California, the largest state by population in the United States, is responsible for 33% fewer carbon emissions per capita than any other state, according to a new study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Friday Funny: Al Fresco on the Freeway
Fake news site The Onion imagines the logical result of car-centric planning during a pandemic.

L.A. Officials Wrestle With Future of Projects Approved in Corruption Case
Some high-profile projects, including a 77-story tower, hang in the balance of a federal corruption case, but it's unclear whether Los Angeles can undo the approvals, whether they were achieved through bribes or not.

Lack of Federal and State Subsidies Slow Homeless Housing Development in L.A.
Developments funded by Los Angeles' Proposition HHH homeless housing bond has been delayed for three key reasons.

When Discussing Racist Monuments, Don't Forget Urban Freeways
The racist history of planning in Los Angeles is particularly evident in the way Interstate freeways were planned in the region.
Pagination
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.
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