United States

Contractor Loses HUD Deal Over Views On Bush

Housing and Urban Development Secretary Alphonso Jackson tells a minority real estate forum that prospective contractors should keep their political views to themselves.

May 10, 2006 - Dallas Business Journal

Renewable Energy Is Blowing In The Wind

Editorial argues that wind energy is viable and a necessary part of the nation's energy strategy.

May 9, 2006 - Austin American-Statesman

'Aging-In-Place': A Growing Trend In Elderly-Assistance Models

Bucking a decades-old trend of steering the elderly toward nursing homes to live out their sunset years, many communities are developing programs to assist older residents who want to remain in their own houses.

May 9, 2006 - The Wall Street Journal

The Long, Long Commute To The American Dream

When each interstate exit sign passed can mean saving ten thousand dollars in home prices, more and more people are "driving till they qualify". Welcome to the world of "extreme commuting".

May 9, 2006 - Newsweek

The Least Affordable Places To Live In The U.S.

California wins the dubious distinction of being home to 11 of the least affordable locales. Why has the state trumped other hotspots like New York and Florida?

May 9, 2006 - The New York Times

Americans Migrate To Rural Counties

According to IRS records, many of the highest growth counties are located far from cities.

May 9, 2006 - The New York Times

'Personal Parking Meters' Catching On In Cities

The "personal parking meter" may be the ultimate in convenience and ultimately, demand-based pricing for city parking. It is starting to catch on in major cities.

May 8, 2006 - Engadget

States Take Action To Protect Property Rights

Oregon's Measure 37 has inspired a national property rights movement to restrict local regulatory takings and dramatically reduce eminent domain powers, writes Leonard Gilroy, AICP, in this Op-Ed.

May 8, 2006 - Leonard Gilroy, AICP

Gauging The Economic Progress of Immigrants

The next generation of second-generation workers, who will make up an important part of the workforce in 2030, may suffer from a sizable wage disadvantage of around 10 percent.

May 7, 2006 - National Bureau Of Economic Research

Do Urban Planners Still Misunderstand Jane Jacobs' Lessons?

The Reason Foundation's Leonard Gilroy charges in a WSJ opinion that despite planners' respect of Jacobs, they continue to "largely ignore or misinterpret the central lesson" of Jacob's most famous book.

May 4, 2006 - The Wall Street Journal

Designing For Security: Post 9/11 Architecture and Planning

How has American architecture, landscape architecture, and urban planning responded to the need to design secure public spaces and buildings in the post-9/11 era?

May 3, 2006 - BusinessWeek

Can Cities Be 'Natural'?

Most people think of nature and cities as separate. According to a new Urban and natural environments are not necessarily conflicting notions but must be integrated at many different scales, for sustainable, healthy settlements to occur.

May 3, 2006 - The Toronto Star

Evaluating Urban Sprawl From Space

A team of researchers use satellite data to create a grid of 8.7 billion data cells tracking the evolution of land use in the continental United States. The findings are surprising

May 3, 2006 - TerraDaily

A Strategy That Works To Reduce Gasoline Consumption

Columnist John Tierney takes a bipartisan swipe at federal responses to $3 gallon gasoline. He suggests a "revenue-neutral gas tax" whereby the tax paid at the pump would be returned to the taxpayers as "something that works".

May 3, 2006 - The New York Times

The Elephant in the Green Room

Grist interviews retiring Republican environmental leader Sherwood Boehlert.

May 2, 2006 - Grist Magazine

Nation's Energy Policy Is 'Stuck In Neutral'

Both political parties are to blame for the nation's energy crisis, writes Ronald Brownstein.

May 2, 2006 - The Los Angeles Times

Faith In Real Estate: Churches Sell Development Rights For Millions

Churches in New York, Chicago, and Washington, D.C, are selling land and air development rights to provide major funding for outreach programs.

May 2, 2006 - The Washington Post

The New Advertising: Satellite Graffiti

In an era of ever increasing satellite map imagery and tools like Google Maps to view them, savvy advertisers are now creating 'ground ads' large enough to show up on satellite map images. Think: crop circle advertising.

May 1, 2006 - eWeek

Politicians Afraid To Say We Should Drive Less

In this news analysis, Marc Sandalow says that politicians are bemoaning higher gas prices but are afraid to tell the voters the one thing they can do to reduce prices: drive less.

April 29, 2006 - The San Francisco Chronicle

Jane Jacobs' Blocks

Her focus on the literal building blocks of cities inspired countless leaders in the field, many of whom are mentioned here.

April 28, 2006 - The New York Times

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.

Top Books

An annual review of books related to planning.

Top Schools

The definitive ranking of graduate planning programs.

100 Most Influential Urbanists

The who's who of urbanism, according to Planetizen readers.

Urban Planning Creators You Should Know

A short list of voices on social, video, and podcasting platforms.