Urban Planning
Streetsblog Basics
How Structural Racism at Regional Planning Agencies Hurts Cities
There's an obscure intraregional battle happening in the Cleveland area right now that highlights an important source of racial discrimination in urban planning.
January 5, 2018
Confronting Male Dominance in the Urban Planning Debate
Why are conversations about urban planning issues - especially online - so dominated by men?
August 17, 2017
A Six-Point Plan to Cut Traffic
If we're going to create a safer transportation system, we're going to have to drive less, and a new study of travel and development patterns in Massachusetts sheds light on what can be done to cut down on traffic. Here are the six factors researchers identified that affect the amount people drive.
February 21, 2017
Historical Photos of St. Louis Capture the Great Violence of “Urban Renewal”
Some of these images, dug up by Alex Ihnen at NextSTL, almost look like a war zone. Buildings exploding. Entire city blocks reduced to ghost towns. Families out on curbs, carrying all their belongings in suitcases.
May 6, 2016
High Transportation Costs Make a Lot of HUD Housing Unaffordable
Rental assistance from HUD isn't enough to make the cost of living affordable when the subsidies go toward housing in car-dependent areas, according to a new study by researchers from the University of Texas and the University of Utah. The study evaluated transportation costs for more than 18,000 households that receive HUD rental subsidies, estimating that nearly half of recipients have to spend more than 15 percent of their household budgets on transportation.
February 29, 2016
Which Cities Are Adding Walkable Housing the Fastest?
As more Americans look for walkable places to live, cities are struggling to deliver, and a lot of neighborhoods are becoming less affordable. A new analysis by Kasey Klimes of Copenhagen's Gehl Studio illustrates how major metro areas have let their supply of walkable housing shrink over the years, contributing to today's housing crunch.
February 4, 2016
The Port Authority Bus Terminal and Our Glaring Lack of Transit Leadership
The effort to replace the aging and overcrowded Port Authority Bus Terminal continues to suffer from the New York region's inability to coordinate its transit mega-projects.
September 24, 2015
This Map Shows Where de Blasio Wants to Reduce Parking Mandates
In February, the Department of City Planning outlined the broad strokes of how the de Blasio administration will seek to change the rules that shape new development in New York. After eight months of public meetings and behind-the-scenes work, City Hall's proposals were released this week. The documents reveal details of how the city wants to handle parking minimums in new residential buildings, and it looks like incremental progress, not a major breakthrough, for parking reform.
September 23, 2015
The New Plan to Connect Downtown Brooklyn to Its Waterfront
Starting in the 1930s, entire city blocks in Brooklyn Heights, Downtown Brooklyn, and DUMBO were razed for expressways and parks. Today, this jumble of on-ramps and disconnected green space separates Brooklyn's waterfront from its downtown core. A new public-private initiative, called "The Brooklyn Strand," seeks to knit these disjointed areas back together.
March 18, 2015
De Blasio Team Gradually Beefing Up Its Parking Reform Proposals
New York is one step closer to overhauling a discredited policy that drives up the cost of housing and makes traffic congestion worse, but the scope of the reforms the de Blasio administration is pursuing remains limited.
February 24, 2015