Small communities are fighting the stores, which have gone from zero to over 200 in California in the past eight years, but usually they are allowed by local zoning.
Storefront Service Centers Put Transit Agencies on Solid Footing
Transit agencies, whether they run buses, trains, ferries, bike share systems, or other mediums of mobility, exist in a state of paradox. While their vehicles, signage and street furniture is highly visible and they serve millions of customers each year, many lack a physical connection with their customers. But some transit providers are working to change that.
High Speed Rail is Dead, Long Live High Speed Rail
As a piece of urbanism, Newsom’s revised experiment in high speed rail will be fascinating, and perhaps revelatory
Wildfires, Housing Top Gordon’s Priorities for Statewide Planning
Newly appointed Executive Director of the Governor’s Office of Planning and Research Kate Gordon spoke with CP&DR’s Josh Stephens about her transition into the public sector as California’s de facto chief planner.
2018 Year-in-Review
For all the tumult that 2018 brought, the world remains an interesting place. I was glad to write about a few corners of it, and I am pleased to present a few of my highlights, …
Sacramento Gets Tough Around Light-Rail Stops
City bans auto-oriented uses such as fast-food and auto repair establishments
State Law Prevails Over Slow-Growth Vote in Encinitas
Judge keeps ordering Encinitas to prepare new housing element, but voters keep shooting it down.
Tejon Ranch Approval Pushes Boundaries of Sprawl
After two decades of negotiation, the new master-planned town of Centennial has been cleared for 12,323 acres of the 270,000-acre Tejon Ranch, a parcel of rolling hills and grasslands located at the northern edge of Los Angeles County.
Top 10 Urban Planning Books – 2018
Planetizen’s annual list of top books covers subjects in all varieties of planning: urban planning, community planning, environmental planning, and more.
Beating the Amazon Con
In short, cities should quit wasting money on corporate welfare and, if they’re going to proactively pursue economic development programs (itself a measure of dubious value), they should stick to homegrown assets. The pursuit of Amazon in particular, though, was as ironic as it was perverse.
New General Plan Seeks to Banish Stockton’s Demons
Not long ago, the City of Stockton could hardly have paid for the paper to print a new general plan, much less actually craft the plan. Since the city declared bankruptcy in 2012 after a long slide, its finances have changed for the better. A new general plan update seeks to do the same for the city’s built environment.
The Social Importance of Public Spaces
Palaces for the People takes a meandering journey through what Klinenberg calls “social infrastructure.”
The Clarity of Robert Venturi
Robert Venturi, who died last week at 93, was not an urbanist as such. But in rejecting modernism and bringing honesty to discussions about aesthetics, Venturi deserves a debt of gratitude from planners and other architects alike.
Scooters Propel Cities Toward New Regulatory Approaches
In the perennial race between technology and public policy, the electric scooter got out to a serious head-start last year. But urban planners are catching up.
Opportunity Zones Look Promising For California
The federal Opportunity Zone program promises, according to supporters, to direct tens — and possibly hundreds — of billions of dollars of private investment capital into some of the nation’s most needy communities, including over 800 Census tracts in California.
SPUR Head Metcalf Bids Farewell to Transformed, Challenged Bay Area
President and CEO Gabriel Metcalf joined SPUR in 1997 — the year before Google’s first search engine came online — and became executive director in 2005. In the intervening years, he has witnessed, commented on, and helped shape the region’s economic and demographic growth ever since.
Book Review: State of Resistance
Pastor acknowledges the urgency of the housing crisis and its relationship with — for better or worse — California’s new politics.