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 year since app-enabled, GPS-enabled motorized scooters first popped up in California cities, the cities have begun to implement regulations that are designed to – depending on your perspective – tame an unregulated nuisance or promote an innovative, efficient form of personal mobility. Or both.
Opportunity Zones Look Promising For California
But, 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.
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.
Overcoming Affluence: How Students of Modest Means Can Defy the Odds
Every topic under the sun can be studied, and enjoyed, in a million different ways, in a million different environments.
Suit Attacks Greenhouse Gas Scoping Plan in Name of Social Justice
A coalition of advocacy groups has filed a quixotic, aggressively worded lawsuit against the California Air Resources Board’s 2017 AB 32 Scoping Plan, claiming in part that its encouragement of VMT reductions and other strategies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions will unduly restrict development of new housing and victimized poor and minority residents of California.
Regions Contemplate New, Tougher Carbon Emissions Targets
Targets differ by MPO, but they all stick to the original formula of a percentage reduction in per-capita greenhouse gas emissions compared to the 1990 baseline. Generally, the new targets for 2020 are 1-2 percentage points higher than the current targets, and targets for 2035 are 3-4 percentage points higher.
Balancing Act: Richard Sennett’s “Building and Dwelling”
City life always wavers along continua that are bounded by unattainable poles, and so dualities run throughout Building and Dwelling.
Urban Utopias Under African Skies
An exhibit by Congolese artist Bodys Isek Kingelez at the Museum of Modern Art invokes urban idealism at the same time that it serves as a foil for poverty and deprivation in the megacities of the developing world.
Eviction Is Only Part Of The Housing Crisis
I think I was the only reader in the country unmoved by Evicted, Matthew Desmond’s Pulitzer Prize-winning inquiry into the dark heart of America’s eviction crisis
Seattle Planning Director Pursues Equity Amid a Pro-Growth Agenda
An interview with Seattle Planning Director Sam Assefa for the latest installment of the “Planners Across America” series.
Lago Approaches New York City as a ‘City of Neighborhoods’
The latest installment of the “Planners Across America” series features New York City Planning Director and Planning Commission Chair Marisa Lago.
Sober Living Facilities Raise Zoning Concerns
Though comprehensive data is hard to find, the proliferation of sober living homes is thought to be particularly intense in coastal California, where the climate and lifestyle are marketed to prospective residents
On Seismology and the Humanities
No one academic discipline is inherently more interesting, more fun, or more professionally valuable than any other.
College Essays and the Misuse of ‘Voice’
To an inexperienced or reluctant writer — which describes many college applicants — advice about “voice” is scarcely more useful than merely saying, “Write well.”
The Sad Debate Over SB 827
Few land use laws captured the public imagination and animated the land use community the way SB 827 did in its three short months on this earth
Reconsidering Paradise: How Honolulu Became a Poster Child for American Autocentric Urbanism
Honolulu should be the most distinctive city in the country. Instead, Honolulu looks like Houston with volcanoes.
Yelp in My Backyard
Yelp is one of the few tech companies whose product is linked, intrinsically and immutably, to the real world.