A recent essay advocates for the development of a new city in California to alleviate the state’s housing crisis. The argument needs a few tweaks.
The Metaverse Lands in Downtown Los Angeles
The more excited we get about the virtual world, the more the real world will suffer.
Let’s Retire Our Ideological Labels For Cities
Cities can be open to change and open to new residents, in whatever configuration suits them best. Or they can be closed, choosing to serve their own and hope that other people will find refuge in other places. Neither position bears on a city’s attitude towards peace and love–just on the number who can be loved.
The YIMBY-NIMBY Debate Gets ‘Uninteresting’
Labels like “YIMBY” and “NIMBY” may be crude—but so what? One of them wants to solve America’s housing crises. The other does not. Un-housed and under-housed people cannot wait for a perfect ideology to come along.
CP&DR’s Top Stories Of 2021
What is it about duplexes that make them such a popular topic? And why did only one CEQA case make the top five legal stories of the year?
Lancaster’s BLVD Delivers
An unlikely strip of urbanism in an unlikely place, The BLVD is a model more urban cities in California could learn from.
VOSD Podcast: Housing Is Everything for California’s Big Cities
In this bonus episode of the VOSD podcast, Andrew Keatts interviews journalist Josh Stephens about his book “The Urban Mystique” and some of the most pressing California housing issues.
Eli Broad, Urbanist
The great irony of the philanthropist’s life was that he made his billions on sprawl — and then poured it into making Los Angeles a more urban city.
The Phony Debate Over Wall Street and the Housing Crisis
Over the past few years, concerns about “Wall Street ownership” of houses in California has grown increasingly serious, with the The Blackstone Group being the poster child for a handful of finance companies that buy up single-family homes, often in disadvantaged areas, only to kick out tenants and increase rents.
The Future of Cities, Urban Life, and Social Cohesion with Josh Stephens
The COVID-19 pandemic, along with the rise of remote work, has brought significant speculation about the future of cities. In order to understand these shifts and trends, we spoke with urban planning expert Josh Stephens.
What Is Opposition To Duplexes Really About?
The only difference, then, between a duplex and a blissfuly detached single-unit home is the age-old anxiety about new residents who might not be quite as wealthy as the incumbent residents.
2020: A Year Like No Other
2020 unexpectedly generated more writing about urban planning in the mainstream media than any other year in recent memory. And not for pleasant reasons. The COVID-19 pandemic brought urban life to a halt, inspiring news articles and photo essays about newly desolate streets, strained finances, and imperiled businesses.
No Matter How You Calculate It, We Need A Lot Of Housing
Does the Embarcadero Institute’s push to lower the state’s housing need from 2 million to 1 million really change anything?
Los Angeles’ Least Cool Councilmember Kills Its Coolest Street
Los Angeles’s signature street, Melrose Ave., was primed for an upgrade. Then no-fun councilmember Paul Koretz killed the buzz.
Laurel Canyon: The Classic California Urban Ecosystem
Laurel Canyon makes clear that the music that defined American culture was itself defined by a specific place in a specific city—a city that previously had been famous for its supposed lack of culture.
Talking Headways Episode 292: The Urban Mystique Part 2
This week we’re back chatting with Josh Stephens, Contributing Editor to the California Planning and Development Report. This week we chat about race, housing, the Olympics, and LA in the movies.
Do Black Lives Matter to Homeowners?
I can’t speak for disadvantaged communities directly, but we know that many residents are wary of development, even though housing is short tens of thousands of units in Los Angeles and millions of units across the state.