I’m pleased to share some highlights of what I got up to journalistically in 2025.
The Death and Life of Shakedown Street
Of the dozens of Grateful Dead songs that have been autoplaying in my head since the news of Bob Weir’s passing broke this Saturday, “Shakedown Street” has been in particularly heavy rotation. The bassline helps, but so does its commentary about American urbanism.
2024 Year-in-Review
Here’s how I began last year’s installment of this post: “If California gets any more rain, we might all wash into the ocean.” How fortunes have changed. As I regroup from the tumult of the …
Year-in-Review 2023
A roundup of highlights from California Planning & Development Report, InTransition, CommonEdge, and more in 2023.
Land Matters Podcast: Staying Calm and Planning On
Anthony Flint of the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy interviews me about Planners Across America
Year-in-Review 2022
Dear friends, colleagues, and cityfolk, I think I speak for many journalists when I say that I’m glad my mentions of “covid,” “coronavirus,” and “pandemic” plummeted in 2022. Likewise, much of the insufferable speculation about …
Josh’s 2021 Year-in-Review
It’s cool and all that journalism is “the first draft of history.” Sometimes it would be cooler if the history wasn’t quite so overbearing as it was last year. I can’t complain too much, though. 2021 provided …
CapRadio Podcast: How Racism Has Shaped Interstate Highways
Josh spoke with Sacramento’s CapRadio about the nearly 30 cities nationwide that are currently discussing some form of highway removal and restoration; we learn more about how racism has shaped interstate highways.
Voice of S.D. Podcast: Housing Is Everything for California’s Big Cities
Voice of San Diego’s Andrew Keatts interviews journalist Josh Stephens about his book “The Urban Mystique” and some of the most pressing California housing issues.
Podcast: L.A. Planner-Councilmember Nithya Raman
In November, Nithya Raman became only the second trained urban planner to be elected to the Los Angeles city council. CP&DR spoke with Raman about how planning influences her political agenda
2020 Year-in-Review
Highlights of my writing from 2020 in CP&DR, Planetizen, Common Edge, and more…
Podcast: Top Planning Stories of 2020
In our final podcast of 2020, Bill and Josh discuss CP&DR’s most popular stories of the year, including the impact of the COVID pandemic on cities and planning’s responses to the year’s social justice movements.
Talking Headways Podcast Episode 291: The Urban Mystique Part 1
This week we’re joined by Josh Stephens, Contributing Editor to the California Planning and Development Report about his new book The Urban Mystique. We had a long conversation about LA, the availability of bars, opposition urban commentators, and historic propositions that might need an update to stay connected to the times.
Year-in-Review 2019
Not until the first week of December or so did I realize that the change of the year also ushered in a change of decade. My ignorance must have been due to equal parts denial …
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, …
2017 Year-in-Review
As usual, the bulk of my work appeared in the California Planning & Development Report, where we covered a tremendously interesting year in land use, often focusing on the need for housing and the many forces that frustrate its development. I was delighted to again contribute to Planetizen, Next City, Boom, and — new this year — Common Edge.