Joel Kotkin, Los Angeles-based urban theorist and persistent critic of downtown revitalization, would have you believe that advocates of smart growth. . . all want to turn their cities into putrid slums.
Hysteria Over California’s Decline Reaches New Heights
It’s true that liberals generally tend to oppose sprawl. But opposing sprawl doesn’t necessarily equate with constraining housing supply.
College Rejection Doesn’t Have to Mean Frustration
There’s a great deal that students can do to ensure that they maintain their sanity and sense of perspective, and, in doing so, increase their chances of getting into their dream schools.
The Chemistry of Safer, Denser Cities
Reporter Kevin Drum recently revealed lead for what it was: one of the keys to the epidemic of American crime and violence that ruined our cities in the mid-20th century.
New Stop Signs Bring Bundy Traffic to a Halt
Without any public notification, the Los Angeles Department of Transportation installed two new stop signs on Bundy at Mayfield Avenue to create a four-way stop–and, at times, a serious traffic jam.
Education and the Promise of Globalization
It’s hard to argue that any one facet of globalization is more robust than any other—this is a delightfully tangled web—but surely education is one of the driving forces.
The Ups and Downs of Going Upscale
The process of gentrification cannot be separated from matters of wealth, class, and race.
California Cities Desire Streetcars
While the state plans for its proposed high-speed rail network, a raft of California cities are pursuing a more twee type of rail travel.
Shared Hardship and the Souls of Cities
No one moves to a place with a worst-case scenario in mind. But sometimes the worst-case scenarios are what define cities — and, paradoxically, perversely, sometimes for the better.
The Last American Superhighway
If a growing coalition of boosters and public officials get their way, that will soon change with the arrival of the country’s next — and maybe last — great highway project: Interstate 11.
Demise of Redevelopment Leaves Scorched Earth Instead of Green Spaces
Though it may be one of the biggest casualties of the demise of redevelopment, the Great Park is but one of untold hundreds of park and open space projects statewide that are not iconic and are suffering similar fates.
Los Angeles Goes Small with 50 New Parks
Announced less than a year ago by Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa in November as an ambitious plan to develop 50 neighborhood parks, the program is already coming to fruition.
USA TOD-ay
Transit-Oriented Developments Multiplied and Held Their Values Comparatively Well in the Housing Crisis. Will the Trend Continue Post-Recession?
“Going Solo: The Extraordinary Rise and Surprising Appeal of Living Alone”
Eric Klinenberg’s Going Solo: The Extraordinary Rise and Surprising Appeal of Living Alone offers a potentially instructive glimpse into how the other half lives: some out of preference, others out of desperation.
New Light Rail Line Opens Up World of TOD Possibilities
Now that the Westside once again has the “T,” efforts to figure out the “OD” have only just begun.
More Casualties in California’s War over Public Money
Guest on KCRW’s “Which Way, L.A.,” May 31, 2012, discussing the abolition of redevelopment agencies.
L.A. Tries Bringing Subway to Land of Maseratis
The city that inspired a million Tudor-style McMansions is blocking the transit authority’s plans with a demand that it reroute the subway extension to avoid running below the high school that inspired everyone’s favorite bit of 1990s high school television greatness.