The Sphere is technologically astonishing, but it’s not great for placemaking
The Las Vegas Sphere: A Placeless Object in a Placeless City
Agencies Struggle To Find Enough Planners
Cost of living, pandemic disruptions, and workloads have left planning departments short-staffed.
Maybe Orange County Should Be As Dense As San Francisco
Orange County has an aversion to density. That’s an opportunity for some intrepid city.
Smart Growth and Sagebrush: Bishop Reimagines the Small-Town Downtown
The high-desert outpost of Bishop, California, seeks to redefine the small-town downtown
Planetizen’s Top Planning Books of 2023
The best and most timely books on urban planning and land use of 2023
Does Density Lead To Affordability?
Whether you’re Cambridge or Canada or anyplace in between, urban economics will always involve combinations of alchemy, soothsaying, and dead reckoning.
Long Beach Aims For Commercial Strip Redevelopment
Despite the region’s demand for housing, Long Beach’s planners are not assuming that development will naturally follow up-zoning. Even with their statutory work done, they are engaging in an unusually aggressive campaign to actually promote development.
First, High-Speed Rail, Then Transit-Oriented Development
Los Angeles-to-Las Vegas rail line may spur local development
Brightline Aims High After Years of Hopes
High-Speed Rail Kicks Off Florida Service as a Model for California and Beyond
What Key Legislators Are Saying About Their Housing Bills
The Terner Center hosted a conference about recent housing legislation that featured four legislators active in the area: Sen. Scott Wiener of San Francisco, Assemblymember Buffy Wicks from the East Bay, Assemblymember David Alvarez of San Diego, and Senator Catherine Blakespear
Is California Forever Visionary or Just Public Relations?
A “new city” near the Bay Area has caught the popular imagination, for better or worse. What of “regular” planning?
APA Preview: The Central Valley Faces Growth Issues
A roundtable with planners from California’s Central Valley, in advance of the Cal APA conference in Fresno
Cities Rethink Downtown Strategies Post-Pandemic
Post-pandemic, some California downtowns are up. Some are way down…
New Rail Line Opens to Cautious Optimism in South Los Angeles
Crenshaw Line brings mass transit to the center of LA’s Black community.
Land Matters Podcast: Staying Calm and Planning On
Anthony Flint of the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy interviews me about Planners Across America
The Perverse Economics of Los Angeles’s “Mansion Tax”
A well intentioned ballot measure to raise affordable housing funds from big-dollar real estate transfers could kill the housing Los Angeles needs most.