The City of Pasadena implemented metrics that measure projects’ impacts under the California Environmental Quality Act in terms of vehicle miles traveled rather than level of service.
California Cities and the Innovation Economy: Q&A with Enrico Moretti
In his recent book The New Geography of Jobs, Enrico Moretti, professor of economics at the University of California, Berkeley, explains how cities promote innovation and, importantly, how innovation affects cities’ economies.
A Vivid Warning for Coastal Cities
Sink or Swim was curated by Frances Anderton, known locally for hosting KCRW public radio’s DnA: Design & Architecture show. She spoke with CP&DR’s Josh Stephens.
CEQA: The Cause of All Problems in California
Somehow, among all the laws, regulations, micro-, macro-, and global economic trends that impact on and emanate from our state, the overriding cause of California’s malaise is — wait for it — CEQA.
Sprawl Depends on More Than Just Density
Density in L.A. presents an opportunity, and a tremendous one at that. It’s an opportunity to take all the people, buildings, capital, and spirit that are crammed in here at 6,100 people to the square mile and figure out how to design our buildings, transportation network, public spaces, and civic life in a way that makes the most of what we have.
Los Angeles’ Slow Burn
For some urbanists in Los Angeles’ smart growth crowd, the only thing better than the destruction of one faux-Italian megablock apartment complex would be the destruction of four faux-Italian megablock apartment complexes.
Not All NIMBYs Are Alike
The ethics of NIMBYism depend largely on the kind of environment that you’re trying to save.
Slow Train to Los Angeles: Book Review of ‘Railtown’
Elkind could have gone down many spur tracks, into grand discussions of the feasibility of rail and lofty, ongoing debates about quality of life, cosmopolitanism, public subsidies, and transportation economics. He does not.
Smart Growth Literature Hits a Cul-du-Sac
Where is Robert Bruegemann when you need him?
History of Future Cities
Brook contends that the four cities were not built to celebrate their respective cultures or to build indigenous economies but rather to establish beachheads of western modernity on incongruous and otherwise backwards soils.
Beware the ‘Density Cult’
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.
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.
“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.
Book Review: Aerotropolis Promotes Planning Where Land Meets Sky
The somewhat unnerving implication of Aerotropolis is that the great cities of the global age aren’t so much cities but rather are catchment areas for airports — specifically, airports that fling people and goods across oceans.
CP&DR Holiday Book Roundup
Over the past few years, publishers have put out enough books on urban sustainability to make Al Gore blush. Unfortunately, making a city sustainable takes a lot longer than does writing a book about making …
Reclaiming the Interstates from Ike
Just in case you thought that suburbanization of the 20th century was a joint venture between God, the invisible hand, and a pot of gold delivered by the Freedom Fairy, Earl Swift’s Big Roads might …