Low-cost transformation of streets to public — and restaurant — spaces may help enliven city neighborhoods and revive their sales tax bases
Planners Should Not Let Density Debate Infect Their Work
Many armchair planners are trying to blame the virus crisis on density. Real planners shouldn’t let them get away with it.
The Dreadful Secret Behind a Nearly Perfect Commercial Strip
Many elements of great, but forbidden, urbanism are on display in a bygone version of Los Angeles
Planning Meetings Move Online
Visual depictions of projects remain an issue — though accessibility might actually be improved for some. Brown Act has been loosened for the duration of COVID-19
Housing Development Likely To Crash Because of COVID
Even entitled buildings won’t be built unless they have financing
Solvang Reconsidered
We’re supposed to hate Solvang’s kitsch. But it’s got great bones — for several blocks in all directions
YIMBYism’s Golden Moment
In Golden Gates, Conor Dougherty chronicles the rise of the YIMBY movement and California’s battle over housing — with the aplomb of an East Bay skateboarder
What’s On The March 2020 Ballot?
A typical jumble of land-use measures — but they suggest California’s future direction
How Los Angeles Landed Its First Olympics
Barry Siegel’s new book about the 1932 Olympics shows how much chutzpah counted in early Los Angeles
New Housing Laws Bring Design Standards to Fore
To cut down on discretionary review, new housing laws require cities to approve housing projects so long as they conform to “objective” design standards. Cities are scrambling to draft standards that promote housing and promote desired aesthetic goals
Wiener Loses Again. Or Does He?
SB 50 went down in flames once more. But the bill gave the state cover for other bills that would otherwise would have been considered radical. And RHNA is forcing upzoning all over the state.
Top California Planning Stories of the 2010s
CP&DR’s retrospective of the triumphs, failures, and tensions that influenced California’s built environment in the 2010s
Bidding Unhappy Trails to the Old Retail Landscape
The “retail apocalypse” has claimed a particularly unfortunate victim: the homegrown outdoor equipment chain Adventure 16. California’s cities and wilderness are both worse off
Inadvertent Praise For California’s Environmental Ethic
This Land skewers the federal land management agencies — and, in the process, indirectly provides a good reason to keep CEQA and California’s other environmental laws
El Cerrito Discovers Key to Infill Planning
While many Bay Area cities resist growth, El Cerrito is booming with transit oriented plan on San Pablo Avenue
Mobility Revolution Arriving Fast … and Slow
Advances in mobility technologies — from electric cars to robotic shopping carts — are dazzling. But planners will be hard-pressed to predict which ones will prevail.
The Coming Uberapocalypse
If the Uberpocalypse (Lyftaclysm?) transpires, cities are going to find themselves time-warped back to 2009
Santa Barbara Celebrates “Authenticity,” Faces Housing Crunch
Santa Barbara will be on full display at next week’s conference of the California Chapter of the American Planning Association. In advance of the conference, CP&DR’s Josh Stephens spoke with Santa Barbara Community Development Director George Buell.