While it addresses urban planning and takes place in a defiantly liberal city, the battle over Measure S – also known as the “Neighborhood Integrity Initiative” – nonetheless echoes many of the frustrations and fears that sent Donald Trump to the White House and ejected the United Kingdom from the European Union.
“YIMBY” Movement Heats Up in Boulder
A loose affiliation of activists fed up with what they consider undue political influence of NIMBYs, the YIMBY movement has cropped up all over America.
Why Winning Park Design Is a Win for Los Angeles
If all goes according to plan, by 2020, Los Angeles’ Pershing Square will be flattened, scraped clean and reintroduced to a public that has long crossed the street to avoid it.
What If Houston Fell in Love With Planning
Houston’s expansion is going in two directions at once. While development on the suburban fringe continues, there is intense focus on the urban core.
How One City Will Change Its Entire Bus System Overnight
After three decades, Houston is revamping its entire bus network — more than 80 routes, 1,200 buses and a quarter-million daily passengers — literally overnight.
California City Moves Toward Innovation Zone for Marijuana
City officials believe it would be the country’s first-ever land use designation specifically meant to promote and regulate the production of marijuana and cannabis-related products.
L.A. Wants to Throw a Different Kind of World Party
Ambitiously called Los Angeles World’s Fair (LAWF) — no “proposal” or “candidate city” about it — the group is promoting what it describes as a new type of World’s Fair, one that is fitting not only for Los Angeles but also for the 21st century.
San Francisco Tries to Combat the Business Side of Gentrification
Campos has proposed a ballot initiative that, while it will not save every threatened legacy business, may buoy enough of them to prevent the city’s commercial landscape from being overrun by Starbucks and Chipotle.
L.A. Asks Makers to Stand Up and Be Counted
With over 350,000 manufacturing jobs, Los Angeles County has more than any other county in the U.S., and an attendant number of factories.
If You Build Startup Row in the Desert, Will They Come?
Through it all, the city’s famous slogan — “The Biggest Little City in the World” — remains harmless kitsch, for sure. But its essential meaninglessness also speaks of a city unsure of itself.
Will the Fight Over the 710 Gap in L.A. Be a Battle to the Death (of Freeways)?
Transportation planners, civic leaders and, especially, cargo carriers in the Los Angeles region have long bemoaned the gap.
L.A. Builds Tiny Parks at Furious Pace
Even the name of the initiative was more of a slogan than a goal — no one knew if it was feasible to develop 50 parks, but the department wanted to dream big.
Photos Signal Warning About a Future of Flooded Cities
“Sink or Swim: Designing for a Sea Change,” a photo exhibition about sea-level rise and the fate of cities at the Annenberg Space for Photograph in Los Angeles, remind[s] us that the disaster has already arrived.
L.A. High-Rise Boom Won’t Cure a Housing Crisis
No fewer than 20 high-rise and medium-rise projects are under construction or in development in the roughly 40-square-block area.
California Airport Feud Gets Ugly
When Ontario officials envision doubled or tripled traffic at ONT, they also envision development — and lots of it.
L.A. Weighs Options for Fixing 4,400 Miles of Sidewalks
In a city famous for the sudden shock of moving earth, the disrepair of Los Angeles’ sidewalks is a slow-motion disaster, threatening ankles, baby strollers, disabled pedestrians and the city budget alike.
New L.A. Kitchen Co-Working Space Is Good for Chefs, Foodies and Even the Health Department
L.A. Prep is hoping to help these food entrepreneurs compete, if not with Kraft and Nabisco, then at least with Amy’s and Annie’s.
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.