Subject: Planning

  • 8 New Year’s Resolutions (Wishes?) for the Places Where We Live

    It’s almost New Year’s Day, and that means it’s time for everyone to write down their resolutions for 2013. I’d like to make resolutions to do certain things for the betterment of all our communities. But maybe I should just…

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    The Dangers of Being an “Armchair” Anything

    The East Side Commercial Historic District is an enclave of historic structures representing a fascinating cross-section of Milwaukee’s eastern commercial development history. The district comprises three city blocks filled with roughly 40 structures representing an array of rich architectural characteristics from the late…

  • Study: NJ Land-Use Patterns Increase Exclusionary Zoning and Sprawl

    All too often, we hear how sprawl development continues to eat up the last remaining open spaces across New Jersey, and residents continue to express confusion about how this keeps happening. One look at local zoning ordinances, though, and it…

  • Despite Missing Out On NSP2, There’s Still Much Work To Do in Chicago Suburbs

    Civic leaders and planners in the south and west Chicago suburbs were disappointed to learn that the regional collaborative proposals submitted by the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning (CMAP) supporting their work and featured in the current issue of Shelterforce…

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    Detroit as a Test Site of the Green Future

    Recently a group of planners, including long-time NHI researcher Alan Mallach, visited Detroit to survey the city’s vast vacant spaces and make recommendations on how to re-organize the city for the future. The team proposed relocating many of the city’s…

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    Its Time To Adjust To The Metropolitan Reality

    One of the recurring themes of my writing (for example, here) has been that, to achieve sustainability in our cities, suburbs, and rural areas, we need to get beyond the accidents of history that comprise our local jurisdictions. Environmental, economic,…

  • Commuter Rails Promise

    The battle over what sort of transportation projects to include in the economic stimulus package centered around whether to emphasize the same old highway subsidies or to push more progressive transit. But not every smart-growth advocate favors more money for…

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    The Great Detroit Charrette?

    Thirty percent of Detroit proper is now vacant land. This was the news a few weeks back from The Detroit Free Press, the paper that announced last month that it would reduce daily delivery circulation to just three days a…

  • Yes, Virginia, There Is A City Planner

    Sometimes, the road more traveled by makes all the difference. It’s not news that there is significant buzz around planning circles around Transit Oriented Development, housing close to town, and more welcoming streetscapes. But do we know how the suburban…