• New Urbanism in the Wildland Urban Interface

    How urbanism could help to solve problems like the Paradise disaster.
    New urbanists have had tremendous influence on urban planning in recent decades—see 25 Greats Ideas of the New Urbanism . Often their work turns out to be prescient, but ignored. Such is the case with disasters like the Paradise, California, fire in November. The damage done to a city of 26,000 was...Read more

  • Pattern retrofit for resilience: An introduction

    Pattern retrofit is a necessary step to reforming dysfunctional metropolises impacted by global capital. This is part 1 of a series.
    Have you heard of the McRefugees? These are individuals in Hong Kong, whose housing options have become so costly that they are sleeping in 24-hour McDonald’s. The number of McRefugees in Hong Kong has expanded several fold in the past year. This parabolic change is a clue that something at a scale...Read more

  • An international lens on sprawl

    As cities around the world are enveloped in sprawl, its health and sustainability problems are going global.
    Note: This is Part 2 of a two-part series that was written for Doug Kelbaugh's upcoming book THE URBAN FIX: Resilient Cities in the War against Climate Change, Heat Islands and Overpopulation, due out in April of 2019. Here's the link to Part 1 . According to MIT’s Center for Advanced Urbanism, “...Read more

  • Reconfronting sprawl: Still paved with good intentions and asphalt

    After taking a back seat to urban revival for a decade or more, American suburbs are once again in the driver's seat of growth. Can they be built sustainably?
    Note: This is Part 1 of a two-part series that was written for Doug Kelbaugh's upcoming book THE URBAN FIX: Resilient Cities in the War against Climate Change, Heat Islands and Overpopulation, due out in April of 2019. No one better reveals the problems of sprawl than David Owen in his precocious,...Read more