• Cities aren't a luxury good

    For most of the 20th century, cities and their accoutrements were associated with immigrants, people of color, and relative economic deprivation. The very phrase “inner city” became a synonym of “poor,” and in certain contexts “urban” itself became a word that referred to people of color,...Read more

  • Leaning toward live-work

    Strong economic, demographic and household trends reveal a tremendous pent-up demand to use homes for employment, pressuring the marketplace to accommodate all types of live-work units.
    Note: This article was written as part of the Project for Lean Urbanism and edited for Public Square. Live-work units are among the oldest forms of housing. For centuries, cities, towns and vil­lages included shophouses—often referred to as the original live-work unit—in which work, commerce and...Read more

  • The rise and fall of Gay Urbanism in West Hollywood

    The LGBT community created a sense of place out of the vast suburban landscape of LA and had a lasting impact on walkability.
    The civil rights protests of the 1960s-70s – from the marches of Martin Luther King to the walkouts of the Chicano movement – were powerful forces for social change across America. They also transformed the very urban fabric of American cities. I’ve devoted much of my career to researching and...Read more

  • A city that works for the elderly works for everybody

    London, like many cities, is aging. That presents a design and policy challenge in housing, transportation, and basic services—issues that relate to changing demographics on both sides of the Atlantic.
    Note: Hank Dittmar co-authored a new report, " Ageing London ," on the special challenge of a growing elderly population in London, an issue faced by cities large and small across much of the globe . Older Londoners are the city’s fastest growing demographic. By 2035, there will be almost two...Read more