• Actions for rebuilding health and opportunity

    A Pandemic Toolkit describes 22 actions that local governments can take to safely jumpstart their economies.
    In the last seven months, many of us have turned our attention to cataloguing and collecting planning practices of how cities, towns, and suburbs are responding to COVID-19 in an attempt to rebuild health and opportunity. Thanks to those of you who contributed to the PlaceMakers Pandemic Response...Read more

  • Is HOD the next TOD?

    Hospital-oriented development, with parallels to transit-oriented development, should be the next big thing.
    Compact, mixed-use, walkable communities have been revolutionizing the land use and real estate development paradigm in the Unites States over the past 30-years. Transit-oriented development, innovation districts, university town centers, main street retail, “healthy communities,” and revitalized...Read more

  • Investing in a city health district during the pandemic

    Memphis, Tennessee, shows the benefits of having community investment and social infrastructure, supported by philanthropy and institutions, in place during a pandemic.
    During Covid-19, the Memphis Medical District Collaborative (MMDC) has worked to keep local businesses afloat while pursuing its long-term goals of revitalization of an underserved community. The collaborative’s 2020 activities have included a Small Business Emergency Assistant Fund, streetscape...Read more

  • Thoughts about urbanism and architecture in the face of COVID-19

    The pandemic may have long-lasting design impacts, but we still need sociable and walkable places.
    At some point we will re-emerge from our quarantines—even those of us that take seriously the threat of this virus. Tentatively at first, we will increasingly find ourselves in public or semi-public spaces. If and when treatments and vaccines come on-line, we will become less fearful of elevators...Read more