• The program that ‘changed everything’ for Oklahoma City

    Thirty years ago, Oklahoma City’s downtown was hurting badly, and the city’s livability and beauty were at a low ebb. A policy called MAPs transformed the city.
    Oklahoma City (OKC) is one of the few major cities with championship-level kayaking and whitewater rafting in the middle of the city. Downtown is connected to a seven-mile-long recreational riverfront via a series of manmade “river lakes.” A new urban canal links downtown to the Bricktown...Read more

  • Legacy of the Little Pink House

    Last night I watched the drama Little Pink House , based on the Kelo v. City of New London, Connecticut, eminent domain case that reached the US Supreme Court in 2005. The case centered on the taking of non-blighted houses in the small Connecticut city to enable economic development by a Fortune...Read more

  • How cities and towns can bounce back in the post-pandemic era

    A toolkit highlights the power of land-use and transportation policy in recovery from the devastating impacts of COVID.
    Now that vaccines are rolling out and new COVID cases are dropping in the US and worldwide, cities can begin to get a clearer view of what their world will look like in the post-pandemic era. To prepare for what is next, a great place to start is the Pandemic Toolkit , created by the new urbanist...Read more

  • What will Biden do for urbanism?

    The Biden plan mentions code reform, transit, smart growth, underserved communities, and generally big investments in affordable housing.
    Barring some highly unlikely turn of events, Joe Biden will become president in January. The question for many planners and urban designers: What will the new administration mean for urbanism? Cities will be facing many challenges in 2021. When the dust settles on the pandemic, we don’t know what...Read more