• A village starts with a street plan

    A town near me is looking to build a mixed-use waterfront village—a street plan could be the key to achieving that goal.
    A recent Substack piece, “ How to Build a Village ,” caught my attention because it features a site near where I live. The “village style” plan in Clay, Onondaga County, New York, was highlighted by planner, ex-mayor, and writer Bill Fulton ( The Future of Where , which I highly recommend). Clay is...Read more

  • Why did the chicken cross the stroad?

    Today, just for fun, I offer a slight twist on an age-old question. The question above was posed on an urbanist listserve, and this was my answer: Because chickens can't drive. Stroads are dangerous and unpleasant; no proverbial chicken would cross the stroad if it had a choice in the matter.Read more

  • The historic city crime drop is an opportunity for urbanism

    The historic urban crime reduction, if long term, will have significant ramifications for the housing market and urbanism.
    A spike in violent crime in the last 10 years, especially in the first two years of this decade, has not been good for US cities. Cities like Philadelphia and Chicago, which gained momentum and population growth in the 2010s, began to recede again as families moved to the suburbs. At the same time...Read more

  • How art shaped decades of New Urbanism

    The movement has been heavily influenced by art, as Volume 2 of The Art of the New Urbanism makes clear.
    The Art of the New Urbanism Volume 2 (2010-2025) is now available and is even more impressive than Volume 1 , which was published in 2025. There are well over 600 individual images, compared with about 350 in the first volume. Some are groups of images brought in after a single image in the series...Read more