• The continuing relevance of Every Place Counts

    CNU led visioning sessions sponsored by US DOT in four cities in 2016, representing a landmark recognition of the wrongs committed in the name of in-city highway building.
    CNU’s recent launch of the Freeway Fighters network is the most recent chapter of its long history of advocating for the transformation of in-city highways. This story includes many projects over decades, some little remembered, that have chipped away, over time, at the status quo of highways...Read more

  • An everyday town of extraordinary impact

    As a Southern beach town, Seaside is neither utopia nor stage set. Its great achievement is in demonstrating an alternative to two generations of American sprawl.
    What more can anybody say about Seaside? Last year, Rizzoli published Dhiru Thadani’s magisterial Reflections on Seaside with essays by 90 contributors, including the Prince of Wales. It runs 846 pages and weighs in at nearly 12 pounds. It surely stands as the definitive account of a place that—...Read more

  • A new urbanist visits YIMBYtown

    YIMBYtown is a movement, functionally adjacent to CNU, that focuses on how to build more housing in urban places. YIMBY and CNU have complementary roles in urbanism.
    Imagine a parallel universe where something like CNU exists, but it was not founded by architects, and attracts relatively few architects, urban designers, or planners. YIMBYtowners have embraced much of the new urbanist canon, and, like CNU, seem to dominate the discourse—but each struggles to...Read more

  • Ambitious plan to replace tree canopy lost to storm

    In just over an hour, Cedar Rapids lost more than half of its trees—the recently adopted plan has lessons for many cities.
    Cedar Rapids, Iowa, will plant 42,000 street and park trees and advise private landowners on how to replace a half million more to recover from a major August, 2020, derecho storm. The 10-year equitable tree recovery plan, ReLeaf Cedar Rapids , is a collaboration of the city, nonprofit Trees...Read more