• Rightsizing the automobile for local mobility

    Neighborhood electric vehicles offer a better local transportation option in light of climate threats, but the design of streets would need to change.
    Half of the work of urban design is deciding where to store cars. It’s a common lament of urban design professionals. In my community, controversy is brewing because Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) and housing advocates want to build housing on a BART station ’ s surface parking lots. As usual NIMBYs...Read more

  • How to prepare communities for climate change

    The Climate Planner offers a wealth of experience and advice for planners confronting climate change in community plans.
    “Think globally, act locally,” has been an environmental mantra for at least 30 years. For local communities, acting on climate change begins with a plan—which makes urban planners a linchpin in this issue. And yet planners may be averse to getting in the middle of another political hot-button...Read more

  • Transforming a suburban commercial strip corridor

    There is nothing so ubiquitous in the American landscape as suburban commercial strip corridors, typically built in the 20 th Century with a variety of single-use buildings, large surface parking lots, buffers, and thoroughfares focused on driving. These corridors have a lot of underutilized land...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