• A Blueprint for small-city reinvestment

    A majority African-American city in southern Georgia is redeveloping with the help of a Transect-based, walkable urban plan.
    Thomasville, Georgia, is a majority African-American city of 18,000 people with a history as a spa resort—before the rail link to Atlanta was discontinued. The city has expanded mainly in suburban fashion in recent decades. Thomasville Blueprint 2028, a comprehensive plan adopted five years ago,...Read more

  • On Netflix, Blue Zones highlight the benefits of ‘place’

    New urbanists can be encouraged by the popularity of Blue Zone research and learn from the many place-based factors to longevity, including walkability, social institutions, and local diet—which can be included in plans to boost quality of life.
    Live to 100: Secrets of the Blue Zones debuted on Netflix at the end of August, and critics and the audience have liked the four-part documentary series (100 percent fresh critics rating on Rotten Tomatoes and strong audience ratings across many platforms). Throughout the series, new urbanist...Read more

  • Why pre-historic mobility will never get old

    The drawing was inspired when I was channel surfing and stopped at a history channel that showed reptilian animals crawling and then walking. For 5,000 years, we have been making cities that relied on human energy, animal power, and no mechanical mobility. These lessons are available to all of us...Read more

  • Why we need to design community into neighborhoods

    The author of Fragile Neighborhoods urges urban planners to take on a vital domestic challenge: Help restore the social function of neighborhoods.
    Improving the physical design of the built environment is not enough, argues author Seth Kaplan. He contends that healthy communities need formal and informal institutions that promote social interaction for humans to thrive. “We can’t just build with a vision of the built environment; we need a...Read more