• Catalytic development for walkable urban places

    Catalytic development takes place where strategic, integrated investments are made in a concentrated, walkable urban area.
    Why did Dan Gilbert invest billions in downtown Detroit and stake his home-loan empire on a city going through bankruptcy? Financial experts would caution against such a move—but it appears to be paying off as Gilbert buys more and more property and announces ever larger deals. Gilbert’s Rock...Read more

  • New Pioneers: Lean Urbanism in America

    An entertaining book outlines how ordinary citizens can rebuild cities without the help or hindrance of big developers, big finance, and government bureaucrats.
    The New Pioneers: How Entrepreneurs are Defying the System to Rebuild the Cities and Towns of America, is one of the more entertaining and readable books on urbanism that I have come across in a long time. The subject is Lean Urbanism—“Making Small Possible”—a concept that has gained a fair amount...Read more

  • Parking diets for healthier cities

    Donald Shoup's new volume shows how better approaches to parking enable affordable housing, the missing middle, economic development, and better living.
    Note: I hope to see you all at CNU 26.Savannah next week. The lowly parking lot is filled with spaces about 9 by 18 feet with stripes on both sides and access lanes—typically all surfaced in asphalt—and it may be the most common, pervasive, and boring element of the US built environment. Although...Read more

  • Responding to the ‘Klinkenberg Retreat’

    The suburbs can be repaired in certain places, but it's a fool's errand to think they can be retrofitted wholesale, as a default pattern.
    I’m not going to spend a long time dissecting Kevin Adams' piece on "The Next Great Urban Reset," since a lot of it is ground that I have trod before in depth. I will say that it’s been a while since someone has named something after me, so I thank him for that. The last time that I believe it...Read more