• Urbanism and the meaning of life

    Jane Jacobs, Christopher Alexander, and why good urbanism requires good philosophy
    I am new to New Urbanism, still finding my way around its leading ideas and projects. And as an academic, trained in philosophy no less, I sometimes wonder why I find all of this so captivating. Perhaps the reason should be obvious: there is in fact a rich philosophical dimension to contemporary...Read more

  • Study supports freeway removal as best option

    A tunnel would cost nearly three times as much as converting the aging I-81 in Syracuse to a boulevard—as suggested by CNU's Freeways Without Futures report.
    A new study shows that building a tunnel to carry Interstate 81 traffic through Syracuse, NY, would cost billions more dollars and take a decade to complete. The wisdom of transforming the aging elevated highway to a surface boulevard, as suggested by CNU's Freeways Without Futures 2017 list , is...Read more

  • From car-oriented thoroughfare to community center

    Lancaster, California, has lit the local economy and secured a social heart with one transformative street project.
    Note: This case study was written for the Institute for Transportation Engineers new book Implementing Context Sensitive Design on Multimodal Corridors , funded by the Federal Highway Administration. The nine-block makeover of Lancaster Boulevard, the city’s historic main street, has become a...Read more

  • Planning for an era of sea level rise

    A key goal of the Seven50 plan is to ensure that development along the coastal areas is resilient and sustainable.
    The 2017 hurricane season emphasized the importance of planning for climate change—especially in Southeast Florida, the lowest lying, highly populous area on the Eastern Seaboard. Seven50: Southeast Florida Prosperity Plan directly confronts rising sea levels and the implications for this fast-...Read more