• Car-free streets: When old becomes new again

    Americans are returning to walkable neighborhoods. Property values are appreciating much faster in these types of places than they are in car-dependent areas, suggesting people are becoming increasingly willing to pay a premium to live, work, and play in walkable environments. [1] Though widespread...Read more

  • Appreciating small-scale New Urbanism

    For those who are concerned that too many big developers dominate urban revitalization, the Naked Philly blog is an antidote.
    I’m guilty, like a lot of writers, of focusing on the larger projects. Many articles are written on 500-unit mixed-use developments while scores of little urban projects fall under the radar. I recently checked in with the Naked Philly blog, which shows the transformation of a major city in all its...Read more

  • New Urbanism's family values

    Joel Kotkin charges urbanists with being anti-family—but he couldn't be more wrong.
    In The Human City: Urbanism for the Rest of Us , Joel Kotkin makes the case that urbanists are behind the drop in birth rates around the world. Urbanists are implementing policies that discourage child-rearing—with potentially dire consequences, he says in this 200-plus-page polemic. It’s pretty...Read more

  • Creative placemaking: Knowing when to get out of the way

    It seems everywhere I turn lately I stumble my way into a conversation on creative placemaking — people looking at the activation of public space as a way to further their personal and collective passions and pursuits. It’s heartening. I’m a firm believer that our taking of emotional ownership over...Read more