• The case for incremental development

    Lessons from Vancouver.
    Last November, Patrick Condon spoke somberly to a crowd of journalists in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He seemed defeated. He’d lost all hope. Condon teaches sustainable urban design at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver. As he explained, much of his life’s work had been spent advocating...Read more

  • Grand boulevards would solve the housing crisis, Calthorpe says

    Redeveloping commercial corridors, using policies like AB 2011 in California, enables new housing at a scale big enough to eliminate the housing shortage in the US without displacement, argues a CNU founder.
    Redeveloping commercial corridors into mixed-use urban places could solve the housing crisis, according to Peter Calthorpe, CNU cofounder and urban designer with HDR. “As of right” zoning was adopted for 8 million housing units—two million “market feasible”—on thoroughfares lined with retail,...Read more

  • Build the city, but for whom?

    While CNU moves on from its stint in Cincinnati, those who attended CNU 32 are inspired to continue their work locally, as they always have.
    Note: this article first appeared in Soapbox Cincinnati . This past May, national nonprofit the Congress for the New Urbanism (CNU) held their annual flagship event in Cincinnati. The event gathered 1,454 total attendees from across the country (and world) to share ideas and inspiration about urban...Read more

  • Highlighting the rising pedestrian deaths nationwide

    The semi-annual Dangerous by Design identifies the most dangerous regions and deadly modern thoroughfares, designed so that too many people die in the prime of life.
    This week is a big one for the ongoing battle for safe, livable streets. The important book Killed by a Traffic Engineer was published, and Smart Growth America released its semi-annual Dangerous by Design report. US pedestrian deaths have risen 75 percent since 2010 (see chart above), and that...Read more