• Health and planning for quality of life

    In addition to heavy smoking and drinking, lack of social connections and physical activity are primary factors in dying sooner. The latter two deficits can be addressed by community planning focusing on quality of life and walkability.
    “Quality of life” is an elusive concept that people want in their communities but is often undervalued by planners because it is difficult to measure. However, there are clear ways that planners can boost quality of life, adding years to people’s lives and improving happiness, argues Todd Litman of...Read more

  • From plan to place: Providence's downtown renaissance

    Like most historic US cities, Providence declined in the 20th Century but has since become a model for urban revitalization through investment and good planning.
    Editor's note: In the early 1990s, before I became a new urbanist, I visited Providence in the summer and was amazed at downtown, with its stunning turn-of-the-century commercial architecture that appeared to be mostly vacant. I had never seen anything that empty and that intact. I later learned...Read more

  • Donald Shoup had a major impact on cities

    The planning academic changed how we view parking across the American landscape, launching reforms that have helped municipalities.
    Donald Shoup died last Thursday at the age of 86, having made a greater impact on cities than all but a few urban planners in the last century. Shoup’s rise to national prominence began 20 years ago with the publishing of The High Cost of Free Parking , an unlikely classic if there ever was one...Read more

  • Stop the freeway expansion, build a boulevard

    The West Toledo Expressway destroyed 900 buildings, mostly homes, in 1972 and accelerated a decline that continues to this day. Now, Ohio Department of Transportation wants to expand the highway. Instead, let’s bring people back with a boulevard.
    On December 15, 1972, the 9-mile West Toledo Expressway, today’s northern leg of Interstate 475, opened to fanfare. Headlines proclaimed it “a gift.” It’s doubtful that those owning the 900 destroyed buildings in its path—mostly homes—shared that view. The Ohio Highway Department Deputy Director...Read more