• Ending exclusionary zoning is one way out of our housing crisis

    Reforming zoning to allow missing middle housing would create more paths to homeownership and mitigate a national housing shortage.
    The US is experiencing a severe housing crisis that will require a wide toolkit of strategies to mitigate. A recent study released by Up for Growth estimates that there is a 3.8-million-unit housing shortage nationwide, affecting urban, suburban, and rural areas across the country, not just a few...Read more

  • In the unlucky rust belt, an overlooked 15-minute city

    For those who seek affordable, diverse urbanism in a community that needs committed residents, smaller, working-class cities have much to offer. Here's one in particular with 21st Century potential.
    A cynic might say that Auburn, New York, has no hope. It’s a small city (population 26,000), outside of any metropolitan area, where much of its industry vanished in the 20 th Century. Its median household income is only $43,555, 38 percent below the national average. Moreover, Auburn is still...Read more

  • Zoning that supports physical activity rising in the US

    A longitudinal study found a 53 percent increase in new urbanist type zoning in the US during the previous decade, and support for infrastructure that boosts physical activity, and ultimately, health.
    New-urbanist-type zoning codes rose 53 percent across the US over the previous decade, according to research by the CDC-funded Physical Activity Policy Research and Evaluation Network (PAPREN). Across the board, this type of zoning promotes more sidewalks, mixed-use, bicycle-pedestrian trails,...Read more

  • Receiving zones and adaptation villages: A vision for climate change

    Korkut Onaran, author of Urbanism for a Difficult Future, has developed community planning ideas around self-sufficient places that rely on local technology.
    “ Receiver places ” are often conceived as communities in safe regions of the country, less subject to storms, floods, wildfires, and droughts associated with climate change. The name refers to the likelihood that such places will gain migrants from more dangerous regions. Korkut Onaran, an...Read more