Category: Public Policy

This could be the next must-get book for Smart Growthers, New Urbanists, and lots of us who bought into the eco-techno connection decades ago. Stewart Brand, creator of The Whole Earth Catalog and author more recently of How Buildings Learn (Penguin, 1994) - which Jane Jacobs called "a classic and probably a work of genius"... Continue Reading

The irony is unavoidable. Interest in Smart Growth and New Urbanist topics has never been higher. Check out this May 2 column in the Washington Post; or David Brooks’ opinion piece in the New York Times from May 4. Yet the economic downturn has sucked the energy out of innovative projects in both private and... Continue Reading

4th Edition of New Urban News Book Just Issued Here’s what got our attention: Miami architect/author/New Urbanist provocateur Steve Mouzon says the 2009 "Best Practices Guide" from the New Urban News “just might be the most useful single book on the New Urbanism I have ever seen.” (Read Steve’s complete... Continue Reading

Advocates for a different approach to transportation planning haven’t been delirious about the reluctance of the feds and DOTs to depart from business as usual when it comes to investing stimulus money. But there’s another chance. All aboard. It's time to depart from business as usual. Transportation for America,... Continue Reading

As 21st century crises and concerns began stacking up, it had begun to look as if Smart Growth priorities were going to have to compete for attention and resources with other burning issues. Such as: Climate change, peak oil, community affordability, health care costs, and now the struggling global economy. But on... Continue Reading

Will Florida put the “suburban retrofitting” movement on the fast track? [caption id="attachment_265" align="alignright" width="360"] Making it easier to do something about this.[/caption] Duany Plater-Zyberk & Co. (DPZ) is providing state officials with a legislative template to do just that. On April... Continue Reading

Atlanta's landmark charrette on planning for "Lifelong Communities" wrapped on February 17, with an Andres Duany presentation to a downtown auditorium packed with some 500 people. A crowd of nearly 500 gathers for the closing presentation of the ARC's Lifelong Communities charrette. On February 11, the opening night... Continue Reading

The New Urbanist mantra for neighborhood planning is to go for compact, connected, and complete. Well, one critical component of completeness, that of making communities comfortable - and practical - for residents of all ages, has been sort of assumed by NU planners. Yet it's taken an effort by the nation's primary advocacy... Continue Reading

When we got a note from colleagues in Chattanooga, Tennessee, letting us know that that their city had not only crafted a Climate Action Plan but was also set to create a new office of sustainability, it got us to thinking: Is the competition for funding in the deepening recession going to kill momentum for this sort of... Continue Reading

When President Obama declared, before an audience in Ft. Myers, Florida, on Feb. 10, an end to "just building sprawl forever" (fast-forward to around 58:58 for the money quote), it may have signaled a change of venue in the battle over how the stimulus package is interpreted and applied. President Obama addresses residents... Continue Reading