A new study published by the National Academy of Sciences has concluded public participation processes can improve the quality of policies and help them become implemented. The 270-page report is the product of a research panel of a dozen experts. The report’s primary recommendation urges “Public participation should be fully incorporated into environmental assessment and […]
Subprime Mortgages and Race
The map to the right shows the overwhelming majority of subprime loans and foreclosures in New York City have been in minority neighborhoods. (Created by NEDAP via NY Times) The map tells an often-overlooked fact: the subprime crisis has hit minority neighborhoods harder than white ones. The banking industry sometimes claims the differences in lending […]
The Internet as a Participation Tool
This post is Part 4 of my public participation in urban planning series, adapted from my urban planning final paper, Citizen Participation and the Internet in Urban Planning While the Internet makes possible new types of interactions between citizens and government, the purpose and structure of these interactions are not new. The section creates a […]
Public Participation Theory
This post is Part 3 of my public participation in urban planning series, adapted from my urban planning final paper, Citizen Participation and the Internet in Urban Planning. The urban planning profession has developed increasingly sophisticated techniques and theories regarding how and why to involve citizens in planning processes, especially since the 1960s. Critics pilloried […]
Urban Planning and E-Government
This post is Part 1 of my public participation in urban planning series, adapted from my urban planning final paper, Citizen Participation and the Internet in Urban Planning, which received the University of Maryland Urban Studies and Planning Larry Reich Award for Best Final Paper. Since the advent of information technology, there has been intense […]
Government as Data Source
A provocative new article in the Yale Journal of Law and Technology titled “Government Data and the Invisible Hand” (PDF) makes the proposal that the federal government should abandon their attempt to create public websites, and focus almost entirely on providing data in standard formats for use by private websites. The article points out greater […]
19th Century Scots and Your Regional Sewer Authority
Who is this man? The declining intellectual influence of Scottish thinker Patrick Geddes is one of the reasons I cite to explain the declining interest in regional studies and planning among academics in my latest post for Planetizen.