All too often when I tell people I am studying urban planning, my statement is met by a blank stare. Some will mumble something about a city they’ve been to, or admit they don’t know much about it. Urban planning’s lack of visibility extends to the web, where there is a depressing lack of good […]
Mapping Development in College Park
Today at Rethink College Park we launched an interactive Google Map of all the various development projects we have written about so far on that website. It also serves as a graphical index to the site, since each point is linked to a page containing all our posts on the project. While it’s not as […]
Can Wheaton Become the Next Silver Spring?
A motley collection of one and two-story strip malls in the DC suburb of Wheaton, Maryland is poised to be transformed into a high density urban downtown. Montgomery County officials have declared victory in downtown Silver Spring, where a decades-long redevelopment process injected millions of dollars of new development into what was an economically depressed […]
D.C. Gentrification and Section 8 Subsidized Housing
This post is second in a series on gentrification in the District of Columbia. Part 1 – D.C. Gentrification and Section 8 Subsidized Housing Part 2 – ‘Gentrification’: The Birth of a Word in D.C. Part 3 – Metro Growth and ‘Gentrification’ Use Part 4 – Neighborhood Revitalization and Displacement I dislike the term “gentrification” […]
Student Housing in Ann Arbor
My friend Dale has just posted a rough introduction to his urban planning thesis to his blog. He is making an ambitious argument — perhaps too ambitious — but I’m interested to see what he uncovers in the process of investigating it. In this thesis, I argue that students individually and collectively were agents of […]
Michigan ‘MCRI’ Would Hurt Women, Minorities, Poor
The University of Michigan-based Center for the Education of Women has released a major study examining what the impact of the anti-affirmative action ballot initiative MCRI would have on the state if it is passed in Michigan in November: The [CEW] study also found that the California amendment led to significant decreases in government contracts […]
Pondering the Unspeakable Option
I’ve been thinking about libraries lately. The DC Public Library‘s Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library, to be specific. There’s been a debate raging over the library’s future: some want the 1972 Mies van der Rohe structure renovated and maintained as the city’s main library. Others, including the mayor, his blue-ribbon library task force, and […]