The Spring issue of the newsletter of the the Technology Division of the American Planning Association, which I edit, was just published. The issue was timed to coincide with the American Planning Association conference here in Boston next week. The issue includes articles on the following topics: Technology-related sessions at the APA conference Social media […]
Urban Planning as Computer Game in Boston’s Chinatown
Computer games like Sim City and Grand Theft Auto feature expansive, photorealistic urban environments and compelling storylines that engross players for hours. In contrast, public meetings about planning issues feature dry, technical information presented through static presentations and reports. It’s little wonder these meetings generally attract the “usual suspects,” with the skills and patience to […]
Is Urban Planning Dead?
At the American Planning Association National Conference in New Orleans a couple weeks back, I participated in a session on the provocative question: “is planning dead?†The event was organized by the staff of the Colorado-based organization PlaceMatters. A small group met to discuss the question at an “unconference†session near the convention center. They […]
Who Needs ‘Centralized City Planning’? Everyone.
The always-interesting Witold Rybczynski has a provocative piece up on Slate arguing that the failure of government-led urban planning means that “in a democracy, a vision of the future city will best emerge from the marketplace.” I don’t disagree with his observation that private organizations and real estate developers have taken the lead in shaping […]
Happy Census Day
Although a majority of Americans have already returned their Census forms, technically today is the “Census Day” for the purposes of determining where people should be counted. How is your community doing? Take a look on the Census Bureau’s nifty participation rate map, where you can get a widget for the national participation rate or […]
Simulating Our Petroleum-Dependent Future
Computer modeling is a powerful tool for analyzing complex urban systems. Indeed, for decades metropolitan-scale transportation planning has been informed by increasingly sophisticated computer models. In addition, models are commonly used to study all types of infrastructure systems, the urban environment, even possible location of future of urban growth. In fact, I’m building an attractiveness […]
New Database of Tools for Participation and Collaboration in Urban Planning
Over at my MIT webspace I just launched a database of web tools for participation and collaboration in planning. I created it mostly to help myself keep track of all the technology and consultants in this area, and also because of my dissatisfaction with existing databases. It’s not meant to be all-encompassing, just cover the […]