“Help … give away $1 million in preservation grants to Greater Boston historic places” boast advertisements I’ve seen recently in Boston about a grant program sponsored by American Express and the National Trust for Historic Preservation. The ads invite the public to visit the program website to vote for which of 25 historic sites should […]
APA Minneapolis Conference
I am attending the American Planning Association’s National Conference in Minneapolis. Whether or not you’re actually here, there’s a number of ways to keep tabs on what’s going on. I’ll be posting Twitter updates at @rgoodspeed, along with several other users including this official account. Technology consultant @Ryan_Link is involved with a group that set […]
Urban Planning Conference Sessions
I’ll be attending the American Planning Association 2009 National Planning Conference in Minneapolis next week. It’ll be only my second visit to Minneapolis so I’m excited to explore the city. However, that will have to fit around some of the conference sessions. Here’s a few that have caught my eye so far, including some sponsored […]
Planetizen Post: ‘A Twitter in the City’
“Will the red-hot microblogging platform Twitter change the way we live in our cities, how we call for help in an emergency, or even help rally a group to topple the city’s government? Or is it a frivolous technology that simply atomizes our thoughts and relationships into 140-character bits?” Read more: A Twitter in the […]
New Planetizen Post: ‘Whither the Regional Planning?’
These are exciting times for local-level and perhaps national urban planning, but not for regional planning. Does regional planning have a future in the U.S., or are we destined for a future where our jealously independent towns and cities will develop in an uncoordinated way? Or is the concept of regional planning itself simply too […]
Detroit and the Limits to Urban Decline
Since the middle of the 20th Century, no American city has experienced the severe economic shock experienced in Detroit. Analyzing the housing of the city, I found the city’s shrinking housing stock has declined at almost precisely the same amount per year, every year: 1% of the existing stock lost. This underlying regularity, independent apparent […]
National Planning for America’s Cities
One of the disappointments for many urban planners about the stimulus bill was the lack of innovation for urban development. Funds for community development, foreclosure response, and transportation funding flowed through existing programs and formulas, meaning the stimulus funds would share their idiosyncrasies. Perhaps this is for the best: for the interest of expediency and […]