Category: Policy

  • Community

      In the rather sobering article on urban planning that Alex shared in a recent post, there was an intriguing comment about the nature of “community.” The commenter (Blake Chastain) really put into words the uneasy feeling I occasionally have about community-based planning. “Communities are exclusionary; they may seek to be inclusive, but to some extent…

  • WWMLKJrD?

      Today is Martin Luther King Jr. Day, so firstly, huzzah! to all of you who are taking this opportunity to participate in a day of service in honor of his legacy. Secondly, today of all days seems to be a good moment to reflect on the racial diversity (or lack there of) in the…

  • Planning Dogmata: Affordable Housing

      It occurred to me recently that “affordable housing” qualifies as dogma, since I have yet to meet a planner who does not accept it unquestioningly. I am assuming this has a lot to do with how well we are paid, and possibly living conditions in grad school when we are being indoctrinated. This came…

  • Rethinking Real Estate Investment

      I was fully intending to write something appropriate for the post-Thanksgiving consumption frenzy, it being Cyber Monday after all. Perhaps a piece on how mall design came out of traditional downtowns, which are now seeing a resurgence, but are looking more and more like malls… But I just cannot for the life of me…

  • Trickle Down Government and the Role of City Planning

    In the October 3rd US Presidential debate between Mitt Romney and President Barack Obama, Mitt Romney criticized the current state of the federal government by using the term “trickle down government”. The turn of phrase is a striking one because means two things; first that the political right in this nation is willing to abandon…

  • Good news on poverty!