Recent Streetsblog USA posts about Urban Planning

Marohn vs. O’Toole: Sizing Up The Great Debate

By Angie Schmitt | Sep 15, 2015 | 3 Comments

Last week, Charles Marohn of Strong Towns went head to head with “antiplanner” Randall O’Toole in Lafayette, Louisiana. The debate was billed as an event to help the city with its regional planning process and was broadcast over local radio. Watching O’Toole make up arguments out of whole cloth, however, you have to wonder if giving him […]

Talking Headways Podcast: I’m Not a Scientist

By Tanya Snyder | Nov 20, 2014 | 2 Comments

Do you ever think about the ecology of the city you live in? Not just the parks and the smog. Scientists are starting to examine urban ecosystems more holistically: the trees and the concrete, natural gas lines and soil, water pipes and rivers. The natural and the synthetic feed off each other in surprising ways. […]

Fixing a Blank Wall Streetscape With Storefront Retrofits

By Angie Schmitt | Sep 5, 2014 | 20 Comments

Every city has places where the buildings present a blank face to the sidewalk. A dark, recessed arcade deadening the pedestrian environment or a soulless concrete wall fronting a windswept plaza. Consultant Brent Toderian, formerly the planning director for the city of Vancouver, pointed out a cheap and easy solution to this problem. He calls them […]

TransitMix: A New App for Your Fantasy Map

By Tanya Snyder | Aug 22, 2014 | 3 Comments

I’m a little intimidated by sharing my first fantasy transit map with an audience that I know to include some ardent and accomplished fantasy transit mappers. But here goes: my first attempt. It’s a little circuitous, but it connects neighborhoods that don’t have great connections right now. I didn’t bring it all the way into […]

Talking Headways Podcast: Crown Prince of Fresh Air

By Tanya Snyder | Aug 19, 2014 | 5 Comments

What would you think of a city planner, out ruffling feathers with his bold ideas about density and urbanism — who commutes to work an hour each way from his ranch way outside the city? Ironic — or hypocritical? That’s the question we wrestle with in our discussion of Brad Buchanan, the head honcho at […]

Trading Cars for Transit Passes “in the Middle of the Corn and Soybeans”

By Angie Schmitt | Aug 15, 2014 | 13 Comments

This post is part of a series featuring stories and research that will be presented at the Pro-Walk/Pro-Bike/Pro-Place conference September 8-11 in Pittsburgh. If Champaign-Urbana can make it easier to leave your car at home, any place can. That’s what local planner Cynthia Hoyle tells people about the progress her region has made over the last few years. With great intention […]

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