When trying to make a walkable and vibrant street, urban planners often think in terms of hard infrastructure like road width and crosswalks. But soft infrastructure, specifically flowers and other colorful plant life, plays an important role as well.
Read MoreRecently, the city of Winnipeg, Canada, decided to ban on-street parking near a dangerous intersection, hoping that wider sight lines would reduce collisions. The process the city used to create this plan, as well as the discussion it triggered with the public, offers insights for advocates hoping to make their streets safer.
Read MoreChurches occupy an awkward spot in the parking debate. Their parking lots are necessary, but only a couple of times a week. Otherwise, the lots sit empty, wasting valuable land. How can churches and cities handle this problem? Here are three possibilities.
Read MoreEast Grand Avenue in St. Paul, Minnesota, manages to maintain a unique and magical sense of place even while being car-centric. Here’s how it does it, and how other cities can design their built environments to capture that sense of place.
Read MoreMany cities try to improve their downtowns through master plans, hoping that grand projects will draw residents and customers into the city core. But this often fails because truly strong, attractive downtowns form through incremental development.
Read MoreIf you are a tourism marketer, how can you work to make your town more sustainable, resilient and attractive to visitors? And how do you do it in a way that balances the needs of the community? Here are a few ideas to get you started.
Read MoreNorth America is facing two widespread crises at the same time: housing and loneliness. This group is proving that cohousing might be the solution to both.
Read MoreWhen discussing redevelopment, street design isn’t what most people think of. Since North American streets are often built to completion, this kind of incremental approach seems alien. But it’s exactly what cities need to improve their economic, social and environmental conditions.
Read MoreCar-sharing gives people the perks of a private vehicle without the hassles of owning one, but that's just the tip of the iceberg. Here's how urbanists can use this car-rental model to strengthen their communities.
Read MoreWhen fighting the housing crisis, you need to get creative. Toronto is doing just that. Not only have they created a partnership between public officials and private developers, but they’ve also identified a valuable urban resource that often flies under the development radar: transit property.
Read MoreNo city is an island, and no city can judge its place in the housing crisis based solely on local demand. They must also consider how their restrictive policies may be driving housing demand to other places — or how other cities may be driving demand to them.
Read MoreBuilding affordable housing seems like a win for cities struggling in the Housing Trap. But between its top-down nature and the public subsidies it requires, affordable housing can actually make things worse.
Read MoreThey say insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. Oregon policymakers seem to disagree, as they plan to pour $30 million of taxpayer money into reviving container shipping services at the Port of Portland…even though it’s been a consistent economic failure.
Read MoreRates of loneliness and unhappiness are on the rise in the United States, but our European counterparts don’t seem to have the same problem. Why? Part of the reason is the way our built environment isolates us.
Read MoreSusan Graham and Ally Smither have very different life experiences — one as a former nurse and the other as an opera singer — but they’ve come together to pursue the same goal: Stopping highway expansion in Houston.
Read MoreFrom college students trying to make ends meet to older individuals who need support from live-in caretakers, occupancy limits make life unnecessarily difficult for a lot of people. Colorado has passed a law that’s going to change that.
Read MoreThis special edition of Upzoned was recorded last week at the 2024 National Gathering. From business owners to zoning reform experts, Abby talks with attendees about their efforts to build stronger towns.
Read MoreWhen people first started building malls, they had no way of knowing that dramatic shifts in technology and consumer patterns would destroy their business models. What they should've known, though, was that betting all their funding and economic stability on a single project was a bad idea. Let’s not repeat their mistakes.
Read MoreHow do you get more people to ride bicycles? This is a question that plagues every cycling enthusiast, advocate and industry member. Bob Giordano of Missoula, Montana, has a simple answer: Give them a bike.
Read MoreMegan Kimble, journalist and author of “City Limits: Infrastructure, Inequality, and the Future of America's Highways,” joins us to talk about highway expansion in Texas and the groups fighting to stop it.
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