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AbstractProblem, research strategy, and findingsTakeaway for practiceCrossing distance is considered a factor in both pedestrian safety and behavior. However, it has seldom been quantified within or across entire cities or related to walking outcomes. Combining data encoded in OpenStreetMap and drawn from high-resolution satellite imagery, we measured formal pedestrian crossings throughout a dense European city (Paris [France]), a dense American city (San Francisco [CA]), and a less-dense, more car-centric American city (Irvine [CA]). This granular approach—covering roughly 49,000 total crossings—identified inter- and intraurban spatial patterns in the distribution of pedestrian crossing distance, including clusters of long crossings that likely deter walking and increase its risk. By overlaying recent pedestrian–vehicle collisions on these novel data sets we found that longer crossing distance correlated with increased likelihood of collisions, raising the salience of traffic-calming interventions.Quantifying pedestrian crossing distance at the scale of entire municipalities empowers transportation planners to identify pedestrian-hostile crossings (individuals and clusters), add context to collision trends, and geographically target locations for traffic calming. These cases collectively demonstrate how the increasing prioritization of the automobile in city planning quantitatively changes (and degrades) the pedestrian environment, as well as how low-tech investments, such as sidewalk extensions and refuge islands, can mitigate these trends. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AbstractProblem, research strategy, and findingsTakeaway for practiceThirty-two of China’s largest cities have implemented community planner policies. Scholars have debated whether these initiatives have accelerated China’s urban planning system transition from more rational to communicative planning. Through a survey and 23 interviews, we investigated the role tendencies and motivators of a typical example of community planners, known in Beijing as responsible planners. We developed a typology delineating three roles of responsible planners: technical expert, advocate planner, and communicative planner. Results suggest that responsible planners frequently play hybrid roles, yet they exhibit a limited understanding of their role as communicative planners. Graduate planning education in China has tended to stereotype responsible planners as technical experts. Institutional design requiring public participation reduces reliance on technical experts. Responsible planners’ understanding their roles differ significantly from planning practices in North America. The qualitative interviews further illuminated these differences and unraveled the complex motivators in responsible planners’ role choices within the Chinese context.Planning authorities and educators should highlight policies advocating for public participation, graduate planning education emphasizing social planning, and continuing professional education featuring tutorials and knowledge sharing to facilitate a communicative turn in urban planning. This approach will empower planners to better serve residents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AbstractProblem, research strategy, and findings: Cities experimented with street design to address health and economic impacts of the COVID pandemic between 2020 and 2023. Scholars have suggested that COVID represented a window of opportunity to transform aspects of urban planning, but the degree to which emergency interventions portend longer-term changes requires study. This study focused on street cafés as one of the more significant COVID-era street transformations. Street cafés are allocations of space in the cartway for outdoor dining. They introduce a social use to street space while increasing the complexity of managing street space. To assess the idea that the COVID crisis was a window of opportunity, we conducted a comparative case study of COVID street café programs in five North American cities. We drew on 16 interviews and analysis of policy documents to examine how street café programs were implemented, how they adapted existing policy and institutions, and whether their implementation represented a policy punctuation. Despite common objectives, implementing COVID street café programs played out differently in each case city. Urban form, existing policy, administration of emergency programs, and café design and experimentation all affected outcomes. These COVID-era programs led to one city initiating a new street café program; in two other cities, they accelerated implementation of recent policy initiatives, and the experience in the final two cities was ambiguous. Takeaway for practice: This research highlights the importance of recently adopted street policy in shaping emergency response. Although installation of COVID street cafés was widespread, planners will have to renegotiate emergency actions taken to lessen regulatory, administrative, and financial hurdles to café implementation to sustain viable street café programs in the long run. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Environmental justice (EJ) seeks to correct legacies of disproportionately burdening low-income and Black, Indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC) communities with environmental hazards that contribute to health inequalities. Federal and state policies increasingly require plans to assess and incorporate EJ principles. The current lack of accessible data and plan evaluation on EJ has been a barrier to policy setting and benchmarking. We created a framework for analyzing content across a large corpus of plans by using quantitative text analysis on 461 California city general plans, also known as comprehensive plans. To verify results and identify specific policies, we conducted content analysis on a subset of seven plans. Demonstrating the broad applicability of EJ principles in planning, policies spanned all required elements of general plans: housing, circulation, land use, health, safety, open space, air quality, and noise. We found that the most headway in EJ planning has been made in cities with a majority population of color and well before the 2018 California state mandate to address EJ. Policies were primarily focused on preventing adverse exposures as opposed to correcting for legacies of inequality. Further, although all policies address vulnerable populations and places, very few specifically address race or racism. Thus, EJ has been largely operationalized as health equity. We identified 628 EJ policies focused on vulnerable populations across the seven city plans included in content analysis. The smorgasbord of policy approaches provides fodder for cities across the United States to incorporate an EJ approach to planning. Gaps in focus areas reveal room for policy innovation (e.g., emphasis on language justice, formerly incarcerated individuals, and noise ordinance policing). We invite planners and community advocates to search across California's plans for EJ policy inspiration and to use the appendix of EJ policies cataloged in this research as a benchmark of city-level innovation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the vision and goals of the new editor of the Journal of the American Planning Association (JAPA). The editor aims to solidify JAPA's reputation as a leading journal in the field of urban and regional planning by connecting theoretical frameworks with practical applications. The editor also emphasizes the importance of multidisciplinary perspectives, inclusivity, practical relevance, and staying up-to-date with emerging themes in urban planning. The goal is to expand accessibility and engagement with the journal, creating a platform for knowledge sharing and constructive feedback. The article encourages readers, authors, academics, and practitioners to contribute their unique perspectives and ideas to shape the future of cities and regions. [Extracted from the article]

This document is an introduction to a special commentary section in the Journal of the American Planning Association, reflecting on the 75th anniversary of the Housing Act of 1949. The Housing Act of 1949 consolidated and funded various housing development programs under one law, covering urban, suburban, and rural areas. The Act had a significant impact on the growth, form, and social dimensions of metropolitan regions, but also perpetuated discriminatory practices and racial segregation. The commentary section includes discussions on the Act's legacy, including its effects on racial justice, spatial transformation, and the roles of local, state, and federal governments. [Extracted from the article]

Title I of the Housing Act of 1949 pioneered the concept of subsidized urban megaprojects. It aimed to address central city malaise by expanding urban redevelopment efforts already underway. The program combined federal subsidies with local redevelopment agencies using eminent domain. Initially focused on residential uses, the program later expanded to include civic and commercial projects. However, the program faced criticism for delays, neighborhood destruction, and disproportionately displacing non-White communities. Despite its flaws, Title I's approach to urban economic development continues to influence redevelopment efforts today. [Extracted from the article]

"Urban Planning in a World of Informal Politics" by Chandan Deuskar is a comprehensive and mixed methods approach to understanding and addressing challenges in urban planning practices in the Global South. The book explores the connection between informal urbanization and clientelism, where political actors provide resources to the poor in exchange for political support. Using the case of Ghana, Deuskar demonstrates how colonial legacies and clientelism contribute to the persistence of informal settlements. The book offers guidance for a politically adaptive approach to planning that can be applied to other Southern countries. While the book heavily focuses on Ghana, it also includes relevant cases from other places for comparison. The findings of the book highlight the conflict between informal politics and urban planning and propose strategies for planners to effectively operate in environments dominated by informal politics. The book is recommended for planning professionals in Ghana and the Global South, as well as academic and public policy audiences interested in informal politics. [Extracted from the article]

To be clear, I personally love the same Tokyo urbanism as the authors and also dislike the towers-on-podium design, but as urban planners we should remind ourselves that time and again, people hate new buildings until one day the same buildings are treasured historic landmarks. Emergent Tokyo: Designing the Spontaneous City: Jorge Almazan + Studiolab (2022). The authors use a variety of detailed government data and architectural and urban design analysis to describe urban archetypes that are distinctly Tokyo. [Extracted from the article]

Problem, research strategy, and findings: Small towns and cities outside of national parks, scenic public lands, and other natural amenities throughout the western United States are becoming increasingly popular places to live and visit. As a result, many of these gateway communities appear to be experiencing a range of pressures and challenges. In this study we draw on the results of in-depth interviews with 33 public officials and a survey of more than 300 public officials to shed light on the planning and development concerns across western gateway communities. Our results indicate that gateway communities throughout the western United States are experiencing a range of planning and development challenges, many of which seem atypical for small rural communities, such as challenges associated with housing affordability, cost of living, and congestion. These challenges seem to be more related to population growth than increasing tourism and stand out in stark contrast against the fact that these communities strongly value and identify with their small-town character. Our findings suggest gateway communities are doing a variety of things, some quite innovative, to address their planning and development challenges but often feel overwhelmed, behind the curve, and in need of additional capacity and planning support. Takeaway for practice: Our study highlights the importance of effective and proactive planning in gateway communities. It also suggests that to do forward-looking planning and to respond to the challenges they face, many gateway communities will need additional planning support and tools. We highlight gateway communities here to provide a platform for future efforts aimed at assisting these small, rural communities in protecting the qualities that make them such special places to live and visit amid the planning and development pressures and challenges they face. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlighting William (Holly) Whyte's progressive oeuvre and bold approach, Richard Rein reveals an original thinker ready to "blow the lid off" accepted wisdom, trusting his own reading and gut feeling instead. Shortly afterwards, Whyte turned attention toward re-examining cities and emergent environmental concerns about land planning in both the contemporary urban and rural contexts. American Urbanist: How William H. Whyte's Unconventional Wisdom Reshaped Public Life: Richard K. Rein (2022). [Extracted from the article]

Problem, research strategy, and findings : Researchers have developed conceptual consensus on core plan characteristics that contribute to plan quality, but rarely assess how practitioners view plan quality. I explore how Canadian planners view the characteristics thought to create quality plans. I asked planners in 290 municipalities across southern Ontario (Canada) their view of the importance of plan quality and asked that they identify additional plan quality characteristics, rate the influence of various plan characteristics, and explain why they omitted certain characteristics in their official plans. I find that practitioners valued quality plans because they facilitate implementation and help inspire the community while adding credibility and legitimacy to planning processes and the planning profession. Planners did not value all plan elements equally; they felt that clear and enforceable polices were crucial, but that it was less important to report participation in plan preparation or discuss monitoring or interorganizational cooperation in the official plan. Planners did not always include important plan quality elements in their official plans because they lacked sufficient resources to prepare comprehensive plans and rarely significantly updated older plans. These case study findings may not be generalizable to other jurisdictions in Canada or internationally, but still offer useful insights. Takeaway for practice : Scholars should ensure that planning practitioners have a key role in shaping understanding of plan quality. Academics and practitioners should work together to create reflective practitioners who use plan quality characteristics to guide them as they create or update plans. The profession needs to better train current Do Practicing Planners Value Plan Quality? Insights From a Survey of Planning Professionals in Ontario, Canada Dave Guyadeen 21 and future planners on how to prepare and evaluate quality plans through improvements in planning curricula and professional development courses offered by the American Planning Association and the Canadian Institute of Planners. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Problem, research strategy, and findings:I question whether the strength of affordable housing policies in local comprehensive plans is associated with better affordable housing outcomes, which I measure as a decrease in the share of low-income households who spend more than 30% of their income for housing, otherwise known as cost-burdened households. I first assess the strength of affordable housing policies in 58 local comprehensive plans, counting the number of—and degree of coercion in—those affordable housing policies. I then analyze the relationship between the strength of affordable housing policies and changes in the share of low-income households with cost burden. I find that the strength of affordable housing policies is higher in the Atlanta (GA) metropolitan area than in the Detroit (MI) metropolitan area. I also find that the strength of affordable housing policies is positively associated with a decrease in the share of low-income households paying more than 30% of their income for housing in the Atlanta metropolitan area. I do not find a comparable relationship between plan strength and housing outcomes in the Detroit metropolitan area. I also find that the state role matters: Georgia provides more support and guidance for local comprehensive planning, and for affordable housing policies in those plans, than does Michigan. Takeaway for practice:Planners should continually promote local comprehensive plans that include more and stronger affordable housing policies and advocate for greater state support for comprehensive planning and affordable housing policies because these appear to lead to a greater likelihood of implementing stronger plans. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Problem, research strategy, and findings: Cities are increasingly experiencing the effects of climate change and taking steps to adapt to current and future natural hazard risks. Research on these efforts has identified numerous barriers to climate adaptation planning, but has not yet systematically evaluated the relative importance of different constraints for a large number of diverse cities. We draw on responses from 156 U.S. cities that participated in a 2011 global survey on local adaptation planning, 60% of which are planning for climate change. We use logistic regression analysis to assess the significance of 13 indicators measuring political leadership, fiscal and administrative resources, ability to obtain and communicate climate information, and state policies in predicting the status of adaptation planning. In keeping with the literature, we find that greater local elected officials’ commitment, higher municipal expenditures per capita, and an awareness that the climate is already changing are associated with cities engaging in adaptation planning. The presence of state policies on climate adaptation is surprisingly not a statistically significant predictor, suggesting that current policies are not yet strong enough to increase local adaptation planning. However, the model's sampling bias toward larger and more environmentally progressive cities may mask the predictive power of state policies and other indicators. Takeaway for practice: State governments have an opportunity to increase local political commitment by integrating requirements for climate-risk evaluations into existing funding streams and investment plans. Regional planning entities also can help overcome the lack of local fiscal capacity and political support by facilitating the exchange of information, pooling and channeling resources, and providing technical assistance to local planners. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Problem, research strategy, and findings:Many global cities are making good progress on climate adaptation. There is less information, however, on climate adaptation among smaller cities and towns: Are their approaches similar when undertaking adaptation? Do the barriers they face mirror those of large cities? In this study, we undertake fine-grained empirical research on the perceptions of 18 municipal planners in 14 coastal cities and towns in Massachusetts; our findings are thus limited to planners’ perceptions of efforts and barriers in one region of the United States. These communities are very early in the uptake of climate adaptation policies and use a range of approaches when they do begin adaptation, including planning, mainstreaming, or addressing current hazards. The planners interviewed reported that barriers to adaptation actions tend to be interconnected; for example, the strength of private property interests often limits local political leadership on the issue. Without such leadership, it is difficult for planners to allocate time and/or money to adaptation activities. It is also challenging to gain support from local residents for climate adaptation action, while a lack of accepted technical data complicates efforts. Takeaway for practice:In coastal Massachusetts, and perhaps elsewhere, local residents, planners, and their municipal bodies, as well as the states, must act in multiple ways to encourage the development of meaningful climate adaptation action in smaller cities and towns. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Problem, research strategy, and findings: Efforts to account for the history of public housing in America are fraught with competing narratives.  Many scholars, policy analysts, architects, and planners seek explanations for the successes and failures of housing projects from within the program itself.  Some argue that projects rise and fall based on the management performance of housing authorities, while others look to racism, concentrated poverty, crime, and other social conditions. For many, the challenges faced by public housing result from the alienating and dehumanizing qualities of modernist architecture. Still, others argue that the Housing Act of 1937 was compromised from the beginning and, thus, produced compromised results.  This article acknowledges all of these factors as important yet insufficient to account for overall public housing performance; it reframes the narrative of public housing within broader urban conditions, suggesting that the fate of public housing is intimately tied to the fate of the cities that surround them. Takeaway for practice:  Current accounts of the fate of public housing tend to reflect narrow managerial, planning, and architectural concerns. As a result, the literature on public housing insufficiently informs long-term policy decisions and planning practices. Solutions will only emerge when policymakers and planners take into account the impact of capital flight, social disinvestment, and the weak powers of cities to overcome such obstacles. After all, these urban conditions apply as much to recently created HOPE VI neighborhoods as to the high-rise public housing neighborhoods they replaced. Research support: None. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Problem: What is a “good plan”? Among their key goals, plans aim to communicate, influence and engage. Persuasiveness (the ability to engage and motivate) is, therefore, an essential plan quality. Unfortunately, all too many comprehensive plans lack this important quality. In addition, state planning mandates intended to strengthen planning can instead worsen this shortcoming. Purpose: To develop a methodology to measure and compare the communicative and persuasive qualities of plans in states with and without planning mandates. Methods: A specially designed protocol was developed to measure the communicative and persuasive qualities of comprehensive plans. Plans of 20 municipalities in states with planning mandates were compared with those of 20 municipalities in states without planning mandates. Statistical analyses of the results were conducted using the Wilcoxon–Mann–Whitney (U) test and simple t tests. Results and conclusions: Requiring local governments to prepare plans did not result in better plans—at least as measured by a protocol tailored specifically to assess the persuasiveness and communicative quality of plans. Plans prepared in mandate states were much more rigid and standardized than those prepared in nonmandate states. Nonmandated plans also scored much higher in terms of their narrative and storytelling qualities than mandated plans. Private consultant involvement in plan making significantly increased the communicative and persuasive qualities of plans. Takeaway for practice: Plans in all 40 municipalities fell far short of the ideal communicative and persuasive qualities set forth in the protocol. The deficiency was greatest in states with planning mandates. The involvement of private consultants had a positive impact on plan quality, while the provision of state funding for planning did not. Research support: None. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Problem: Explicitly prohibited from regulating the land use planning activities of municipal and county governments by the Clean Air Act (42 U.S.C. 131), the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has been forced to pursue an end-of-the-pipe approach to air quality management that has not proved successful in fully reducing ozone and fine particulate matter below health-based standards in many large U.S. cities. The persistence of these pollutants, in combination with a rapid rise in vehicle travel in recent decades, has raised concerns within the planning and public health communities about the long-term success of an air quality management program that is effectively divorced from the land use planning process. Purpose: This work, which is part of an EPA-sponsored study titled Projecting the Impact of Land Use and Transportation on Future Air Quality (PLUTO), was intended to assess the effectiveness of compact growth in improving air quality at a geographic scale compatible with secondary pollution formation and transport and over a planning horizon sufficient to capture the longer-term benefits of regional land use change. Methods: Future air quality is associated with alternative land development scenarios in this study through the integration of three separate and previously unrelated modeling components. These components consist of a set of standard population projection techniques, a household vehicle travel activity framework, and a mobile source emissions model (MOBILE 6) developed by the EPA. Results and conclusions: The results of our analysis find the median elasticity of vehicle travel with respect to density change over time to be -0.35, suggesting metropolitan areas can expect a 10% increase in population density to be associated with a 3.5% reduction in household vehicle travel and emissions. In addition, vehicle elasticities derived for urban and suburban census tracts across the 11 metro regions suggest density increments within urban zones (-0.43) to be more than twice as effective in reducing vehicle travel and emissions as density increments within suburban zones (-0.19). Takeaway for practice: We found compactness to be associated with greater reductions in vehicle travel than in previous studies, which suggests land use change can play a measurable role in improving regional air quality over time. Importantly, we found where compact growth occurs to be critically important to determining the extent to which higher density development reduces vehicle travel and emissions. We found the densification of urban zones to be more than twice as effective in reducing vehicle miles of travel and emissions as the densification of suburban zones, suggesting compact growth to be better for air quality than historical patterns of growth when densifying urban zones is given priority over non-urban zones. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Problem: In the last two decades, urban economic development has shifted its focus from industrial recruitment to talent and human capital, including art and culture. Many have argued that talented people are drawn to artistic and cultural amenities, but few have examined art and culture as a production system and drawn meaningful insights for urban planning and economic development based on understanding its inner workings. Purpose: This article looks closely at the mechanisms that structure and drive the cultural economy and suggests possible avenues for cultural economic development and policymaking based on these mecha- nisms. I focus on the ways cultural producers obtain jobs, advance their careers, gain value for their goods and services, and interact with each other. Methods: I conducted 80 interviews with cultural producers, cultural gatekeepers, and owners and managers of entertainment venues these groups frequent. Results and conclusions: I find that not only are artistic and cultural producers densely agglomerated, but that key social mechanisms structure and inform this clustered production system. These in- dustries depend on unique kinds of social interaction, from nightlife to gallery open- ings, to thrive. This is more than just fun and games, and is critical to the operation of this economic sector. Takeaway for practice: Cultural pro- ducers rely heavily on their social lives to advance their careers, obtain jobs, and gen- erate value for their goods, so that the local arts social milieu is critical to the cultural economy. Cultural producers also tend to cross-fertilize, collaborating to create goods and services, review each other's products, and establish new careers, meaning the ability to live and work in close proximity to one another is important. Finally, a large concentration of creative people and an active cultural milieu has made New York culture a known brand. While New York is unique, the cultural life of other cities and regions can also be economic development assets. Places can strategically cultivate the social milieus that are most conducive to the production of art and culture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Problem: Traditional American zoning separates land uses, yet many urbanists and contemporary planners argue that bringing mixed use back to the American city is the key to restoring its vibrancy. Purpose: This article compares the American and the German approaches to regulating land use. Methods: I derive my conclusions from a review of German federal and local regulatory documents, and interviews I conducted in the German city of Stuttgart. Results and conclusions: The U.S. zoning approach assumes that each land use district is suitable for only a single type of human activity, such as residential, commercial, or industrial use; whereas in Germany the prevailing principle is that each land use district is suitable for multiple types of activity, and most districts end up in mixed uses. Thus, despite some nominal similarities in the land use categories employed in both countries, the zoning methods are in fact starkly different. Takeaway for practice: The German zoning system, which commonly mixes the land uses, challenges deeply engrained assumptions that underlie standard U.S. zoning, and it may offer useful alternatives for zoning reform. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Under current federal and local wetland protection regulations, damage to wet-lands from urban development must be mitigated. A variety of mitigation methods exist, several of which create or restore wetlands elsewhere to compensate for losses at the site of the original wetland impact. Critics assert that such mitigation programs relocate wetlands from urban to rural areas, causing disparities. This article analyzes 1,058 permitted wetland mitigation transactions in the Chicago region between 1993 and 2004. Our analysis shows that some wetlands are relocated from urban to rural areas, but we also find that wetlands are moved between suburban areas. Most relocated wetlands move from areas with high population densities to areas with much lower densities, though one mitigation method did not have this effect. Our analysis demonstrates that the mitigation method chosen affects whether there are significant socioeconomic differences between the area where the original wetland impact occurs and that in which the newly created or renovated wetland is located. These findings suggest that planners must take relocation and redistributive effects into account in setting up and administering mitigation programs, particularly as responsibility for wetland protection shifts from federal to local regulators. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

I analyze the consequences of a recent statewide affordable housing planning mandate in Illinois. My survey of local officials uncovered widespread resistance and grudging compliance. At the mandate deadline, 36 of 49 prosperous suburban municipalities had the required plans, but most of these plans met the minimum legal requirements and failed to acknowledge prior exclusion or propose specific remedies. I find evidence of subregional collaboration among municipal officials, indicating they are aware of their inter-dependence though they remain strongly attached to local autonomy. My results demonstrate how unpopular the mandate was with local officials, potentially explaining why meeting its goals may require some time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article looks at the patterns of diversity in the City of Chicago and its surrounding suburban towns in Cook County, Illinois, focusing in particular on the economic diversity of census block groups to draw several conclusions. First, I find that different types of neighborhood-level social diversity have different spatial patterns, and thus may require different supportive planning strategies. Second, an increase in density predicts an increase in social diversity, but only up to a point. Third, providing varied housing unit types is an important means for promoting diversity, but offering a variety of housing values and choice between renting and owning is also important. Fourth, older urban and pre-World War II suburban areas are the most socially diverse places in the Chicago area. This may be a strength of first-tier suburbs that deserves more attention. Finally, the diversity of any residential area is in constant flux. Planners interested in sustaining diversity should focus in particular on areas where it is in decline. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many analysts argue that the potential for a natural, accidental, or nefarious infectious disease event to have a dramatic impact on urban areas in the United States and abroad is growing. After reviewing the justification for this position, this article considers what cities should do to prepare for a major disease event. Recognizing that prevention and preparation receive insufficient attention, we recommend that planners seek out and work with both public and private sector groups with roles in disaster planning; design land and transportation planning information systems to aid and support decision makers during crises; encourage greater self-sufficiency in food production and consumption; assist in the design of humane, realistic evacuation strategies and routes; and consider the effects of their day-to-day recommendations on disease risk and response. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Available evidence establishes correlations between the built environment and walking, but not a causal relationship, leading researchers to debate whether ‘self-selection’ explains the observed correlations: do residents who prefer to walk choose to live in more walkable neighborhoods? Using data from a survey of residents of eight neighborhoods in Northern California, this article presents new evidence on the possibility of a causal relationship between the built environment and walking behavior. This work improves on most previous studies by incorporating travel attitudes and neighborhood preferences into the analysis of walking behavior, and by using a quasi-longitudinal design to test the relationship between changes in the built environment and changes in walking. Both analyses show that the built environment has an impact on walking behavior even after accounting for attitudes and preferences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

If neighborhood design can support or undermine active lifestyles, then residents of new urbanist neighborhoods can be expected to exhibit higher levels of physical activity than residents of conventional communities. This study compared various measures of physical activity for residents of a new urbanist neighborhood to those for a group of conventional suburban neighborhoods in central North Carolina, finding no statistically significant differences, even after adjusting for individual and household characteristics. However, we did detect differences in where people were physically active. Residents of the new urbanist neighborhood were more likely to be physically active in their neighborhood than were residents of conventional suburbs. This difference was due to their walking more for utilitarian purposes, as distinct from walking for leisure. Despite the limitations of a quasi-experimental research design, our results raise questions regarding new urbanism's ability to raise residents' overall levels of physical activity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As natural-resource-based economies continue to change, local planning will play a pivotal part in managing their transition. This research examines the role played by planning in defining a vision of sustainability in two such communities in the Canadian Pacific Northwest. The case studies are important in several respects: they illustrate that sustainability can be an important organizing theme in planning a community's response to change; they show that through planning, concepts of sustainability can evolve from individual to collective definitions; and they illustrate planning-based efforts to manage change. In the communities examined here, planners played an especially influential role in the transition process: they helped define possibilities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article argues that community development efforts can be significantly improved through careful attention to urban design. One potential design application is New Urbanism, which offers promising principles for integrating affordable housing into inner-city neighborhoods. These points are illustrated through a case study of four New Urbanist projects in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Here, New Urbanists have been involved in community-based, inner-city revitalization efforts for more than two decades. This is often overlooked in a critical literature that focuses only on New Urbanist communities in the suburbs. While it is too early to pronounce final, comprehensive judgments on these Pittsburgh projects, they illustrate an important new direction that is worthy of close study by urban planners, community development officials, scholars of urban affairs, and urban designers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although many have written about urban sprawl, few have sought to measure it. In this article, we present several quantitative measures of urban form and compute these for neighborhoods of varying age in Washington County, the western portion of the Portland, Oregon, metropolitan area. Our results suggest (I) neighborhoods in Washington County have increased in single-family dwelling unit density since the 1960s; (2) internal street connectivity and pedestrian access to commercial areas and bus stops have improved since the early 1990s; (3) external connectivity continues to decline; and (4) the mixing of land uses remains limited. We condude that while several measures appear to be improving, Portland's war on sprawl is not yet won. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study tests the New Urbanist claims that placing amenities such as parks and retail shops within walking distance of homes will increase pedestrian travel and thereby increase interaction among neighbors. It also examines the relative roles of physical design and personal attitudes and perceptions in predicting walking and neighboring behaviors. Surveys were conducted in eight neighborhoods (four inner-city, four suburban) with varying degrees of local access to parks and shops. Analyses were conducted at the neighborhood and individual levels and were supplemented with qualitative data. The findings provide some support for each of the tested relationships, but also underscore the significance of other variables, especially personal attitudes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A correction to the article "The Unintended Consequences of a Culture-Led Regeneration Project in Beijing, China" in the number 2, volume 82, 2016 issue.

This article lists articles that will be published in the summer, 2010 issue of the publication, including "Travel and the Built Environment: A Meta-Analysis," by Reid Ewing and Robert Cervero, "Rethinking Federal Housing Policy," by John Landis and Kirk McClure, and "Planning for the Disposal of the Dead," by Carlton Basmajian and Christopher Coutts.

Presents the winners of the Society for American City and Regional Planning History prizes and awards. Lewis Mumford Prize; John Reps Prize; Catherine Bauer Wurster Prize; Theodora Kimball Hubbard Prize; National Student Research Paper Prize.