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AbstractScience skeptics have spent years attacking climate science, but it has only been recently that post-COVID-19 conspiracy theorists have directed their attention to local city planning, with misinformation campaigns throwing vitriol at the idea of the 15-minute city and denouncing planning best practices as a global form of social engineering with hidden agendas to restrict private freedoms. In this context, urban planners and practitioners need to understand the nature of conspiracy claims and distinguish legitimate concerns about the 15-minute city model. As science skeptics and conspiracy theories gain ground in all sectors of our societies, researchers and city planners need to communicate evidence-based decision making and address science-driven concerns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Transit-oriented development (TOD) has been widely encouraged as a strategy to limit urban sprawl, increase urban density, and enhance neighborhood diversity. Federal and regional governments have been increasingly promoting such TOD in parallel with light rail transit (LRT) projects to foster sustainable transitions. Little is known, however, about the processes through which municipalities have made changes to existing land use regulations to achieve TOD goals. In this article we trace changes in municipal plans and bylaws surrounding a CA$7 billion LRT in Montréal (Canada) that opened in summer 2023, 7 years after its announcement. Specifically, we analyzed whether changes in municipal bylaws conformed to TOD plans recommended by the metropolitan government while exploring local barriers to zoning reform. Through policy and spatial analysis, we found that only a limited number of municipalities made sufficient bylaw changes between 2016 and 2022 to support TOD plans aimed at implementing mixed-use zoning, increasing urban density, and reducing parking ratios. Through an analysis of rezoning processes, we see an opportunity for improved multilevel cooperation, public engagement activities, and positive communication strategies in the process of building integrated transport and land use systems. These findings can aid planners and policymakers in understanding the importance of reforming municipal zoning bylaws and regional approaches to TOD, strengthening collaboration between different levels of government, and engaging in meaningful public consultation practices to foster an integrated transport and land use approach. If LRT projects are to be successful in meeting sustainability goals, greater engagement with land use regulations across multiple scales is needed to facilitate TOD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Identifying and implementing equitable participatory planning processes is challenging for city planners. Through a qualitative analysis of the Families and Educators for Safe Cycling Project (FESC), an active school travel (AST) project in Toronto (Canada), we identify a potential new path to increase the range of voices heard by planners and decision makers. Specifically, we present community animation and animators as an effective approach for community engagement in AST planning through analyzing 27 semistructured interviews, reviewing key project documents, and coding key themes. We showcase how community animation can play a key role in the meaningful engagement of school communities by deepening and enriching the participatory planning process. We conclude by suggesting that community animators can foster more equitable participatory planning processes by working to include historically marginalized communities within urban planning. Specific groups of people, such as school communities, continue to be excluded from participatory planning processes. By providing insights into the value of community animators, this research allows planners to understand, conceptualize, and apply more equitable participatory planning processes during infrastructure development. Though the case is based on a specific program related to AST in Toronto, the results can assist planners in other communities in enriching their local engagement processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Public–private partnership models designed to facilitate greater collaboration have become increasingly popular. Scholarship on these partnerships has shown that they rely less on contracts and more on trust between partners, engage private partners early to allow for participation in project visioning, and prioritize shared decision making. However, there is a need to further define collaborative partnerships and distinguish them from more conventional models. In addition, research into the impacts of collaborative partnerships within planning processes is limited, and additional insights into their administrative structures, management, and internal dynamics is needed. I respond to these gaps by analyzing the collaborative co-creation public–private partnership formed to plan a smart city in the Quayside district of Toronto (Canada). Drawing on interviews (N = 35), participant observation, and document analysis, I found that those qualities of the Quayside partnership typical of collaborative partnership models reduced governmental oversight, facilitated conflicts of interest, and afforded the private partner substantial power. The challenges precipitated by the partnership structure were amplified through its application in a smart city context, where the private partner was a technology corporation with expansive resources and ambitions. Based on these findings, I argue that collaborative partnerships pose significant risks of privatizing planning processes and that these risks are heightened when asymmetries between partners are particularly stark. Planners should not allow a desire for greater collaboration to overshadow the necessity of divisions between public and private roles, because tension between the two is vital to partnership success. If seeking deeper collaboration, planners should ensure that responsibilities are clearly detailed in contracts to avoid ambiguities or conflicts of interest. This is especially important in projects where power differentials between partners are too significant to rely solely on trust instead of contracts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AbstractProblem, research strategy, and findingsTakeaway for practicePlanners are increasingly using online public engagement approaches to broaden their reach in communities. This results in substantial volumes of digital, text-based public feedback data, making it difficult to analyze efficiently and derive meaningful insights. We explored the use of the novel large language model (LLM), ChatGPT, in analyzing a public feedback data set collected via online submissions in Hamilton City (New Zealand) in response to a proposed local plan change. Specifically, we initially employed zero-shot prompts with ChatGPT for tasks like summarizing, topic identification, and sentiment analysis and compared the results with those obtained by human planners and two standard natural language processing (NLP) techniques: latent Dirichlet allocation (LDA) topic modeling and lexicon-based sentiment analysis. The findings show that zero-shot prompting effectively identified political stances (accuracy: 81.7%), reasons (87.3%), decisions sought (85.8%), and associated sentiments (94.1%). Although subject to several limitations, ChatGPT demonstrates promise in automating the analysis of public feedback, offering substantial time and cost savings. In addition, few-shot prompting enhanced performance in more complex tasks, such as topic identification involving planning jargon. We also provide insights for urban planners to better harness the power of ChatGPT to analyze citizen feedback.ChatGPT presents a transformative opportunity for planners, particularly those dealing with growing volumes of public feedback data. However, it cannot be entirely relied upon. Planners must be mindful of ChatGPT’s limitations, including its sensitivity to prompt phrasing, inherent biases from training data, tendency to overgeneralize, and occasional omission of nuanced details. To enhance accuracy, planners should prescreen data for consistency, provide clear and iteratively tested prompts, use few-shot prompts for complex analysis, and explore various combinations of prompting strategies to develop an effective local approach. It is also crucial to ensure human review of the results. [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]

Abstract Problem, research strategy, and findings: Gentrification is often described as affluent White populations revitalizing deteriorating neighborhoods and displacing lower-income ethnic/racial residents. However, there is limited research on gentrification led by middle- and upper-class ethnic/racial minorities, which I propose calling gentrification of color. I reviewed 46 qualitative and quantitative studies on gentrification of color in U.S. cities from 1960 to 2021 and found a range of phenomena in terms of ethnicity/race, profiles, locations, preceding policies, and consequences of gentrification of color. These studies highlighted both solidarity and tensions within the same ethnic/racial groups as a result of gentrification. Gentrification of color presents both challenges and opportunities for minorities’ cultural inclusion. In addition, my study emphasized the role of policies enabling gentrification of color and the lack of affordable housing policies to address its consequences. The findings can encourage urban planners, policymakers, and scholars to adopt a policy approach that acknowledges the complex intersectionality of race/ethnicity and class. Takeaway for practice: I urge urban planners and policymakers to incorporate the intersectionality of race/ethnicity and class into their approach to gentrification. On one hand, it is important for urban planners to collaborate with gentrifiers of color to foster culturally inclusive urban development. However, it is equally crucial for urban planners to acknowledge that issues such as displacement of lower-income individuals, intra-ethnic class disparities, and conflicting interests may be concealed under the notion of ethnic solidarity. Therefore, urban planning experts and policymakers should prioritize policies that support economically disadvantaged residents, such as affordable housing, while actively seeking their input and perspectives in municipal decision-making processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this editorial, we address the concepts of diversity, multiculturalism, equity, racial equity, racism, anti-racism, and intersectionality in urban planning. Despite their significance, these concepts have not received sufficient attention in the mainstream planning discourse. We argue that prioritizing anti-racism is essential for fostering effective anti-racist praxis in planning, leading to institutional and structural change. The special issue introduces key terms and papers, highlighting the importance of context, intersectionality, and Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC)/community-led initiatives. In addition, we emphasize the need for reparative planning practices to address historical injustices and disrupt structural racism in the planning field. We call on urban planners to integrate anti-racism as a core principle in their praxis. By dismantling entrenched systems of racism and embracing intersectional approaches, the field of urban planning can contribute significantly to the pursuit of equitable and inclusive urban environments for all. Prioritizing anti-racism, embracing intersectionality, and incorporating reparative planning practices are crucial steps for urban planners to create institutional and structural changes in the planning field. Integrating anti-racism as a core principle can lead to more equitable and inclusive urban environments, addressing historical injustices and promoting positive transformations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

These three books raise important questions about how smart city technology projects add complexity to public-private partnerships. Planners should read I Sideways i and I Dream States i asking: How equipped are our planning processes to evaluate these technologies and what else do we need to do? I Dream States i explores a range of technologies, bridging historical and emerging technology uses. Sideways In I Sideways i , Josh O'Kane, a technology and business reporter for the I Globe and Mail i newspaper, traces the rise and fall of Alphabet's Sidewalk Labs Quayside project that was proposed for Toronto (Canada). [Extracted from the article]

Anti-racist futures in urban and regional planning require repairing the White supremacist harms that have structured our metropolitan areas and patterns of living. What would constitute the appropriate dimensions for a reparative planning practice? Focusing here on the harms of anti-Black racism, answering these questions requires a deep engagement with the rich tradition of Black radical thought and debates in political philosophy and planning theory about urban justice. We begin by engaging with recent discussions in planning theory regarding definitions of urban justice. We then draw from threads of Black radical thought, identifying central insights from and tensions among Black nationalist, Marxist, feminist, abolitionist, and environmental justice movements. From these themes in Black radical thought, we present key dimensions of reparative planning and apply them to three case studies. Reparative planning must involve at a minimum at least three dimensions: public recognition, material redistribution, and social and spatial transformation. For this third, transformative dimension, we identify five principles for reparative planning: creating spaces for Black joy, advancing material redistribution, attending to intersectionality, building new democratic institutions grounded in and with the participation of non-elites, and constructing environmentally just futures. In practice, Black-led movements for economic democracy at the local level are creating examples of what grassroots reparative planning could be by creating joyful spaces for dialogue, education, and cultural production; building cooperative, nonextractive financial institutions that are redistributive; developing the capacity for broad, grassroots participatory democracy; designing structures for community control of projects that advance racial equity; and prioritizing efforts that help repair local ecosystems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Health impact assessment (HIA) reports are used by government agencies, other organizations, and stakeholders to evaluate potential health effects of plans/policies/projects. HIAs have the potential to promote anti-racist practices. We developed and used the Tool for the Racial/Ethnic Equity Evaluation of Health Impact Assessments (TREE-HIA) to score 50 U.S. HIA reports on planning-related projects/plans involving parks and greenspaces (2005–2020). More recent and more comprehensive HIA reports addressed racial/ethnic equity to a greater degree (e.g., median TREE-HIA scores: −1.3 in 2009–2012, 4.0 in 2017–2020, where higher scores indicate greater racial/equity considerations). Overall, HIA reports addressed racial/ethnic equity to a lesser degree than expected given the principal tenet of equity guiding HIAs and urban planning alike (42% had negative TREE-HIA scores indicating inadequate racial/ethnic equity consideration). However, the limited number and types of HIAs included in this study may affect generalization to all HIAs. HIAs incorporating racial/ethnic equity comprehensively throughout the HIA process will better enable urban planners, HIA practitioners, decision makers, and communities of color to work together to combat racist planning practices through the shared goals of addressing health disparities and equity. TREE-HIA provides professionals and researchers with a brief tool that can be used/adapted to guide and evaluate future HIAs for racial/ethnic equity considerations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this Viewpoint, I develop the concept of the rents of Whiteness as a tool that urban planners can use when evaluating land use issues. The exclusionary power conferred by Whiteness has been leveraged for the economic benefit of privileged communities in myriad ways. This phenomenon can be usefully described as a form of rent-seeking: deriving profits from legal or social exclusion. Planners confront the rents of Whiteness in many forms, including neighborhood exclusion, environmental injustice, and the occupation of tribal lands. Conceptualizing these situations as racial rent-seeking clarifies how benefits captured by White communities are inexorably linked to harms done in non-White communities. I conclude with recommendations for dismantling these rents. For technocratic approaches, planners must not confuse the loss of rents with material harm. In the communicative sphere, planners must redefine communities to include those who have been historically excluded. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Literature reviews can play a pivotal role in designing urban policies. Here we introduce two tools used by public health specialists to assess the quality of studies and quantify the evidence derived from them: the Risk of Bias Assessment (RoB) and Evaluation of Certainty of Evidence (ECE). The RoB scores articles on several domains (e.g., selection bias, study design, etc.) to provide an appraisal of how rigorous the study is, whereas the ECE tool provides a framework to clearly state how much certainty there is in the outcomes under study. Both tools can be used to enhance literature review articles in urban planning to better inform practitioners on how to best develop policies using a rigorous approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Urban planning for health equity should be guided by an intersectional approach. Intersectionality is an essential framework for understanding the multiple overlapping factors, such as social and economic inequalities, that produce health disparities. We offer four strategies that planning researchers and practitioners can use to develop and integrate an intersectional approach into planning for health equity: challenging implicit and explicit assumptions, building cross-sectoral coalitions united by a shared vision for social and environmental justice, applying transdisciplinary and co-designing approaches throughout the planning process, and using existing tools to evaluate the impact of programs and policies on advancing health equity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Protracted political conflicts disrupt people's lives, including their ability to feed themselves. Urban planning, operating within the ambit of the state, impacts food systems in conflict cities. We examine the confluence of planning and political misgovernance on food sovereignty in conflict cities. We do so by documenting the experiences of urban growers who cultivate, eat, and distribute indigenous greens (haakh) in the city of Srinagar in the Himalayan belt of Jammu and Kashmir, the site of a protracted conflict. Experiences of growers were analyzed within the context of the city's complex urban planning landscape. Empirical methods included qualitative interviews of urban growers (n = 40) and review of land use plans and policies. We found that haakh production ensured access to affordable, nutritious, and culturally celebrated greens for haakh growing households. That said, intersecting burdens from undemocratic governance and militarism (from India), weak forms of local planning (within Srinagar), and climate change threaten urban growers' work, and imperils food sovereignty. Completing a study in a conflict region was extraordinarily challenging. The study's generalizability is limited by its short duration and small sample size—the inductive findings set the stage for future research. Conflict cities are a reminder that urban planning is anything but technical. Planning curricula must prepare future planners for the politics of planning. Planners in conflict cities are in liminal positions—between the state and the public. To the best of their ability, planners in conflict cities such as Srinagar have to protect smallholder growers' control of their food system, especially over land and water. The monitoring, recording, and suspension of contested or undemocratic land conversions, land grabs, or land transfers without full consent of indigenous and local peoples ought to be a local and international policy priority. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Government agencies are increasingly interested in accelerating cycleway infrastructure to achieve co-benefits of increased physical activity, transport efficiencies, and reduced greenhouse emissions. Comprehensive evidence supports this policy direction, yet delivery of infrastructure in many cities remains slow, fragmented, and wrought with political struggle. Political forces, rather than a lack of evidence, appear to be the key challenge to implementing active transport policies. In this study we used Kingdon's multiple stream theory to examine the policy development process that led to the rapid installation of pop-up cycleways in Sydney (Australia) in response to COVID-19. Significant disruption to regular transport services induced by the COVID-19 pandemic created a policy window where political expediency resulted in rapid implementation of active transport–friendly policy and legislative changes. The policy realignment occurred due to increased government agency collaboration and the elevation of cycling to an unprecedented level of priority within government. This study shows the value of ongoing commitment to evidence-based policy solutions to clearly identified urban challenges despite institutional barriers, the need to develop political alliances for when opportunities for policy change arise, and the need to swiftly capitalize on these policy windows when they open. This case study provides insights for cycling policy development in jurisdictions traditionally burdened by skepticism and reluctance to implement bicycle infrastructure by revealing the multivalent nature of policy adoption. [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]

"University City: History, Race, and Community in the Era of the Innovation District" by Laura Wolf-Powers explores the complex relationship between universities, real estate development, and community in Philadelphia. The book challenges the notion that race is the only factor in understanding the dynamics between institutions and communities, highlighting the role of anti-Blackness in real estate development and the school district's relationship with its communities. The author also examines the controversies surrounding University City High School and the demolition of houses in Powelton Village, emphasizing the power dynamics and real estate interests at play. Overall, the book provides a nuanced understanding of the impact of economic development on marginalized communities and the need to consider the intersection of racial justice and real estate practices. [Extracted from the article]

We examined land use and design controls in three municipalities in Los Angeles County (CA)—Alhambra, Arcadia, and San Gabriel—that have experienced a recent influx of Asian residents. We drew from archival research of newspaper articles, planning documents, city council and planning commission meeting minutes, and interviews with 14 local planners, architects, planning and design review commissioners, and resident groups. We found that the three cities developed stringent development controls, encouraged Anglo or Spanish heritage architectural styles, and issued new guidelines and ordinances during the period of changing demographics. These actions often stemmed from White residents' fear of losing their neighborhoods and interest in maintaining their existing landscapes. We detail here four contestations relating to mansionization, architectural styles, historic preservation, and massage parlors. The study is important for planning practice because it shows that development controls and design guidelines may be developed in reaction to increased anxieties about immigration and in ways that counteract the interests and values of some minority residents. Planners in ethnically diverse communities need to be aware of and respond to the possible exclusionary effects of design and land use controls. They need to better listen to newcomers' concerns, integrate their voices in decision making, and educate both newcomers and long-time residents about the importance of each other's cultural heritage. Planners may seek to exercise professional ingenuity in developing and implementing design and planning regulations that better balance spatial identities and accommodate conflicting tastes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This century's planning challenge is one of retrofitting suburbia. As relatively compact suburban forms, edge cities may be the most amenable to retrofit. In the 30 years since the publication of Garreau's Edge City, to what extent and in what ways have planning intentions changed to favor greater urbanity in edge cities? Across 10 indicators, we examined planning intentions covering 117 of 123 edge cities identified in 1991. Content analysis of plans revealed the mixed intentions for individual edge cities and for different edge cities across metropolitan regions, but also strong and consistent intentions for a large minority of edge cities we label cities in the making. Our findings underline the limited appeal of the concept to the public, politicians, and planners. Across a range of indicative intentions, planning frameworks can be strengthened with a view to fostering greater urbanity in edge cities. Plans covering edge cities continue to lack the spatial and numeric specificity that would help ensure better implementation of stated intentions. Plans covering edge cities could usefully have a more joined-up or consistent approach across different but interrelated intentions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Manufacturing and industrial activity can contribute to sustainable economic development, but this potential is lost to urban industrial rezonings. This is particularly the case in strong market cities where pressures to develop higher-value residential and office space are strong. The literature has documented the industrial displacement process but has yet to probe the institutional factors behind industrial rezonings or the conditions that may catalyze supportive industrial land use policy. I contribute to filling this research gap by exploring how institutional dynamics shape industrial land use planning in San Francisco (CA). Drawing on interviews and document analysis, I show how formal governance institutions, locally embedded intermediary organizations, and policy imaginaries shape policy change. Despite success in redefining and promoting the value of urban industrial lands, ongoing pressures remain with balancing competing land use agendas and priorities. This research highlights the tradeoffs and pressures involved in creating urban industrial land use policy in high-cost cities. The case draws attention to the importance of considering how the local institutional context for policymaking intersects with industry and urban development dynamics rather than assuming market logic alone dictates land use. Planners can better balance competing land use agendas and achieve positive outcomes when they focus on controlling policy narratives and work with intermediary organizations that possess specialist knowledge and connections. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

"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]

Few studies have systematically examined the role of municipal planning in creating immigrant-friendly cities despite the importance of immigration to the growth and development of cities. In this research project I asked to what extent and how planners are involved in immigrant welcoming initiatives. The interviews draw from two perspectives—planning and immigrant affairs—through content analysis of 42 interviews in 30 "welcoming" cities, 28 comprehensive plans, and 17 immigrant integration plans. The analysis revealed that planners are not very engaged with welcoming initiatives or immigrant affairs staff. Planners tinker with land use regulations to accommodate immigrants in specific contexts and are looking for ways to do better outreach. Overall, planning continues as "business as usual" in cities calling themselves welcoming to immigrants. Surprisingly, immigrant affairs staff and planners know little about each other. Planners provide the ability to think spatially and long term about the rules governing the form and function of urban spaces. Immigrant affairs officials offer in-depth knowledge about the day-to-day struggles of immigrants. Together, planning and immigrant affairs have many shared goals, such as improving engagement with immigrants, helping immigrants navigate the regulatory environment in cities, and creating culturally sensitive and reasonable accommodation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent efforts to promote land value capture as a solution to the fiscal crisis of local governments have gained traction, increasing the use of value capture tools across a variety of contexts. This research provides a case study examining how the politics of transit value capture district designation intersect with racialized patterns of disinvestment. Using the case of Kansas City (MO), I illustrate how the attempts of planners and policymakers to expand transit value capture were met with resistance from both low-income and wealthy neighborhoods. I explore how differentiated response to neighborhood concerns by planners combined with stakeholder frameworks about social equity and perceptions of historical domination to produce results exactly counter to the stated purpose of "not building transit purely for the White people." The case illustrates the importance of considering racial inequities and historic patterns of marginalization in transit value capture to achieve racial equity and challenge existing patterns of segregation. Designating value capture district boundaries is a sociotechnical process that interacts with and potentially reinforces existing patterns of domination and oppression. To ensure that value capture implementation does not reproduce and exacerbate existing inequities, urban planning professionals should centralize issues of race, segregation, and marginality in their efforts to create, capture, and distribute land value. Value capture schemes need to be tailored to the local built environment, sociodemographic history, and the needs of specific communities to be effective at addressing spatial inequities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Extreme heat is the deadliest climate hazard in the United States. Climate change and the urban heat island effect are increasing the number of dangerously hot days in cities worldwide and the need for communities to plan for extreme heat. Existing literature on heat planning focuses on heat island mapping and modeling, whereas few studies delve into heat planning and governance processes. We surveyed planning professionals from diverse cities across the United States to establish critical baseline information for a growing area of planning practice and scholarship that future research can build on. Survey results show that planners are concerned with extreme heat risks, particularly environmental and public health impacts from climate change. Planners already report impacts from extreme heat, particularly to energy and water use, vegetation and wildlife, public health, and quality of life. Especially in affected communities, planners claim they address heat in plans and implement heat mitigation and management strategies such as urban forestry, emergency response, and weatherization, but perceive many barriers related to human and financial resources and political will. Planners are concerned about extreme heat, especially in the face of climate change. They are beginning to address heat through different strategies and plan types, but we see opportunities to better connect planners to existing heat information sources and leverage existing planning tools, including vegetation, land use regulations, and building codes, to mitigate risks. Although barriers to heat planning persist, including human and capital resources, planners are uniquely qualified to coordinate communities' efforts to address the rising threat of extreme heat. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current focus on power relationships in planning processes emphasizes socioeconomic characteristics of the general public, whose participation is often portrayed as one-time, idiosyncratic, nonprofessional, and relatively powerless. To shift attention to the understudied repeated participation in the general public, we distinguish serial participation as a distinct participation pattern by focusing on an underexplored group, referred to as natural joiners or usual suspects. Our analysis focuses on Jerusalem and draws on interviews with serial participators (N = 13) who participated in at least three different planning processes and with city planners (N = 19). Becoming a serial participator emerged as an evolutionary process, during which knowledge gained triggered transitional learning, manifested by a broader perspective on planning and a transition toward locality-oriented participation. Serial participators' influence varies; it can extend beyond specific planning outcomes to the process itself and the discourse among city planners. Although it does not mitigate imbalanced power relations within the public, serial participation contributes to more balanced power relations between ordinary citizens and paid participants in planning. Serial participators can provide planners with valuable historical perspective, local knowledge, and participation recommendations while serving as intermediaries to the local community capable of mobilizing others and activating civic networks. Planners can nurture serial participation by encouraging repeated involvement of individuals engaged in additional community spheres or passionate "anecdotal" participants. Seeking influence and not recognition, serial participators may not always fully cooperate. Planners should invest in long-term relationships that allow for reconciling inevitable disagreements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Municipal arts and cultural plans direct significant amounts of public investment and set far-reaching policies, as arts and culture investment becomes an increasingly widespread economic development strategy. Though these plans frequently advertise the city's diversity, they often lack specific strategies for supporting diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI). In addition, the creation of these plans often does not involve urban planners, nor do the plans often connect to the city's comprehensive plan or contain the types of fact bases and commitments to equity that comprehensive plans do. In this study of 64 U.S. municipal arts and cultural plans, we investigated what kinds of cities are producing arts and cultural plans that do a better job of integrating concepts of DEI and what factors can explain these differences. We also investigated which specific policies were present that addressed DEI in arts and cultural plans. We found that newer plans more strongly emphasized equity, and plans with more robust public processes and those in more diverse cities more strongly emphasized equity and DEI overall, whereas plans in cities with lower median household incomes more strongly emphasized equity and inclusion. Overall, plans were much more likely to talk about diversity and inclusion than the specifics of equitable distribution of arts and cultural resources. Planners need to get involved in arts and cultural planning to ensure that planning processes for arts and cultural plans work to achieve the same standards we expect for comprehensive plans. They must be based on inclusive processes, understand the range of diversity of people in the city, and commit to specific, targeted place-based and people-based public investment to improve equity. Planners can also expand their typical approaches through alignments with topical arts and cultural plans. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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]

Places around the world already experience significant damage from climate change–related weather events, economic disruption, and health impacts, exacerbated by poverty, segregation, and inequitable infrastructure. Unfortunately, Texas provides a perfect illustration of these forces, with impacts made even more severe by a lack of climate planning. How can planners minimize harm and reduce risk, given the state leadership's unwillingness to undertake climate planning? One place to start is to investigate residents' climate change beliefs to understand whether they share the state's climate antagonism and then use this information to shape a planning response. In this study, I analyzed a survey (n = 1,053) to ask: What are Texans' perceptions of climate change, and how can planners use this knowledge to create strategies to catalyze climate planning? Respondents expressed strong agreement about negative effects of climate change and increased frequency of extreme weather. They believed that climate change is due at least in part to human activity, and they expressed robust support for climate-related planning activities. These responses sharply differ from the state's approach. However, despite agreement about climate issues, respondents did not identify climate change as a major concern about the future. This contrast suggests an opportunity for new climate-related communication frames to bridge the gap between climate perceptions and planning action. These findings inform three recommendations: better connect climate change impacts to everyday concerns, including housing, air quality, and health; emphasize common ground about benefits provided by nature, especially related to health; and use community engagement to refine these frames. I propose that planners can accelerate climate planning by following the lead of other disciplines that emphasize human health impacts of the climate crisis. In addition, planners can strengthen climate planning by extending environmental planning's use of local knowledge from environmental health, urban heat planning, and climate-related land use planning to climate planning more broadly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The width of street rights-of-way is normally determined by traffic engineering and urban design conventions, without considering the immense value of the underlying land. In this article, I develop an economic framework that can inform decisions on street width, and I use tax parcel data to quantify the widths, land areas, and land value of streets in 20 of the largest counties in the United States. Residential street rights-of-way in the urbanized portion of these counties average 55 ft wide, far greater than the functional minimum of 16 ft required for access. The land value of residential streets totals $959 billion in the urbanized portion of the 20-county sample. In most counties, subdivision regulations are binding. That is, few developers choose to build streets that are wider than code requirements, implying that softening requirements would mean more land devoted to housing and less to streets. Although I highlight the potential for narrower street rights-of-way, I did not consider detailed design issues. Nor did I analyze how any windfall from reduced land requirements would be divided among landowners, developers, and house purchasers. Particularly in places with high land values and housing costs, reallocating street rights-of-way to housing would increase economic efficiency. In the most expensive county in the data set—Santa Clara (CA)—narrowing the right-of-way to 16 ft would save more than $100,000 per housing unit through reduced land consumption. Where streets have little or no function for through traffic, the costs and benefits accrue almost exclusively to neighborhood residents. Thus, planners could reduce or even eliminate street width requirements in subdivision ordinances, leaving developers to make the trade-off between land for streets and land for housing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A growing number of planning researchers and practitioners argue for a shift from mobility-centered transportation planning to an accessibility-focused one. Accessibility is a compelling concept that has proven more difficult to operationalize than mobility, which helps to explain why so many accessibility metrics have been developed for urban research and planning practice. To assess the state of these metrics, we reviewed 54 of them in light of their theoretical basis, data requirements, units of analysis, travel modes and trip purposes accounted for, and potential applications to planning practice. We also reviewed the substantial literature on accessibility measurement and interviewed planning practitioners who are applying accessibility metrics in practice. We find that accessibility theory and measurement has advanced more rapidly than applications in practice. However, a new generation of tools is emerging that may accelerate the move to accessibility planning. Although many of the measures focus on a single travel mode, the number of multimodal metrics is growing. Most of the measures are designed for regional-scale planning and scenario evaluation; only a few to date are intended for project evaluation. The 54 accessibility metrics and tools we reviewed vary widely and none stands out as obviously superior for planning practice. Although most calculate the accessibility of places, and many do so reasonably well, we see the most promise in measures of the accessibility of travelers, which can then be aggregated for place-based analyses while still shedding light on how access can vary substantially across different types of travelers. The principal challenge to broadly deploying accessibility analyses in practice in the years ahead is in developing measures that meaningfully measure the many salient dimensions of access, have manageable data requirements, and are understandable to planners, public officials, and community members. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Right sizing has become an essential talking point in discussing next steps for postindustrial and shrinking cities as they struggle to maintain outdated, outsized infrastructure. Yet the literature has been clear that balancing economic and social objectives must be a key part of the discussion, especially given that historical patterns of disinvestment have disproportionately affected socioeconomically disadvantaged and racial/ethnic minority populations. In this Viewpoint, we illuminate concerns on a recent article published in this journal on right sizing that Flint (MI) should have enacted in the wake of its catastrophic water crisis. We present the nature of decline in Flint, as well as evidence from Flint's recent master plan and its history with urban renewal that demonstrates why recommending such a policy not only goes against common urban planning practice but misses the local context in Flint, which is marked by deep-seated apprehension of the inequitable underpinnings of historical urban planning practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Problem, research strategy, and findings: Cities today face considerable land use, environmental, and economic challenges resulting from policies prioritizing automobiles and requiring ample off-street parking. In an effort to influence travel behavior and reduce parking supply, Buffalo (NY) adopted the Green Code in 2017. This zoning code reform repealed minimum parking requirements citywide and provided a "natural experiment" to investigate effects of parking deregulation among 36 major developments in its first 2 years. Our research produced two key findings. First, 47% of major developments included fewer parking spaces than previously permissible, suggesting earlier minimum parking requirements may have been excessive. Second, mixed-use developments introduced 53% fewer parking spaces than would have been required by earlier minimum requirements as developers readily took advantage of the newfound possibility to include less off-street parking. Aggregate parking spaces among single-use projects exceeded the earlier minimum requirements, suggesting developers of such projects were less motivated to deviate from accepted practices in determining the parking supply for urban development. Takeaway for practice: Eliminating parking minimums can reduce unnecessary parking supply and encourage development constrained by excessive minimum requirements. Land use, location, and transportation demand initiatives affect the quantity of off-street parking supplied in response to market conditions. Our findings suggest mixed-use developers are likely to take advantage of the ability to provide less parking in highly accessible locations. Though many developers quickly pivot to the newfound possibilities of providing fewer parking spaces, others continue to meet earlier requirements. Cities of all types stand to benefit from undoing constraining parking policies of the past and allowing developers to transform parking lots to "higher uses.". [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Problem, research strategy, and findings: In December 2018, the Minneapolis (MN) city council approved a new comprehensive plan that proposed eliminating single-family zoning restrictions throughout the city. In this project, I study the initial impact of this change on the sales prices of affected housing units. I estimate a series of difference-in-differences models comparing the sales price of houses within 3 km of the Minneapolis border in the year before and year after the city adopted the plan. I find that compared with similar unaffected properties in surrounding cities, the Minneapolis plan change was associated with a 3% and 5% increase in the price of affected housing units. In addition, there is some evidence that this price increase is due to the new development option it offers property owners. I find that the plan-related price increases are larger in inexpensive neighborhoods and for properties that are small relative to their immediate neighbors. Takeaway for practice: By examining the short-term effect of the Minneapolis 2040 Plan's elimination of single-family zoning, my study is useful for planners working in cities considering similar reforms. My analysis, though preliminary, suggests that there is indeed demand for denser development in the city. But the price increases associated with the upzoning redounds most directly to relatively small properties and those in inexpensive neighborhoods. Planners should thus be sensitive to how this type of change can affect housing affordability and housing stock diversity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The intersection of historic preservation and urban planning has advanced over the years. Revitalization has been a central theme for this intersection, but the literature has not yet analyzed how a comprehensive plan—a crucial planning tool for growth and development—has included preservation. In this study, I investigate how the city of Portland (OR) integrated historic preservation into its comprehensive plan, focusing on the 1993 Albina Community Plan. Portland developed a comprehensive plan considering several scales, resulting in an array of documents released over the years. Through a neo-institutional analysis, I look at these documents to understand 1) the underlying institutions—such as compliance procedures, formal rules, and operating practices—that frame preservation policies within a comprehensive plan and 2) the approach to preservation implied in these policies. The findings show how including preservation into planning is structured by different levels of government, developed through an array of documents covering different scales, and is part of an effort to enhance the vitality of neighborhoods. Overall, preservation is framed as a way of managing community assets, bringing attention to the history of the local community, its people, and its built and natural environments. However, historic districts, which are the major preservation efforts emerging from the plan, lack the strengths of both a comprehensive approach to planning and an urbanistic approach to preservation. My analysis shows the relevance of studying a comprehensive plan to understand how planning included preservation: It highlights the connection with preservation theories, the value of document analysis, and the importance of scale. In particular, a neo-institutional analysis reveals the mechanisms shaping policies. By examining these mechanisms in their own cities, planners and preservationists could better understand the work of previous administrations, contextualize the current situation, and recognize the elements to act upon for promoting systematic change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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]

An introduction is presented in which the editor discusses articles in the issue on topics including journal research quality; urban planning; and regional planning.

Problem, research strategy, and findings: Despite growing interest by practitioners in using exploratory scenarios within urban planning practice, there are few detailed guidelines for how to do this. Through the discussion of five case examples, we illustrate different approaches to linking exploratory scenarios to different planning contexts. We conclude by observing that to directly inform a plan, regardless of the specific approach taken, exploratory scenarios in urban planning must incorporate stakeholder values and not only rely on expert judgment and analysis. Takeaway for practice: Exploratory scenarios are effective for analyzing uncertainty within a planning process. However, exploratory scenarios can be incorporated into planning practice in different ways, ranging from workshops among experts that aim to cultivate general learning to complex projects that result in highly detailed scenarios and recommendations for plans. Practitioners can draw on the cases we present to inspire planning methods for particular projects, taking into account specific contexts and goals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As Chu persuasively argues, Hong Kong's early planning was not purely a reflection of top-down colonial power. One of Chu's more arresting examples of this tension is the "Chinese house", or I tong lau i , a tenement typology peculiar to Hong Kong. Despite their limited immediate impact, Hong Kong's early efforts at reforming the I tong lau i ultimately influenced later housing initiatives, including the colony's famed public housing program. [Extracted from the article]

The concluding chapter is followed by an epilogue centered first around a consideration of best practices in city design. In the concluding chapter and epilogue to I In the Images of Development i , Banerjee suggests a productive conversation between Kevin Lynch's ideas on performance characteristics and Patrick Geddes's city design practice as a working process model. This is an intriguing proposition, but the details on how Lynch's list can incorporate the capabilities approach remain hazy, and one wishes that it could have been fleshed out more clearly across the rich narratives of physical design in Sections II and III. [Extracted from the article]

Problem, research strategy, and findings: Despite an estimated 10.7 million undocumented immigrants living in the United States in 2016, little research in urban planning focuses on immigrant legal status. The failure to account for immigrant legal status as an explanatory factor in travel behavior research is problematic because undocumented immigrants face structural disincentives for driving compared with immigrants legally residing in the United States and may make different travel mode choices as a result. We use the 2008 panel of the Survey of Income and Program Participation and a methodology that identifies likely undocumented immigrants in the data to answer two research questions: Given their inability to possess a valid driver's license in most states, do undocumented immigrants drive less than their counterparts who reside in the United States legally? More generally, what is the relationship between immigrant legal status and commuting mode choice? We find that two-thirds of Hispanic undocumented immigrants who commute to work drive, but that undocumented status has a suppressive effect on driving compared with native-born Hispanics or Hispanic immigrants legally residing in the United States. Our analysis does not assess the relationship between travel behavior and immigrant legal status for non-Hispanic immigrants and does not control for built environment factors. Takeaway for practice: Unlicensed driving by undocumented immigrants may reduce public safety. To reduce unlicensed driving by undocumented immigrants, planners should encourage alternative commute modes with a particular focus on carpooling and support the passage of new legislation that allows undocumented immigrants to apply for driver's licenses in states that currently do not give undocumented immigrants this right. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Problem, research strategy, and findings: The ability of planning to address America's urban problems of inequality, crime, housing, education, and segregation is hampered by a relative neglect of Whiteness and its role in shaping urban outcomes. We offer a justification for centering Whiteness within urban planning scholarship and practice that would examine its role shaping and perpetuating regional and racial injustices in the American city. The focus of planners, scholars, and public discourse on the "dysfunctions" of communities of color, notably poverty, high levels of segregation, and isolation, diverts attention from the structural systems that produce and reproduce the advantages of affluent and White neighborhoods. Planners and planning scholars frequently invoke a "legacy of injustice" with regard to concentrated poverty and disadvantage but not in regard to neighborhoods of White affluence. One is segregated and problematized and the other is idealized. Takeaway for practice: Planners and planning scholars need to understand the role of Whiteness, in particular White affluence, to assess the potential impacts of planning interventions. Doing so will inform a wider range of planning approaches to problems of racial and spatial equity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate change and the rise of a grassroots–legislative political–environmental movement in the United States should change how urban planners think and act on spatial change and social justice. After the 2018 U.S. elections, organizing movements and progressive legislators endorsed the Green New Deal. In this Viewpoint I look at the Green New Deal's potential implications for urban planning. I analyze it in reference to the 1930s' New Deal inspirations and current climate and urban challenges, and illustrate the contradictions between large-scale spatial change and community-scale social justice. I explain how the imperatives of the Green New Deal, in conjunction with the shifting sites, scales, and politics of planning for climate change, should encourage planners to reframe their spaces and politics of practice toward a reconceptualized urban regional scale and a new politics of more public participation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The disappearance of historic buildings can tear at the emotions of neighbors and advocates, yet the disruption of a historic urban plan is rarely noted or mourned and does not receive the attention from planners that it deserves. Just as they stay aware of important buildings, preservationists and planners should take up the street and lot patterns as a cause to preserve because it provides a protective infrastructure for historic character and buildings. The urban plan, laid down as the place was founded, is not only an important historic resource in its own right but also a framework for change and a safeguard for the character of a place and its historic buildings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As greenhouse gas emissions and climate change impacts increase worldwide, there is an urgent need for communities, and thus urban planners, to simultaneously mitigate and adapt to climate change. We synthesize recent research to examine whether the field of planning is adequately addressing climate change. We conclude that although there has been progress in recent years, it is insufficient given the scope of the climate change challenge and the myriad ways climate impacts negatively affect communities. We argue for seven principles of strong climate change planning: 1) clear goals; 2) strong fact base; 3) diverse strategies; 4) public participation; 5) coordination across actors, sectors, and plans; 6) processes for implementation and monitoring; and 7) techniques to address uncertainty. For each of these principles we discuss the current state of research and practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Problem, research strategy, and findings: In 2005, Youngstown (OH) released a widely publicized comprehensive plan, the Youngstown 2010 Citywide Plan. This plan emphasized "smart shrinkage," reflecting the city's downsized built environment and reduced population. In 2013 the city released the Youngstown Redevelopment Code, which was zoning intended to implement the comprehensive plan. In this study we measure whether the comprehensive plan conformed with the Youngstown Redevelopment Code by comparing land use designations on a parcel-by-parcel basis between the comprehensive plan, the pre-2013 code, and the Youngstown Redevelopment Code. To better understand the causality of conformance, we conducted semistructured interviews with framers of the comprehensive plan and the Youngstown Redevelopment Code documents. We find weak conformance between the comprehensive plan and the Youngstown Redevelopment Code; most of the comprehensive plan's downsizing recommendations were unimplemented. There was close conformance between the pre-2013 code and the Youngstown Redevelopment Code, and most of the differences between them reflected the comprehensive plan's recommendations. Informants attribute the weak conformance between the comprehensive plan and the Youngstown Redevelopment Code to many of the former's ideas not being legally defensible. Changing political regimes, shifts in public opinion, and the driving need for economic investment were also cited as contributors to this weak conformance. Takeaway for practice: Our findings indicate that implementing smart shrinkage land use recommendations in shrinking cities is likely to be challenging because legislators may resist codification of reduced populations and lessened economic capacity. Translating comprehensive plan ideas into zoning regulations may be subject to political, social, economic, and legal forces that limit plan enactment. These findings may apply to all cases where comprehensive plans require translation into zoning regulations for implementation. Local government officials and planners should consider these constraints on plan implementation through zoning when they are framing comprehensive plan strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Problem, research strategy, and findings: Sherry Arnstein intended her ladder of participation as a conceptual tool to help planners redistribute power to citizens, but a key institution to include residents in decision making, the community development corporation (CDC), has proven limited. Based on a case study of participation and insurgency in Detroit's (MI) urban planning, we argue that CDCs structurally align with the planning establishment, serving as relays for governments and developers and controlling information. These limitations inspired insurgent planners to arise from the resident Charlevoix Village Association (CVA) in Detroit and to intervene in the planning process. CVA's insurgent activities and knowledge production have galvanized residents to engage beyond the participatory planning paradigm. CVA has demonstrated that insurgency can enable engaged residents to build the power to push for equitable development in ways that Arnstein's ladder of participation failed to account for. Takeaway for practice: We suggest that although CDCs have not been an effective means for redistributing power to marginalized residents, planning insurgencies can be important vehicles for achieving community control and promoting equitable development. We argue that planners should not promote CDCs at the expense of insurgent planners. Instead, planners can engage in dialogue and partnerships with insurgent planners, provide key resources and information to bolster their capabilities, and design participatory frameworks that enhance their influence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]