By Anthony Buckley I grew up on an 83-acre cattle farm and went to a public high school surrounded by cornfields. Rural southeastern Ohio is the place I call home. Many might ask where urban planning comes into play in an area that had 700 people in its village center. Ohio countryside is by no means comparable to the streets of New York City or … Continue reading Walking a Tightrope: Urban Expansion and Rural Conservation
By Emma Vinella-Brusher, Angles Managing Editor Each year, over 3,000 pedestrians and 850 bicyclists are hit by vehicles here in North Carolina, making our state one of the least safe states for walking and biking[i]. Last month, the UNC Department of City & Regional Planning and Collaborative Sciences Center for Road Safety were joined by Tom Flood of Rovélo Creative and Arleigh Greenwald aka Bike … Continue reading Flipping the Script: Understanding Pedestrian and Bicyclist Safety in Chapel Hill-Carrboro
This piece was originally published by Patience Wall on the Coastal Resilience Blog on May 18, 2020 Public information is at the core of our public safety and natural disaster resilience work. It’s a reliable source we can turn to when outcomes are uncertain and emergency responses are ambiguous. But in a world where we’re constantly bombarded with growing misinformation, contentious mistrust of government and … Continue reading Rebuilding their trust in what we say: Public information’s new frontier
By Brandon Tubby In March 2019, an assortment of politicians, businessmen, and architects gathered in Manhattan’s Far West Side to celebrate the grand opening of Hudson Yards, New York’s newest neighborhood. The city’s mayor, Bill de Blasio, though, was notably absent. Make no mistake – the event was certainly worthy of mayoral attention. With its soaring towers, expertly-engineered 26-acre platform, and $25 billion price tag, … Continue reading The Untold Story of Amazon’s Arrival to Hudson Yards
For much of its history, Siler City, North Carolina was mostly white; now, due to jobs in poultry processing, the town is 40% Latinx. Driving through downtown, the demographic change is marked by the tiendas, beauty salons, and evangelical churches with signs en español that line the streets. Like many towns across the state, Siler City suffered when the furniture and textile industries moved elsewhere. … Continue reading How Immigrants Can Revitalize Rural Communities
In 2016, Oregon planners hoped to take advantage of a new light-rail line between Portland and Gresham, a suburban city towards the east, by developing a mixed-use community around Gresham’s rail station. The project would be a walkable transit-hub in a city otherwise dominated by single-family homes and automobiles. But Metro – Portland’s regional government that purchased the land – faced a problem. Nearly all … Continue reading Why Planners Should Study Finance
While Americans are debating a Hyperloop, electric scooters, and ride-hailing services, some people are still just trying to access basic road infrastructure. Take Kunar, Afghanistan: located on the Afghanistan-Pakistan border, Kunar is a stronghold for the Taliban and the Islamic State Khorasan Province (ISKP), the Afghan branch of ISIS. Despite the ongoing violence in Kunar, the government has been unable to advance its counter-terrorism agenda … Continue reading Path to Peace: Road Building and Recovery in Afghanistan
So why do people hate developers so much? UCLA conducted a study to examine just that, and their conclusion boils down to two primary reasons. First, developers generally get in and out of the market as quickly as possible to reduce risk, limiting their ability to engage with the community. Second, people do not like that developers make money by building public and private space … Continue reading Not All Developers Are Boogeymen
The following is derived from an interview about the 2017 disaster with Dr. Galen Newman, a Fellow in the Institute for Sustainable Communities and a member of the Hazard Reduction and Recovery Center at Texas A&M University. His research focuses primarily on urban regeneration and flood resilience. Harvey was different. While many hurricanes pose serious flooding risks to coastal areas, the danger often lies in … Continue reading Hazard Mitigation and Hurricane Harvey: Reflections on a Conversation with Dr. Galen Newman
For much of the professional field, planning takes place in civic buildings, government halls, and non-profit offices. The range of their consideration can extend throughout a city or even an entire region. But for much of America, how neighborhoods function and how daily life gets lived is negotiated at a smaller scale. One (often amusing) way that this occurs is through the neighborhood listserv, which … Continue reading Honk for Wildlife! And Other Neighborhood Tales
Carolina Planning Journal 