Series: Planning for 36 Hours in Miami

By Doug Bright About the series: Welcome to our ongoing travel series. These are all posts written by planning students and professionals about what to do in a given city when looking for Brunch, a Brew, or a good idea on a Budget. To cap it all off, we include a fun planning fact!   About the visit: As the darkness and cold of winter approach, … Continue reading Series: Planning for 36 Hours in Miami

“Envisioning Opportunity in the Face Of…”: 2019 APA-NC Conference

Earlier this year, a cohort of students (myself included) from the Department of City and Regional Planning at UNC skipped class in the middle of the week to go to the beach. However, it was for a good reason–the 2019 North Carolina Planning Conference. Every year, the North Carolina Chapter of the American Planning Association (APA) has a conference in a different city in the … Continue reading “Envisioning Opportunity in the Face Of…”: 2019 APA-NC Conference

Series: Planning for 36 Hours in Burlington, VT

About the series: Welcome to our ongoing travel series. These are all posts written by planning students and professionals about what to do in a given city when looking for Brunch, a Brew, or a good idea on a Budget. To cap it all off, we include a fun planning fact!    About the visit: Whether you’re a foodie, an arts enthusiast, an outdoor adventurer, or anything in between … Continue reading Series: Planning for 36 Hours in Burlington, VT

The Hawker Center

Many Americans got their first big glimpse into Singaporean culture via the 2018 rom-com Crazy Rich Asians, which is set in the small Southeast Asian country often associated with finance and food. The film primarily focuses on the gilded world of Singapore’s super-rich, but also highlights one of the most democratizing urban places on the planet and a unique cultural and urban planning product of … Continue reading The Hawker Center

Urban Photography Series: Santiago, Chile

Santiago’s urban form has been heavily influenced by the starkly different political eras Chile has endured throughout its modern history as a nation state. From Salvador Allende’s “La vía chilena al socialismo” (“The Chilean way to socialism”), to the brutal Pinochet regime that followed, and into the contemporary democratic Chile of today, the city’s urban character reflects the aesthetic and social priorities of each era. … Continue reading Urban Photography Series: Santiago, Chile

Seeing the Weird in a Rapidly Changing Austin

Seeing the Weird in a Rapidly Changing Austin This winter break, I crossed another city/state off my bucket list by visiting Austin, Texas. Known for its unique flair (“Keep Austin Weird” is the city’s marketing slogan), music, barbeque, and other fried foods, the city’s rapid change in population over the last couple of decades has transformed its physical landscape. The US Census estimates that from … Continue reading Seeing the Weird in a Rapidly Changing Austin

Can You Get There from Here?

Long-haul travel between small communities One of the rarely talked-about benefits of living in a major city is that transport between that city and other major metropolitan areas is relatively easy. Not always cheap, but usually easy. Take traveling between Washington, D.C. and New York City: an online search reveals multiple bus companies such as Megabus and Greyhound, both the Amtrak Northeast Regional and Acela … Continue reading Can You Get There from Here?

Photo Essay: Bicycling Infrastructure in the Netherlands

This summer, James Farrell and Alyson West, UNC City and Regional Planning master’s students, traveled to the Netherlands for a two-week study abroad program. Over these two weeks, they saw some of the world’s best bicycle infrastructure, some of which has been captured in the following photos from their trip. Most major cities in the Netherlands are part of the Randstad, a ring including Amsterdam, … Continue reading Photo Essay: Bicycling Infrastructure in the Netherlands

Kisses Beyond the Gate: Putting up Walls in a Country that Values Intimacy

This post was originally published by Agora, the Urban Planning and Design Journal at the University of Michigan. It is reproduced here with permission.  Davor was the first one who kissed me. Let me explain. I recently spent the first month of my summer in Santiago, Chile, where I worked for an NGO called Ciudad Emergente. The organization does interventions and research surrounding public spaces … Continue reading Kisses Beyond the Gate: Putting up Walls in a Country that Values Intimacy

Envisioning an Active City: Lessons from Montréal

Oh, Canada. The United States’ neighbor to the North seems to have public services down to a science. On a recent trip to Montréal, Quebec, my suspicions of superior public amenities were confirmed as seen in the city’s compact urban design and nearly flawless transportation infrastructure. Montréal and other Canadian cities embrace the principles of smart growth with dense urban centers and transit-oriented development, and this … Continue reading Envisioning an Active City: Lessons from Montréal