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Hi all, I have my bachelors in urban studies and have been privileged to have a full time planning job for the last 4 & 1/2 years. My position has been a unique experience planning at an environmental nonprofit- which has allowed me to work with all types of people in the environmental field & planning world. I can’t shake this itch I’ve had over the years of wishing I studied landscape…
Hi, Recently I posted here asking if we will ever go back to grid-style suburbs, and I got a lot of answers. It made me think of another question regarding why cities dont just do what they used to do and take it upon themselves to create new walkable streets. It confuses me why they often just leave it up to developers to build on the outskirts of town when there is plenty of empty land closer to…
I am an American expat in France, and one of the huge strengths I have noticed in French urbanism is the multi-scalar approach to urban and regional planning that allows for- or requires- cooperation between municipalities. Based off of what I remember seeing back home, this sort of cooperation is often weak to nonexistent in the states save for statewide legislature that forces cities' hands. One…
I’m reflecting back on my grad school years when Florida’s “creative class concept” was all the rage. It was often paired with an explosion of interest in New Urbanism. A few things come to mind: Many cities in my part of the South took this advice to invest in their downtown areas. Instead of organic neighborhoods, they became boutique districts filled with coffee shops and record stores and high…
I'm not even sure why I took this interview. My entire specialty is comprehensive planning/long range planning, which I am interviewing for elsewhere but I also applied to a zoning office in a city id really like to live in and now I have to think up reasons as to why I would actually want to work there with an urban planning degree. I know that people move around often, but I've been taught for 4…
This is something I've been thinking about for a while, partly from attending these meetings in the Boston area over the years. There's a real effort put into outreach: the notices go out, the room fills up, people share genuine concerns about traffic, green space, density. And then the project moves forward more or less as originally proposed. I'm not saying the process is dishonest. Planners are…
I'm a consultant for a small dense town that is located in a rural area. Thus public transit is non-existent and sidewalks and mulit-modal has not picked up. However, the town itself is densely developed and has numerous historic small lots. The zoning ordinance is from the 90a and so the parking minimums are from that era. We have been working to modernize portions as we can and have the…
I'm looking for stuff that's analysis of the work at all levels, departments, councils, heads, funding, committees. Not urban planning material so much, apologies about that if needed. But I asked this question in /r/suggestmeabook and someone said to ask around here anyway - what I'm interested in is certainly fundamental to shaping the urban domain anyway. Anything with personal anecdotes would…
Neckarbogen in Germany offers really cool insights into good urban planning in building new neighborhoods. submitted by /u/Special_Mushroom_309 [link] [comments]
I currently work in an environment where it is obvious that the elected administration ultimately has no respect for the land use ordinances in place and does not support the land use department when push comes to shove. Basically, any constituent (particularly politically connected people or businesses) can get whatever they want approved if they raise enough of an issue. It’s never anything…
