Urban Planning Blog

New Silk Roads (NSR) is a multi-faceted urban research project that explores the nascent urban conditions emerging in rapidly expanding and transforming Asian cities and regions. Through a nomadic practice, Kyong Park has conducted a series of sequenced expeditions through transitional regions and cities between Istanbul and Tokyo, documenting his encounters of the people and [...]

As the capital of Uttar Pradesh, India’s most-populous state, Lucknow has attracted hundreds of thousands of migrants from rural areas, swelling the city’s population. Yet the city hasn’t completed any major new sewage infrastructure since before the country won independence in 1947. As much as 70% of residents don’t have sewage service, leaving much of [...]

In Camden, N.J., perhaps the poorest American city I regularly visit, I photograph what I call paired houses: two dwellings, side by side, one occupied, the other empty. Those living in the occupied home often have their lives made more difficult by what happens on the other side of a shared wall. The effect of [...]

Are you a grassroots activist making a difference in your city? Are you a community leader, providing a voice for your neighbors? Are you heading an organization geared toward making change? We want to meet you! Next American City is announcing its first annual conference geared toward bringing together the next generation of urban leaders. [...]

If you jumble together the five most popular American metro areas — Denver, San Diego, Seattle, Orlando and Tampa — you get an image of the American Dream circa 2009. These are places where you can imagine yourself with a stuffed garage — filled with skis, kayaks, soccer equipment, hiking boots and boating equipment. These [...]

Starting with a barren asphalt parking lot, I love this visualization of the walkable design for a shopping district in Glenview, IL [via]. It is all about transforming the character of a place. If only more designs were presented this way, convincing people wouldn’t be so difficult. Another example of how small (and inexpensive) changes [...]

As of the 2000 census, the Los Angeles region’s urbanized area had the highest population density in the nation. Yes, that was the word “highest,” not a smudge on your monitor. At 7,068 people per square mile, Los Angeles is considerably denser than New York-Newark Eric Morris is busy smashing myths about Los Angeles urbanscape [...]

[An] holistic approach to illuminating cities has come to be known as a lighting master plan. While few cities outside Europe have a plan currently in place, the steps involved in creating one help officials evaluate how the layers of lighting – street-level, marquees and directional signage, and monuments or cultural landmarks – should work [...]

Or are they leaner because they bike, walk, and use mass transit? Americans, with the highest rate of obesity, were the least likely to walk, cycle or take mass transit, according to the study in a recent issue of the Journal of Physical Activity and Health. The study relied on each country’s own travel and [...]

Amidst all the hype and talk about China’s oh-so-beautiful capital, little is known about entire ‘ugly’ neighborhoods hidden behind temporary walls. Would this really work in a real democracy?

The Los Angeles City Council has passed an ordinance prohibiting construction of new fast-food restaurants in a 32-square-mile area inhabited by 500,000 low-income people. Most will argue against this ban as a denial of food choice to people who can most afford it. Health risks notwithstanding, I too hadn’t expected the U.S. to pass such [...]

Residents of Detroit will not appreciate calling their city an urban wasteland. Unfortunately due to the downturn in the manufacturing economy on this side of the pond, the city bears obvious signs of neglect and rising incidence of abandonment. Yves Marchand and Romain Meffre photograph the ‘ruins of Detroit’ through a series of photo essays [...]

Continuing on our theme of abandonment, photographer Craig Ferguson features images of an abandoned hotel/housing development in the small town of San-zhr on the north coast of Taiwan. If you are bemused by the pod-like structures, Craig heightens our interest by narrating the ghost myths that surround these strange-looking structures. I wonder how much does [...]

Australia is a continent by itself albeit the smallest one yet “Eighty percent of Australians live within 80 miles of the sea; 50 percent of the country’s houses sit less than 8 miles from a beach” [source]. Isn’t that amazing? People definitely love living near the sea. The United States coastlines also house the majority [...]

Without zoning our cities would be denser, more eco-friendly, cheaper to live in, more able to produce economies of agglomeration, and more immigrants would benefit from American prosperity [source]. Tyler Cowen tries to understand the role of zoning in promoting urban density and makes the above presumption. Except it isn’t always true. Houston, one of [...]