Category Archives: gentrification

New “Austin Towers” will soon be spying over Texas

For multiple decades the tallest building in Texas has been located in either Dallas, Houston, or San Antonio. That fact is about to change, as the booming state capital of Austin will soon takeover this vertical leadership role in the … Continue reading

Posted in architecture, art, branding, business, cities, civics, Civil Rights, civility, commerce, Cuisine, culture, diversity, downtown, economic development, engineering, gentrification, geography, highways, historic preservation, history, Housing, human rights, humanity, inclusiveness, infrastructure, land use, pictures, placemaking, planning, poverty, skylines, skyscrapers, sprawl, spying, Statistics, third places, tourism, traffic, transportation, Travel, urban design, urban planning, zoning | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Strict planning & zoning destroys eclectic, offbeat, and funky

After three decades in the planning profession and several more years since retirement, I’ve come to the conclusion that if you want your community to maintain or build a funky, hip, offbeat, or eccentric vibe, it can not be done … Continue reading

Posted in adaptive reuse, advertising, Advocacy, archaeology, architecture, art, branding, business, cities, civics, commerce, consumerism, Cuisine, culture, demographics, deregulation, diversity, economic development, economic gardening, entertainment, entrepreneurship, family, Food, fun, gentrification, health, historic preservation, history, homelessness, Housing, humanity, inclusiveness, infrastructure, land use, landscape architecture, marketing, Mining, opinion, pictures, placemaking, planning, poverty, product design, revitalization, shopping, signs, Small business, social equity, spatial design, third places, tourism, Travel, urban design, urban planning, visual pollution, zoning | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Ten planning lessons they didn’t teach you in school

The following insights are not covered sufficiently in planning school. The planning community should work with accredited schools to assure that future graduates are aware of these issues and are better equipped to handle/address them. These are presented in no … Continue reading

Posted in civics, Civil Rights, civility, colleges, Communications, culture, feminism, gentrification, health, Highway displacement, homelessness, inclusiveness, injustice, land use, opinion, planning, politics, Privatization, racism, Sexism, social equity, urban planning, zoning | Tagged , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Ten planning lessons from OKC – America’s newest great city!

The changes/improvements that have taken place in Oklahoma City in the past 16 years (since I last visited) are remarkable and immensely impressive. Here are ten planning lessons from the exciting and entertaining capital of Oklahoma. Oklahoma City has coalesced … Continue reading

Posted in adaptive reuse, architecture, art, bicycling, branding, brewpubs, bridges, business, Cars, charities, cities, civics, civility, commerce, Cuisine, culture, diversity, downtown, economic development, entertainment, environment, family, fitness, Food, food systems, food trucks, fun, gentrification, geography, government, health, highways, hiking, historic preservation, history, Housing, inclusiveness, infrastructure, land use, landscape architecture, marketing, new urbanism, pictures, placemaking, planning, product design, recreation, revitalization, rivers/watersheds, shopping, skylines, skyscrapers, social equity, spatial design, sports, sprawl, sustainability, technology, third places, tourism, traffic, trails, transit, transportation, Travel, urban design, urban planning, walking, water trails, zoning | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Black-owned or operated hotels of the Green Book era

One of the most disturbing consequences of America’s Jim Crow segregation era is the limited amount of archival documentation that can be found about Black-owned and operated businesses and organizations from the time period. Even a search of sites such as … Continue reading

Posted in adaptive reuse, architecture, business, cities, civics, Civil Rights, commerce, culture, diversity, economic development, economic gardening, entertainment, entrepreneurship, gentrification, geography, Highway displacement, historic preservation, history, Housing, human rights, humanity, inclusiveness, injustice, land use, music, pictures, place names, placemaking, planning, politics, racism, revitalization, Small business, social equity, theaters, third places, tourism, Travel, urban planning | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 5 Comments

Interstate injustice – the human and economic toll

The following raw data tries to put some perspective into the vast extent of destruction that took place in American urban centers during the highway building boom of the late 1940s through the 1980s.  Overall, the number of dwellings lost … Continue reading

Posted in Advocacy, Cars, cities, civics, Civil Rights, civility, commerce, demographics, diversity, downtown, economic development, environment, gentrification, geography, government, health, Highway displacement, history, Housing, human rights, humanity, inclusiveness, infrastructure, injustice, land use, Maps, pictures, planning, politics, pollution, racism, social equity, spatial design, sprawl, Statistics, topography, Trade, traffic, transportation, Travel, urban planning, visual pollution | Tagged , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

Geography of America’s Historic Black Main Streets

  Discriminatory Jim Crow Era segregation laws that were often brutally enforced throughout the South and the bigoted use of similar divisive tactics elsewhere in the United States led to the creation and development of African-American business districts and corridors … Continue reading

Posted in Advocacy, archaeology, architecture, business, cities, civics, Civil Rights, civility, commerce, culture, diversity, downtown, economic development, economic gardening, entertainment, entrepreneurship, gentrification, geography, historic preservation, history, Housing, human rights, humanity, inclusiveness, injustice, land use, pictures, placemaking, planning, politics, poverty, racism, revitalization, shopping, Small business, social equity, tourism, Trade, urban planning | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Ten Planning Lessons from Chicago’s Northside Neighborhoods

  Below is my list of top ten planning lessons garnered from visits to nearly all of Northside Chicago neighborhoods over the past few years, especially those located to the north and east of I-90/94 (The Kennedy Expressway). Even with … Continue reading

Posted in Active transportation, architecture, art, bicycling, bike sharing, Biking, branding, cities, civics, civility, commerce, Cuisine, culture, demographics, density, diversity, entertainment, entrepreneurship, gentrification, geography, historic preservation, history, Housing, humanity, inclusiveness, infrastructure, land use, landscape architecture, Maps, new urbanism, place names, placemaking, planning, Railroads, shopping, skylines, spatial design, third places, tourism, traffic, transit, transportation, Travel, urban planning, walking, zoning | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Geography of the Jazz Age in North America

The Jazz Age represented the musical form’s peak period of popularity between 1920 and 1960. While New Orleans, Kansas City, Chicago, and New York were and remain the preeminent epicenters of jazz, in many other cities across the country, vibrant … Continue reading

Posted in art, cities, Communications, culture, diversity, economic development, entertainment, gentrification, geography, government, historic preservation, history, inclusiveness, land use, Maps, music, music reviews, North America, placemaking, planning, politics, racism, Radio, social equity, songs, theaters, third places, tourism, transportation, Travel, urban planning, zoning | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Pendulum Urban Planning – The Wild Ride Between Pro and Anti-development

As with nearly every other topic these days, there are strongly held viewpoints in planning circles over development. It seems like either you must be pro-development in all cases, or anti-development in all cases, with no room for middle ground. … Continue reading

Posted in Advocacy, cities, civics, civility, Communications, culture, diversity, education, gentrification, history, land use, planning, social equity, spatial design, sprawl, urban planning | Leave a comment