Blogs

April 23, 2024

Hardening the American Landscape

Uncovering JAPA: Explore the diverse policy options for local leaders to curb hardscape expansion during rapid infill, emphasizing the importance of modeling local factors and utilizing machine learning techniques to mitigate environmental risks.

Power Imbalances in a Failed Smart City Development (blog featured image)

April 18, 2024

Navigating Quayside: Lessons in Smart City Planning

Uncovering JAPA: Explore the challenges faced in public-private partnerships using Toronto's Quayside project.

April 11, 2024

Planning for Dollar Stores

Uncovering JAPA: Explore the challenges and opportunities posed by the rapid expansion of dollar stores, addressing the issues related to food access and community vitality.

April 4, 2024

Learning from Ad Hoc Mixed-Use Partnerships in Toronto

Uncovering JAPA: Explore the evolution of Creative Mixed-Use (CMU) development in Toronto, emphasizing the critical role of cross-sectoral partnerships and the challenges faced during this transformative process.

March 29, 2024

Planners Can Integrate Climate Migrants

Uncovering JAPA: Explore climate migration, as researchers discuss depictions of "climate havens" and "welcoming cities," and offer insights for planning inclusive communities.

March 14, 2024

Residents’ Changing Perspectives on Disaster Resettlement

Uncovering JAPA: In Tacloban City, Philippines, holistic restoration, community empowerment, site development, transparent communication, and flexible participation are emphasized in post-disaster relocation efforts.

February 15, 2024

Long Beach’s Approach to Youth Advocacy in Planning

Uncovering JAPA: Long Beach invests in Youth, establishing a Global Model with the Office of Youth Development.

February 1, 2024

Considering Flood Risk in Development Decision Making

Uncovering JAPA: North Carolina sees rapid new flood risk development, revealing complex socioeconomic factors in risk management.

January 25, 2024

Refocus Heat Action Plans To Mitigate Indoor Heat Risks

Uncovering JAPA: Study finds the importance of prioritizing building improvements over tree planting strategies for mitigating the risk of indoor extreme heat.

January 19, 2024

60 Years of Racial Equity in Urban Planning

Uncovering JAPA: Insightful analysis about racial equity planning to inform planning practitioners' efforts to advance racial and social justice.

January 11, 2024

Mitigating Flood Risk Through Smart Land Use Practice

Uncovering JAPA: A 20-year study on North Carolina floodplain development underscores the need for evidence-based policies and robust flood mitigation plans.

January 4, 2024

Are Traffic Impact Studies Still "Junk Science"?

Uncovering JAPA: How Traffic Impact Assessments (TIAs) often fail to meet the substantial evidence standard due to flawed, unsubstantial methods.

December 21, 2023

Prioritizing Environmental Justice in Comprehensive Planning

Uncovering JAPA: California plans are analyzed for environmental justice (EJ) incorporation, revealing advancements in BIPOC communities while underscoring the absence of an explicit racial focus.

December 14, 2023

Restorative Pathways: Navigating Healing and Justice in Communities Affected by Spatial Trauma

Uncovering JAPA: Addressing spatial trauma in Black and brown communities, urging today's planners to embrace equitable spatial development through healing approaches.

December 7, 2023

Motorbike Contributions: Enhancing Street Life and the Local Economy

Uncovering JAPA: Slow-moving motorbikes allow for "productive frictions" enhancing interactions between people and the streetscape.

November 30, 2023

The Lasting Legacy of Harmful Land-Use Regulations

Uncovering JAPA: Early land-use regulations shaped the concepts of race, which challenge today's planners to create equitable spaces.

November 17, 2023

Improving Inclusivity of Urban Governance

Uncovering JAPA: Nurturing the culture of a governing body can make it more inclusive for everyone.

November 9, 2023

The Impact of Prejudice Data on Advancing Equitable Planning Practices

Uncovering JAPA: Understanding the impact of the Mapping Prejudice project on advancing more equitable planning policies and practices.

November 2, 2023

Impact of Low-Cost Housing Interventions

Uncovering JAPA: The positive impact of low-cost housing remediations led to reduced blight and crime in Philadelphia.

October 27, 2023

Strategies for Creating More Just and Equitable Societies

Uncovering JAPA: This viewpoint explores three aforementioned strategies that can be used to start dismantling the existing system in favor of a more just system that that works for everyone.

October 20, 2023

Dissecting 30 Years of Black Urbanist Thought in Urban Planning

Uncovering JAPA: Analysis confirms planning journals and practitioners have not focused on Black voices and Black urbanism for nearly three decades.

October 12, 2023

A New Tool for Assessing Equity in Health Impact Assessments

Uncovering JAPA: A new approach to ensuring racial and ethnic equity are advanced in health impact assessments (HIAs).

October 6, 2023

Mural Festival Advances Creative Placemaking

Uncovering JAPA: Explore a successful model of creative placemaking using murals to engage the community from Springfield, Massachusetts.

September 28, 2023

Planning for Care - A Necessary Element of Equitable, Livable and Healthy Communities

Uncovering JAPA: Explore how care work depends on the urban environment and how planning can enhance the social and material conditions for caregiving in cities.

September 21, 2023

A New Way to Identify Bargain Areas for Child Economic Mobility

Uncovering JAPA: Explore a new way to identify neighborhoods with a more reasonable cost of living that can increase children's economic mobility.

August 31, 2023

Addressing Racial Harms Through Reparative Planning

Uncovering JAPA: A framework that provides theory and practice for planners working toward urban justice.

August 10, 2023

Using Reparative Planning to Address Infrastructural Systems

Uncovering JAPA: ACT-LA aims to apply a divest-invest approach to stopping systems and practices that have caused harm.

August 3, 2023

Black Counternarratives in Planning History

Uncovering JAPA: Understanding planning history from the perspective of those oppressed by traditional planning ensures the oppressed are no longer dismissed as passive victims but active players in their lives and communities.

July 13, 2023

SHELTER: A Redistributive Affordable Housing Policy

Uncovering JAPA: Plan to reuse existing revenues to fund innovative housing policy reforms.

July 6, 2023

Understanding Opportunities and Challenges in Publicly Traded Planning Firms

Uncovering JAPA: Understanding how to balance the opportunities and challenges of working in a publicly traded planning firm.

June 29, 2023

Discretionary vs. By-Right Approval: Which is Faster?

Uncovering JAPA: Is by-right or discretionary approval faster?

June 22, 2023

Transit Oriented Development and Crime in Chicago

Uncovering JAPA: Is there a connection between transit oriented development (TOD) in Chicago's public transit system.

June 15, 2023

Increasing Sharing Options in Housing to Improve Mental Health

Uncovering JAPA: Planners can promote sharing capabilities to create a flexible backdrop for people to live within to meet the social needs of Americans today.

June 8, 2023

A Framework for Systematizing Rigor in Planning Research

Uncovering JAPA: Incorporating empirical rigor into planning research to improve review articles and thus improve recommendations and collaboartion.

June 1, 2023

Designing Age-Friendly Connectivity in Melbourne, Australia

Uncovering JAPA: Study finds it necessary for planners to take action to ensure the built environment becomes more age-friendly.

May 26, 2023

Building Business Resilience for Minority-Owned Businesses

Uncovering JAPA: Three critical aspects for understanding business resilience in underserved communities.

May 18, 2023

Do Municipalities Use Cost-Benefit Analysis for Incentive Zoning?

Uncovering JAPA: Exploring the use of cost-benefit to develop incentive zoning programs.

May 12, 2023

Opening the Policy Window for Bike Lanes in Sydney

Uncovering JAPA: Learning to leverage policy windows by committing to evidence-based solutions and political coalition-building.

May 4, 2023

Examining Food Systems and Sovereignty In Conflict Cities

Uncovering JAPA: Future planners should be prepared for the politics of planning, especially the challenging role of planning in conflict cities aiming to protect food systems.

April 27, 2023

Centering Equity in Planning and Public Health Collaborations

Uncovering JAPA: Without an equity focus, planning and public health collaborations can harm vulnerable communities or lead to ineffective policies.

April 20, 2023

What is the Role of Theory in Planning?

Uncovering JAPA: Is planning theory important or nonexistent now?

April 13, 2023

Understanding and Protecting the Benefits of Immigrant Food Businesses

Uncovering JAPA: Smaller-scale ethnic food businesses contribute to community health and well-being but also boost the local economy.

April 6, 2023

Applying Intersectionality as Planners to Combat Health Inequities

Uncovering JAPA: Planners must understand the multiple overlapping factors that can produce health disparities.

March 30, 2023

Enforcing Asian Exclusion Through Design and Planning Regulations

Uncovering JAPA: Three cities in Los Angeles County developed stringent development controls to encourage Anglo or Spanish heritage in response to Asian newcomers.

March 23, 2023

Effectiveness of Regional Scenario Planning

Uncovering JAPA: Exploration of three metropolitan regions for how their regional plans are reflected in municipal plans.

March 16, 2023

Can Zoning Solve Healthy Food Accessibility in Schools?

Uncovering JAPA: Little research has considered equity implications of zoning policies to reduce access to unhealthy foods. This simulation study aims to understand impacts and outcomes.