JAPA: Research That Matters

WHAT YOU’LL LEARN

• Updates on seven crucial and related planning topics, knowledge that may challenge what you think are best planning practices
• How to better understand complex planning issues and recognize sometimes inherent conflicts between equity and other objectives — for example, when promoting urban agriculture or regulating informal housing
• Valuable information about emerging issues such as regulating AirBNB and similar platforms, coordinating local networks of plans, and deciding the trade-offs in supporting local makers

MORE SESSION DETAILS

The session presents the best and most valuable insights published in the "Journal of the American Planning Association" over the last two years, including award-nominated and award-winning articles. All the articles have one crucial characteristic in common, although their substantive topics vary; the research addresses critical current planning issues in a way immediately relevant and useful to practitioners. Learn about the pitfalls of mega-event planning through the lens of the spectacular failure of Boston to develop a viable plan to host the 2024 Olympics, the role that "makers" really can and do play in enhancing local economies, how pervasive and important "informal" housing is in meeting affordable-housing needs in high-cost cities, whether urban agriculture really enhances food justice or serves to perpetuate social and economic disparities, the problems that arise when cities adopt conflicting plans, the impact that AirBNB and other sharing platforms have on the supply and cost of affordable housing, and whether recent drops in auto traffic actually mean that people have abandoned their cars. Come ready to challenge stereotypes and think differently about multiple planning issues.