Blogs

November 5, 2020

How Do Planners Understand the Terms Hispanic, Latino, and Latinx?

Uncovering JAPA: How and why should planners better understand the terms Hispanic, Latino, and Latinx?

October 29, 2020

A Driver's License Can Equal Carpooling, Safety, and Social Justice

Uncovering JAPA: How can planners make driving safer and make stronger arguments for carpooling? What if planners could also become advocates for immigrants at the same time?

October 22, 2020

LGBTQ Communities and Historic Preservation

Uncovering JAPA: What do quantitative methods reveal about LGBTQ neighborhood development and historic preservation?

Adopting Racial Equity Frameworks in Planning Organizations

Uncovering JAPA: What can planning departments do to adopt an organizational racial equity framework?

Whiteness and Planning in America

Uncovering JAPA: What are the spatial and economic implications of Whiteness in the U.S.?

Being an Idealist in Difficult Times

A Guide for the Idealist post: Challenging times may challenge idealist commitments but they endure with a focus on higher ideals of justice, truth, and beauty.

Lowering Institutional Barriers for Immigrant Entrepreneurs

Uncovering JAPA: How can local planning and policy efforts better support immigrant entrepreneurs? What could cities do to lower barriers for immigrant businesses to thrive?

July 28, 2020

Six Ways Planners Can Help Communities Bridge the Racial Wealth Gap

Planners offer a big-picture, multidisciplinary lens that can play a pivotal role in increasing equity. Here are six things planners can do to advance racial wealth and economic opportunity in your community.

Changing Planning Practices to Honor George Floyd

A Guide for the Idealist post: Planners of all types have a role to play in addressing racial injustice by connecting each decision to its effects on the whole community.

Planning for Climate Change, Planning for Communities

Uncovering JAPA: Can large-scale climate action coexist with community-based planning? One JAPA author says they can and they must.

Preserving the Grass Root of Urban Agriculture

Uncovering JAPA: Does digital urban agriculture mean the end of small scale growing?

When Climate Resiliency Is More Than an Afterthought

Uncovering JAPA: Affordable housing and resiliency must coexist. How can low-income households weather the storm?

Preparing for COVID-19 Recovery in Seattle

A Q&A with Sam Assefa, director of Seattle’s Office of Planning & Community Development, explores the planning department’s role in Seattle’s coronavirus strategy.

A Q&A With Houston's Top Women in Planning

In celebration of Women's History Month, two women who hold top Houston planning positions discuss their work and aspirations.

Painting a Richer Picture of Older Adults' Mobility Needs

Uncovering JAPA: Interviews, focus groups, and walking audits can be added to statistics to help create a full picture of the mobility needs of older adults.

Locating Housing Affordability Amid Foreclosures

Uncovering JAPA: Planners may create communities more resilient to housing foreclosure by addressing location affordability.

An Urgency for Insurgency: Lifting Marginalized Voices

Uncovering JAPA: Neighborhood association insurgents successfully challenged planning in one Detroit neighborhood, and planners can support marginalized voices elsewhere.

The Hidden Cost in Housing Affordability

Uncovering JAPA: There is more to housing affordability than finding a place with a reasonable rent. What can planners do to promote energy efficiency and, more importantly, energy justice?

Moving Beyond Citizen Control to Co-Production

Uncovering JAPA: Co-production offers what citizen control can’t — systems change — but the public sector still has a great role to play.

The View From Arnstein’s Ladder: The Promise of Community Control

Uncovering JAPA: Is community control — a shift of power from the government to the majority of the community — the way to address injustice faced by marginalized members of the community?

Are Bed Bugs a Planning Issue?

Uncovering JAPA: If cities want to attract new residents and planners want those residents to thrive, a coordinated response to bed bugs is necessary.

Zoning: The Cause and the Cure for High Housing Prices

Uncovering JAPA: Single-family restrictions, lot sizes restrictions, and parking requirements limit developers’ ability to build affordable housing. However, in this quandary, we may also find the solution.

Mayors Are Addressing the Housing Crisis — And Planning Is Part of the Solution

Read about the three key housing crisis takeaways for planners in the new National League of Cities Housing Task Force report, Homeward Bound.

Partnerships + Data: The Keys to Creating Change and Opportunity

One of APA's partners, Enterprise, describes its work in the arena of housing affordability and accessibility.

Expanding Equity: "Stonewall Did That For Me"

APA member Michael Levine, AICP, shares his personal experience of the 1969 Stonewall uprising.

Expanding Cottage Home: A Pioneer for Housing Affordability

Clovis, California's Cottage Home Program for affordable housing is expanding throughout the city.

Expanding California's Leadership in Diversifying the Planning Profession

What does diversity and inclusion mean to APA, the planning profession, and planners' efforts to address diversity, inclusion, and equity in planning? Hear from two planners about the road to progress in California.

This Year’s Big Planning Idea: Unlocking the Value of Land

Land value capture — the concept behind several mechanisms to finance infrastructure, affordable housing, and other key components of urban development — was rich food for thought at the 2018 Daniel Burnham Forum on Big Ideas.

Inclusionary Zoning Brings Mixed-Income Housing to D.C.’s Priciest Neighborhoods

The Washington, D.C., area has one of the highest median incomes in the country, but the city is making room for affordable housing through a mandatory, district-wide inclusionary zoning program.

Planning with Autism in Mind: A Six Feelings Framework

Ohio State University students and faculty explore ways of planning to improve the lives of individuals with autism. Learn more in the latest issue of PAS Memo.

State-Level Housing Action Heats Up Nationwide

Massachusetts, Wisconsin, Tennessee, and Louisiana are among the states making housing news. From inclusionary zoning to affordable housing, these states demonstrate the geographic reach and varying approaches to the housing crisis.

House Appropriators Maintain Some Transportation, HUD Funding Gains

The House Appropriations Committee recently approved a spending bill for transportation and housing programs that maintains some of the dramatic increases to programs made by the FY 2018 omnibus.

"We Have a Moment — Don't Lose It"

PolicyLink founder and CEO Angela Glover Blackwell wrapped up NPC18 with a call for attention to equity: "The fate of the nation rests on people like you."

Creating a Diversity Committee: Lessons from APA's New York Metro Chapter

Cochairs of APA's New York Metro Chapter Diversity Committee explore the committee’s origins, activities, and tips for other APA chapters who may be interested in starting their own diversity committees.

California's Urgent Search for Housing Solutions

Housing affordability challenges across the nation are some of the most pressing and controversial. Learn more about California housing legislation and the role of planners.

Aging in Place: Housing, Supports, Safety

Planners have the ability to create housing options that enable citizens to be independent and to thrive at all ages. One of a series of blog posts on APA's Plan4Health webinar and seminar on “Planning Livable Communities for All Ages."

HUD Extends Assessment of Fair Housing Deadline

In a controversial move, HUD issued a notice effectively suspending new fair housing planning rules until 2020. APA plans to submit comments on the action.

Reimagining the Civic Commons

Reimagining the Civic Commons is a national initiative to foster engagement, equity, environmental sustainability, and economic development in our cities. APA members learned more about the initiative at the 2017 Policy and Advocacy Conference.

Bringing Food to an Aging America

This is one in a series centered on key findings in the areas of housing, transportation, engagement, health, and food access for our rapidly aging population.

Transportation Is One Key to Livable Communities for All Ages

Transportation is highlighted in the first of a series of blog posts on APA's Plan4Health webinar and seminar on “Planning Livable Communities for All Ages."

With Technology Expanding, Inequality Rising

Ryan Avent spoke about rising inequalities in the nation in his luncheon keynote at the 2017 APA Policy and Advocacy Conference.

Solving the New Urban Crisis With Inclusiveness

Richard Florida urges a switch from from winner-take-all urbanism to urbanism-for-all at APA's Policy and Advocacy Conference.

Why We Need to Pass a Law That Funds Urban Green Spaces

Representative Nanette Diaz Barragán recently introduced the Outdoor Recreation Legacy Partnership Program Act of 2017, a bill that would codify funding for the development of urban parks, green spaces, and recreational areas in communities across the country.