American Planning Association

Sustaining Places March 22, 2011 In March 2010, APA President Bruce Knight, FAICP, introduced APA’s Sustaining Places Initiative at the United Nations Fifth World Forum. In his remarks, he explained, "Sustaining Places will examine both how places can be sustained and how places themselves sustain life and civilizations. Planning's comprehensive focus is not limited to a building or a site but encompasses all scales and all forms of organization of human settlements, from rural areas and small town to cities and metropolitan regions. Planners are uniquely qualified to be global leaders in integrating these two concepts of sustainability and places. Ours is the place-making profession and the places that we make must have lasting value for all." Knight's Tuesdays at APA presentation took a closer look at the Sustaining Places Initiative and its focus on positioning the comprehensive plan as the primary local sustainability policy tool.

Gary and Region Investment Project March 15, 2011 Gary and other urban areas in Northwest Indiana have weathered decades of disinvestment. Yet they possess significant — if underused — assets, including national parks, miles of Lake Michigan shoreline, transit hubs, historic landmarks, and a strong workforce. While it would make a natural poster child for what is often called "right-sizing," this region is often overshadowed by cities like Detroit, Flint, and Youngstown in this emerging national dialogue. Nevertheless, the Gary and Region Investment Project (GRIP) is an important sign of how Northwest Indiana is crafting a regional approach to forward key transformative projects with the aim of stabilizing and reinvesting in the urban core. Joanna Trotter from the Metropolitan Planning Council and Hubert Morgan from the Northwest Indiana Regional Planning commission gave an overview of GRIP and provided an update on progress to date.

Community Reinvestment and the Foreclosure Crisis February 22, 2011 According to the Woodstock Institute, lenders repossessed more than 25,000 homes in the Chicago area during the first three quarters of 2010. According to the same analysis, these lender-owned foreclosures will take an average of 16 months to be absorbed by the housing market. Vacant properties cause blight, which destabilizes neighborhoods and local real estate markets, and also weakens the ability of municipalities to maintain a comfortable quality of life by shrinking tax rolls and increasing maintenance costs. Geoff Smith from the Woodstock Institute took an in-depth look at recent trends in foreclosure activity in the Chicago region with a focus on the shifting patterns of regional foreclosures, the concentration of vacant properties tied to foreclosures, and implications for community development.

A Template for Redeveloping Chicago's Neighborhoods January 25, 2011 According to Bruce Frankel, a Professor of Urban Planning at Ball State, neighborhood reinvestment depends on distinct strategies based on neighborhood conditions, both assets and liabilities. In essence, a redeveloper must select the neighborhood for the strategy, and vice-versa. Frankel and his students explained this strategy/conditions matrix and explored how these strategic plans become financially underwritten and structured to be financially sustainable. To illustrate the model in action, Frankel and his students presented a strategy for the Bronzeville neighborhood in Chicago.

Professor Sharon Sutton has had a long career in developing youth engagement programs with a special interest in involving minority and disenfranchised youth. Professor Sutton is interviewed in this podcast by Ramona Mullahey, editor of ResoucesZine APA's electronic publication on youth engagement. They discuss Sutton's new book, The Paradox of Urban Space: Inequity and Transformation in Marginalized Communities.

Cultural Resource Protection November 23, 2010 In 1993 the Town of Ithaca, New York, Planning Department and Cornell University collaborated to launch the Inlet Valley Archaeological Survey (IVAS), a pre-emptive cultural resources survey to identify areas of archaeological importance in an area south of Ithaca slated for major development. The IVAS permitted Ithaca's planning department to work with developers to design around and ultimately protect identified historic and cultural resources. George Frantz, AICP, a visiting lecturer at Cornell, will discuss IVAS and explain how it became the genesis of two public parks and a revival of interest in the area's Native American heritage.

Siting and Permitting Wind Farms October 19, 2010 DeKalb County, Illinois, recently approved a large, commercial wind farm, the first in the county and the largest single zoning action in its history. The wind farm consists of 151 turbines covering an area of approximately 22,000 acres. Paul Miller, AICP, from DeKalb County discussed the review process for this proposal, highlighting the issues raised by objectors to the project as well as responses and adopted solutions. His presentation included lessons learned and recommendations for other jurisdictions considering wind farm proposals.

Green Community Conservation In this episode, listen to Green Community contributors Timothy Beatley and Patrice Frey.

Green Community Density and Transportation In this episode, listen to Green Community contributors F. Kaid Benfield, Fred Hansen, and Mariela Alfonzo.

Green Community Energy In this episode, listen to Green Community contributor Mary Rickel Pelletier.

Green Community Introduction In this episode, listen to Green Community co-editors Timothy Mennel and Susan Piedmont-Palladino discuss contributor insights and the book's production

Local and Global Health Featuring: Carolyn Steel and Esther M. Sternberg

Urban Morphology August 24, 2010 Urban morphology seeks to understand the spatial structure and character of an urban area by examining its patterns and the process of its development. While urban morphology has been a disciplinary specialization amongst American geographers for years, only in southern Europe, where there was no historical separation of planning and architecture, has the work of urban morphologists been brought to bear in the training of architects. In the ongoing work of the International Seminar on Urban Form, Christopher Miller, from Judson University, is exploring with his students a more research-oriented approach to the American architectural value in contextual design. Miller shared recent student work that examines questions like: Can typology be used to solve the problem of the big box in a 19th-century fabric? How is morphology a condition for pedestrian connectivity? Can the connectivity inherent in a historic fabric be the prescriptive standard for infill.

Dutch Dialogues Dale Morris of the Royal Netherlands Embassy in Washington, D.C., and David Waggonner of Waggonner and Ball Architects based in New Orleans discuss the purpose and outcomes of the Dutch Dialogues series held in New Orleans. Read about Dutch Dialogues at www.dutchdialogues.com.

New Orleans Moving Forward Stephen Villavso, FAICP, of Villavaso & Associates, discusses the current planning status of New Orleans and the future of the city.

Complete Streets Listen to a discussion on complete streets with Barbara McCann, Executive Director of The National Complete Streets Coalition, Sarah Zimmerman, Senior Staff Attorney for The National Policy and Legal Analysis Network to Prevent Childhood Obesity (NPLAN), and hosted by APA's Research Associate, David Morley.

Hazard Mitigation Planning Is your community prepared if disaster strikes? John Wilson from Lee County, Florida, and Julia Burrows from Roseville, California, discuss how their respective communities created hazard mitigation plans. Roseville and Lee County are two featured case studies in the new Planning Advisory Service report, Hazard Mitigation: Integrating Best Practices into Planning (PAS 560).