American Planning Association

The Evolution of Our Suburbs March 16, 2010 For the last few decades the Chicago region has been suburbanizing with little regard to energy use, climate change, and urban form. The relentless pursuit of property tax revenue and a focus on single uses and single-site developments distracts many suburban communities from the task of planning for a sustainable and livable built environment. As planners, what should be our approach to the future of our suburbs? Can we afford to continue the growth and development patterns of the past few decades? Are there new growth patterns and new development tools that we can get ready now to be prepared for a different future? Mahender Vasandani from M Square Urban Design shared thoughts on these and other questions in an effort to start a dialogue among planners about where we go from here and how.

Food and Planning in New Orleans Among the many things New Orleans is famous for is its food. Increasingly, that food is locally grown. Vanessa Ulmer, the Policy and Advocacy Coordinator with the Prevention Research Center at Tulane University, joined Broadcast APA to talk about local food, fighting obesity, and citywide polices that increase food access. She also gives listeners tips on where to eat in New Orleans — all of which are included in the New Orleans Food System Guide, compiled by APA's Planning & Community Health Research Center.

Visiting Fellowship in New Zealand In 2008, Center Manager Jim Schwab, AICP, was invited by the Centre for Advanced Engineering in New Zealand (CAENZ), located at the University of Canterbury in Christchurch, to serve as a Visiting Fellow, studying New Zealand hazards planning and offering consultation on national hazards policy. Schwab's trip lasted three weeks from July 25 to August 15, 2008, during which time he traveled the country, delivering seven different lectures and seminars, including presentation at the Australasian Natural Hazards Conference and to a joint meeting of staff members of the Ministry of the Environment and the Ministry of Civil Defense and Emergency Management. A year later, in October 2009, Kristin Hoskin, who had managed Jim's itinerary for CAENZ, visited APA in Chicago, where she delivered a presentation and was interviewed for a podcast.

Updates on government planning policy

New Book Sounds Death Knell for Suburbs Media Briefing Presentation CHICAGO — The suburbs are in a fragile state and it is only going to get worse. The recent foreclosure crisis has masked the true, underlying problems facing U.S. suburbs. These are basic structural problems that will not vanish with a global economic recovery. Foreclosing the Dream: How America's Housing Crisis Is Reshaping Our Cities and Suburbs, published by the American Planning Association (APA), is the first book to look beyond financial manipulations to understand what truly fueled the foreclosure crisis and what it means for the future of suburbs and cities. According to the book: Higher rates of foreclosures in new suburbs and exurbs compared to lower rates in cities show that the American Dream is changing. The number of households in the 30 to 45 age group has declined by 3.4 million since 2000 and this has reduced demand for large suburban houses. The stereotypical "white flight exodus" from central cities has been reversed in

Post-Katrina Demographics Estimating the population of New Orleans was a tricky business in the months — and years — after Hurricane Katrina. With the 2010 Census coming up, planner Rafe Rabalais talks about what the official decennial count means for the city, shifts in local demographics since the August 2005 storm, and the tool his company developed to track the resettlement of New Orleans.

Beyond Burnham February 23, 2010 Since the publication of Burnham and Bennett's Plan of Chicago in 1909, powerful institutions such as the Chicago Plan Commission and Regional Transportation Authority, among others, have emerged to promote metropolitan goals in the Chicago region. In their new illustrated book on the topic, Joseph Schwieterman and Alan Mammoser show how the human face of planning appears in the interplay between public officials and citizen advocates. Schwieterman and Mammoser shared how a century of visionary planning for metropolitan Chicago has shaped the region's identity and character. From Daniel H. Burnham and Edward H. Bennett's famed 1909 Plan of Chicago to the push for superhighways and airports to battles over urban sprawl, they described the big personalities and the "big plans" they espoused.

Data Mining on Federal Websites January 26, 2010 Since the late 1990s, planners have grown to rely on the rapid exchange of information and enhanced data analysis tools enabled by sophisticated computing power. With this proliferation of information and technology, planners need practical strategies for making sense of electronic information. John Shuler, from the University of Illinois at Chicago, and Rana Salzmann, from APA, discussed how to use the Web to find relevant planning information efficiently and commented on how the Internet's reach has changed the practice of planning through the expansion of digital government services.

Green Community Energy (Part II) In this episode, listen to Green Community contributors Erica Heller, AICP, and Mark Heller, AICP.