Safe At Home: The Battle to Control the COVID Narrative
One of my favorite webcomics was the short-lived Minus. Beautifully painted, surreal, often touching, there is no place for it on the Internet. It...
Don’t Blame Density for Pandemics
If you're a newspaper columnist or governor of New York, a pandemic is a great time to trot out medieval myths, repackage them like...
Now Is the Time to Re-Read Jane Jacobs Backwards
My copy of Jane Jacobs’ The Death and Life of Great American Cities is dog eared and marked up. There are little arrows on...
Urbanist 12 Days of Christmas Wishlist
Happy holidays from The Urbanist. In honor of the holiday, here's an Urbanist wishlist set to 12 Days of Christmas. Let's build this future...
Understanding Rent Control Politics
“If Sawant’s rent control bill went into effect, my apartment would get turned into a condo and I’d lose my place to live.”
“Developers won’t...
What Kind of City do We Want to Be? Tacoma and the Arguments Cities...
My summer reading list this year included a debut novel by Seth Fried titled The Municipalists, which CityLab described as “the urban planning Sci-Fi...
Joe Berridge’s “Perfect City” Celebrates the Many Forms of Urban Delight
Among urban planners of the 21st century, few can claim to have as interesting and expansive careers as Joe Berridge, partner at Urban Strategies...
What Does It Take to Create Great Cities?
Actors call it charisma and scientists talk about the sense of wonder. There are fundamental competencies for every profession. City planning requires vision.
Vision is...