CP&DR

Design Priorities Threaten to Leave Planners Behind

Jun 1, 2002

Stephen Svete, Trends, Vol. 17 No. 06 Jun 2002

Though scarcely acknowledged, urban planning is in the midst of a fundamental shift in professional focus. The public is demanding the change. It's a simple idea, as well as an old one: Planners need to understand design. This is because urban planning in America has followed the larger culture into an era where style is substance.

Property Owners Reposition Vacant Offices

Apr 1, 2002

Stephen Svete, Trends, Vol. 17 No. 04 Apr 2002

Remember the "see-through" office building phenomenon that hit Houston during the mid 1980s and then Los Angeles in the early 1990s? Well, it's back. This time, it is the Bay Area that is afflicted with empty office buildings.

Cheaper, Better Desalination Gets a Fresh Look

Feb 1, 2002

Stephen Svete, Trends, Vol. 17 No. 02 Feb 2002

Desal in SoCal? It may not be as far-fetched as you think. No single resource has had more of an influence on California's development patterns than water. The essential liquid has been pivotal to a range of historical and political conflicts, from the pillaging of the Owens Valley by Los Angeles to the damming of the Hetch Hetchy Valley by San Francisco.

State Budget Woes Could Put Planning in Focus

Dec 1, 2001

Stephen Svete, Trends, Vol. 16 No. 12 Dec 2001

In anticipation of another raid on local government revenues by the State of California, local government officials have taken a page from grass-roots planning advocates and filed for two versions of initiatives for the state's November 2002 ballot. The "Local Revenue Accountability Act" is spearheaded by the state's leading city, county, and special district advocacy organizations – whose members are the largest employers of urban planners in California.

Why All the Anxiety about Big Boxes?

Oct 1, 2001

Stephen Svete, Trends, Vol. 16 No. 10 Oct 2001

There are probably no two words that can get a planning commission or community more worked up than these: big box. Any self-respecting planner would agree that the Wal-Marts and the Home Depots of the world present a challenge to good suburban design, but one still has to wonder why so many collective hands are wringing.

Energy Situation Gives Cities Opportunities

Aug 1, 2001

Stephen Svete, Trends, Vol. 16 No. 08 Aug 2001

While finger-pointing and chest-thumping have been California politicians' most visible reactions to the latest version of the energy crisis, a few local governments are slowly emerging as leaders in addressing the new energy crisis. The most aggressive of these agencies are going beyond simple conservation programs and actually using their existing facilities as alternative energy power generating locations. And some are seeing that by being leaders in alternative energy production, they can gain com

Housing Markets Avoid ‘Tech Wreck'

Jun 1, 2001

Stephen Svete, Trends, Vol. 16 No. 06 Jun 2001

All quiet on the western real estate front? The silence is probably a result of California's property owners collectively holding their breath while listening for the other shoe to drop.

Want an Urban attraction? Get Real

Apr 1, 2001

Stephen Svete, Trends, Vol. 16 No. 04 Apr 2001

At Disney's new Anaheim theme park, designers are banking on a proven formula. Create facsimiles of real places, stir them together into a brick-and-mortar masala amid the aging sprawl of suburban north Orange County, and voila: another millions-of-visitors-a-year attraction. However contrived, Disney was the first to prove that people will pay good money to visit a place that mimics the real thing.

Downtown Cinemania Fades to Black

Feb 1, 2001

Stephen Svete, Trends, Vol. 16 No. 02 Feb 2001

The act of going downtown to see a movie is another great example of America's nostalgic relationship with its urban past — kind of like shoeshine boys, hopping onto streetcars, and tossing nickels at newsboys shouting headlines. Nostalgia aside, the post-war suburbanization of culture led to a downtown exodus not only of housing, offices, and retail, but also of cinemas.

Green Party Grows in Local Government

Dec 1, 2000

Stephen Svete, Trends, Vol. 15 No. 12 Dec 2000

Who says urban planning isn't partisan? It has certainly been many a planner's working assumption that local land use decisions in California are not affiliated with any political perspective, but are merely "good planning." In fact, since the days of 1910s reform Governor Hiram Johnson, local government has been legally devoid of party-affiliated elections. But with the assertive emergence of the Green Party in Election 2000, the fact can no longer be ignored: national political party platform...

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