Telling the Story of Cities
Why transit agencies and advocates should learn from car ads to make planning less contentious Image credit: GO Transit Adam Gopnik writes that transit advocacy in the US lacks the same “passionate constituency aroused by cars and by bicycles,” with most people willing to “settle for Chinatown buses and carpools and shuttle planes,” for example,… Read more Selling Transit Dreams
(This piece includes major spoilers for the film’s plot.) Many urban planners, myself included, put Japanese planning on a pedestal of sorts. Japan is known for its urbanist achievements from efficient high-speed trains to delightful mixed-use neighborhoods of alleyways with tiny stores below compact residences (illegal to build in most of the United States, never… Read more Why Every Planner Should Watch Ikiru by Akira Kurosawa
Five articles curated by the Wagner Planner staff: Here’s what the Wagner Planner staff is reading. This week: implications of the budget deal, a three-part investigation of ‘ghost tags’, and a Rent Guidelines Board debate. M.T.A. Averts Fiscal Crisis as New York Strikes Budget Deal (The New York Times) – “Janno Lieber, the authority’s chairman,… Read more What We’re Reading – May 2
Here’s what the Wagner Planner staff is reading. This week: a rising tenant movement, technology could effectively deter dangerous drivers, a new approach to renovating public housing, and meager impacts of up zonings on housing affordability. The Revolution Against Shady Landlords Has Begun (The Nation) – “Anh-Thu Nguyen, a labor organizer in Brooklyn, told me,… Read more What We’re Reading – April 18
The MTA should commit more resources to maintaining bathrooms’ cleanliness and to improving nonexistent wayfinding to help bathrooms succeed. As recently as early last year, the MTA’s subway bathrooms were “not a priority” for the agency. Since then, they have reversed course and reopened bathrooms in nine stations as of January 2023 and announced that… Read more Reopening subway station bathrooms is the right move, but the MTA can do more