Cyburbia | Urban Planning Community

Post of the Day: Rise of Rental Housing

Published on 04 May 2012 7:00 AM

Categories:

Housing

jamesrouse writes:

Planners: The next APA Policy Breakfast is on the topic of the rise of rental housing. Much discussion is about GEN Y not seeking homeownership as it was common for the Baby Boomers (their parents). Many have said they are to living a flexible lifestyle and do not see homeownership as a key LIFE PATH. GEN Y has saw the GEN X and Baby Boomers (and some of their peers) purchase homes during the height of the market only to be saddled with an empty asset. They seek out unique, diverse and very interesting neighborhoods. It is more a matter of urban design, than tenancy in a building (e.g. they don't care if a national real estate developer holds the mortgage).

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Post of the Day: What People Think I Do

Published on 15 Feb 2012 7:00 AM

Categories:

Humor

Tide writes:

I don't know if any of you have seen this meme floating around twitter and facebook. It's only been around since Feb 12 but has taken off like wildfire. Here's my submission to the meme for us planners, let me know what you think. ...

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Post of the Day: Planners reporting other planners

Published on 13 Feb 2012 7:00 AM

Categories:

Planning Practice

Urbane Sprawler writes:

In my neck of the woods, engineers who questioned the structural design of a school are now being investigated by the state board for failing to notify the board of their concerns. Engineers who sounded alarms about Meeker school face complaints

As an engineer, I was just wondering about whether the planning profession has had situations of notifying the APA of planning concerns. Certainly this happens on matters of ethics, but what I'm more curious to know about is whether someone's made a case of reporting concerns about someone else's planning vision, design, etc.? Presumably professional planners are required to report other planners who fail to meet the standards of the practice; what examples are there outside of ethics? ...

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Post of the Day: Lowest salaries for planning jobs that you've seen

Published on 08 Feb 2012 7:16 AM

Categories:

Planning Practice

Dan writes:

In an earlier, I described a recently advertised planning director position in the Cleveland area. They want graduate education, experience in specialized areas, and the job involves supervisory and highly technical, specialized work. The listed salary was $30,000. Not a typo; thirty thousand dollars.

Is this the lowest paid planning job in the US? Excluding planning technicians and interns, what is the lowest paid planning job you have seen advertised recently? ...

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Post of the Day: Small town historic preservation: creating overlay districts

Published on 07 Feb 2012 7:00 AM

Categories:

History and Preservation

kitikiti'sh writes:

I live in a great small town. It's a thriving little community, has a wonderful downtown, and a strong economy. It also has (for the time being) quite a few historic buildings.

The town has one historic district, established in the '70s, that covers a few blocks of large and distinguished 19th-century homes, but no historic district or design overlay district for the rest of the city. Even the historic district, there are no guidelines for new construction- a vacant lot in the district now has a suburban-style "snout" house coming right up to the sidewalk.

Downtown, the oldest house in town is scheduled to be torn down for a new snout house. A few blocks east of downtown on the main street, a large brick Italianate house- well-kept, in superb condition- will be torn down for a medical building, and an interesting industrial building will be torn down for a vacant lot. ...

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Post of the Day: Property owner in bulldozer's path gets silent treatment

Published on 02 Feb 2012 7:00 AM

Categories:

Transportation

Fringe writes:

A property owner whose two parcels are slated to be cut in two, leaving three remnants, by a state highway widening and relocation project was visited two full years ago by an appraiser, who said highway reps would be visiting soon to negotiate. No more, however, and the silence has been deafening. ...

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