http://abetterwaytozone.com Tue, 01 Jul 2008 19:41:03 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en I just returned from a week of work in Jakarta, the booming capital city of Indonesia.  Jakarta has an estimated population of 13 million, which works out to about 44,000 people per square mile, compared to about 26,000 for New York City.  Yes, it has a lot of people, and ... http://abetterwaytozone.com/2008/06/29/postcard-from-jakarta/ Planning is just like other professions – it’s subject to the “bandwagon” effect. A new idea comes along – usually a good one that addresses some important weakness in the current system. People take notice because it seems to work – it solves a problem the profession was trying to ... http://abetterwaytozone.com/2008/06/17/where-does-form-based-zoning-fit-into-all-this/ Zone as if There Was Already a City There – Because There Is. Unfortunately, we sometimes do just the opposite – at least in America’s older urban neighborhoods. We draft our plans after looking carefully at the neighborhoods and cities that are already built. We study the scale, the form, the ... http://abetterwaytozone.com/2008/05/28/zone-as-if-there-was-already-a-city-there-%e2%80%93-because-there-is/ The American Planning Association just celebrated its 100th annual national conference in Las Vegas. With over 6,000 attending the conference, planning is obviously alive and well in the U.S. -- and zoning is still at the heart of the action. I just returned from the conference and noted ... http://abetterwaytozone.com/2008/05/05/zoning-at-the-2008-apa-conference/ Zoning is here to stay. Almost all large American cities use some form of zoning to manage existing development and to guide new development. We've been doing it for almost 90 years and we've become more or less addicted to it. Sure, we poke fun at the "planner-ese" and ... http://abetterwaytozone.com/2008/04/16/learning-from-the-past/