Designing the Active City: The Case for Multi-Use Paths

By Anne Lusk More people walk and bicycle in cities worldwide where destinations such as grocery stores, post offices or coffee shops are accessible by sidewalks, roads for bicycling and separated multi-use paths. Examples abound in the Netherlands, Germany, Belgium…

Categories: Fall 2003

Engineering Physical Activity Back Into Americans’ Lives

From Citizen Planner: Planning and Physical Activity special issue. By Mark Fenton In recent months Americans have heard from the Surgeon General, the Secretary of Health and Human Services, and no less than the President himself that this nation is…

Categories: Fall 2003

Urban Planning For Active Living: Who Benefits?

By Kristin Day The US population is heavier than ever, with obesity and overweight reaching alarming levels. Inadequate physical activity explains at least part of this trend. As Thomas Halton explains elsewhere (see “Obesity Epidemic” in this issue), 22 percent…

Categories: Fall 2003

The Socialist City, Still

By Tom Angotti Some thirty years ago when Planners Network started, many progressive planners proposed or discussed socialist alternatives to capitalist urban development and planning. Central planning in the Soviet Union, China and the emerging socialist nations of Africa and…

Categories: Summer 2003

On the Practical Relevance of Marxist Thought

By Renee Toback Progressives and socialists get very different press today than we did thirty years ago. What is unchanged from thirty years ago, however, is the status of “socialism” in the United States and the usefulness of Marxist analysis.…

Categories: Summer 2003

Over 160 US Cities for Peace

By Eugene J. Patron More than 160 city and county councils in the US have passed resolutions opposing a preemptive or unilateral war in Iraq. This groundswell of local civic expression runs directly counter to claims by the Bush administration…

Categories: Spring 2003

War and the Urban “Geopolitical Footprint”

By Michael Dudley Mushroom clouds blossoming over dense cityscapes. Thousands of gun emplacements throughout Baghdad promising fierce resistance. Civilians killed by the hundreds in open marketplaces, in cars, in their homes. Brutal building-by-building urban warfare, with heritage sites thousands of…

Categories: Spring 2003

Nation’s Planners Condemn Sen. Lott Remarks

December 13, 2002 WASHINGTON, DC In an unusual move, the American Institute of Certified Planners (AICP) today condemned the remarks made by Senate Republican Leader Trent Lott of Mississippi on December 5 suggesting that the United States “wouldn’t have had…

Categories: Winter 2003

Fuel Cell Futility

By Chip Haynes Hey, big news: the federal government has stopped trying to get the American auto industry to build fuel-efficient gas cars and instead has hung its hat onto hydrogen fuel cells (HFCs). Yeah, well, it’s not like that…

Categories: Winter 2003

Imagine New York: Bringing Diverse Visions into View

By Penelope Duda and Eva Hanhardt The tragic events of September 11, 2001 profoundly affected us all. Within days property owners, politicians, the press and some planning and architecture professionals began to propose how the city and region should quickly…

Categories: Winter 2003

PN Magazine At One

By the Editors Tom Angotti, Eve Baron, Ann Forsyth, Kara Heffernan, Norma Rantisi This time last year, we produced the first issue of Planners Network Magazine. Instead of uncorking champagne or baking a birthday cake, we’d like you to join…

Categories: Winter 2003