Dwelling Small: Breaking down barriers to compact living

Dwelling Small

Green Infrastructure: Let’s get spongy!

Green infrastructure encompasses a range of innovative, nature-based solutions, such as green roofs, rain gardens, permeable pavements, and bioswales. These approaches work in harmony with the environment to manage stormwater, reduce urban heat island effects, and promote biodiversity. By integrating green infrastructure into urban planning, we can make our communities more resilient, sustainable, and adaptable to the challenges of a changing climate.

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The Shifting Boomer Bulge: Under-appreciated impacts could make the current housing crisis worse

This is the second part of a two-part conversation with Arthur C. (Christian “Chris”) Nelson, professor emeritus of urban planning and real estate development at the University of Arizona, as well as presidential professor emeritus of city and metropolitan planning at the University of Utah. Part One is available here.

More about Dr. Nelson and a link to the paper that inspired this conversation at the bottom of this post.

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The Shifting Boomer Bulge: More bad news for America’s housing crisis?

This is the first part of a two-part conversation with Arthur C. (Christian “Chris”) Nelson, professor emeritus of urban planning and real estate development at the University of Arizona, as well as presidential professor emeritus of city and metropolitan planning at the University of Utah. Part Two is available here.

More about Dr. Nelson and a link to the paper that inspired this conversation at the bottom of this post.

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Lessons from the Pandemic: Housing, Retail, Broadband

This is the second in a series of conversations about what comes next in local government policies and processes. Geoff Koski is president of the Bleakly Advisory Group, providing advice to real estate professionals, governments, and non-profit organizations dealing with a wide- range of real estate and economic development-related issues. Read the first post in this series here.

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After the Plague: Go Big or Go Backwards?

This is the first of several posts planned for the next few weeks on lessons we’re learning from the pandemic and how local and regional governments might respond – not only to the crisis itself, but also to weaknesses in policies and processes COVID-19 exposed.

Let’s start with an understatement: Community development leaders – whether they’re in government, non-profits, or the private sector — are likely to remember this time as the most challenging of their lives. Every hard choice is harder, every strategy fraught with uncertainty.

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Climate Change Update, Part II: Leveraging “The Biggest Little Things”

“The best strategies are the ones that can be implemented.”

That’s a reminder from Jim Fox, director of NEMAC, the National Environmental Modeling and Analysis Center at the University of North Carolina Asheville. Taking ideas to meaningful action is the bottom-line test of any plan. And it applies particularly to what is arguably humankind’s biggest challenge ever: the struggle to cope with the impacts of climate change.

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