American Planning Association

Planners can design places for many purposes: to promote commerce, to protect us from natural disasters, to uplift historical significance. As mental health and social relationships become increasingly significant, new questions rise to the top: What about planning for the way people feel? How can planners better understand how environments impact well-being and then learn to shape more joyful, healing spaces? In this episode of People Behind the Plans, Megan Oliver, AICP, WELL AP, founder of Hello Happy Design, discusses how the intersection of neuroscience and planning — called neurourbanism — can provide planners with the necessary tools to design places for social and emotional health. Oliver also speaks to the rising awareness of neurodiversity and how we can change our assumptions about how community members engage with the people and places around them. This episode was sponsored by Nexus at University of Michigan Episode URL: https://planning.org/podcast/megan-oliver-on-how-to-plan-for-happiness-in-cities/

The history of planning includes racist policies and practices that have resulted in entrenched inequity and enduring systemic barriers. Understanding the complexities and impacts of those barriers is necessary to dismantling ingrained inequalities and achieving transformative change. A recent edition of the Journal of the American Planning Association (JAPA) called “Antiracist Futures: Disrupting Racist Planning Practices in Workplaces, Institutions, and Communities” centers racial justice in the planning field, documenting the current state of the profession and planning education, and offering tangible strategies for implementing anti-racist practices that are adaptable and responsive. In this episode of People Behind the Plans, JAPA contributors Rashad Williams, Assistant Professor of Race and Social Justice in Public Policy at the University of Pittsburgh, and Anaid Yerena, Associate Professor of Urban Studies at the University of Washington, Tacoma, speak about anti-racist community planning concepts that lay the foundation for planners to reckon with history, disrupt the status quo and find new ways to pursue equity in every community. Episode URL: https://planning.org/podcast/anaid-yerena-and-rashad-williams-on-building-an-equitable-future-of-planning/

Jewell Littles Walton is an urban planning and real estate professional with a career spanning multiple decades. She joins Dina Walters, a member of APA's Prioritize Equity team, for this special episode to share the story of uncovering her family’s connection to the early 20th century Greenwood neighborhood in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Greenwood was known as “Black Wall Street”, one of the most prosperous African-American communities in the United States, and was home to one of the nation’s worst race massacres. Episode URL: https://planning.org/podcast/rediscovering-roots-planner-jewell-littles-walton-uncovers-family-ties-to-tulsas-black-wall-street/

When it comes to essential services and the stakeholders of a city, music and the people who make up a music ecosystem may not always be mentioned in the same breath as utilities and schools or residents and businesses. But music can enhance quality of life and plays an important role in generating prosperity for people, organizations and cities as a whole when it coexists harmoniously among its neighbors. Shain Shapiro has dedicated the last decade to helping cities embrace the value of music and plan for it with thoughtful policies. He wrote about his experience in his debut book, This Must Be the Place: How Music Can Make Your City Better. In this episode, Shapiro joins host Meghan Stromberg to discuss how planners can champion music policy in cities, as well as a case study of an American city that took a strategic approach to incorporating music in its long-term plan. Episode URL: https://planning.org/podcast/shain-shapiro-on-taylor-swift-and-the-benefits-of-a-music-policy-for-your-city/

Addressing systemic racism and entrenched inequity has become an imperative for many institutions. Planners are in a unique position to make a big course correction on equity through comprehensive planning — if they embrace the opportunity to lead. On this episode of People Behind the Plans, Taiwo Jaiyeoba joins host Meghan Stromberg to talk about leading zoning reform efforts in Charlotte and Greensboro, North Carolina, both as a planning director and in his current role as city manager. He also shares his tips for winning over naysayers and his thoughts on what makes a good comprehensive plan. Episode URL: https://planning.org/podcast/taiwo-jaiyeoba-on-how-planners-can-lead-through-zoning-reform-and-by-crafting-equitable-comprehensive-plans/

It seems the word “unprecedented” has been used so often to describe everything from the weather to public health in recent years that the only certainty is uncertainty. This makes the job of urban planners especially difficult as they try to anticipate what their cities will need in the decades to come. In the business world, a type of modeling called exploratory scenario planning (XSP) has been helping companies cope with volatility for decades. Now the idea is gaining traction among planners, thanks to the work of researchers like Robert Goodspeed, AICP. In this episode, APA Research Manager Joe DeAngelis, AICP, sits down with Goodspeed to talk about how XSP can help planners bring together disparate stakeholders and variables to build robust plans that can help cities prepare for whatever comes next — be it rain, shine, boom or bust. Episode URL: https://planning.org/podcast/robert-goodspeed-on-how-exploratory-scenario-planning-helps-imagine-uncertain-futures/

The average person on the street may not know what a planning professional does, but they probably have opinions on traffic, housing, and the many other elements of daily life that planners influence. Planner Dave Amos bet on that natural curiosity when he started his planning-focused YouTube channel “City Beautiful” 10 years ago. Since then, he’s seen the community of planning content creators grow on social media and says they’re feeding an appetite that’s been there all along. This episode, Amos sits down with People Behind the Plans host Meghan Stromberg at the 2023 National Planning Conference to talk about his own fortuitous route to the profession, why he’s telling the planning story in exciting, new ways, and how planners can lean into social media to connect with their communities. Episode URL: https://planning.org/podcast/youtuber-and-planner-dave-amos-on-teaching-a-crash-course-in-urban-planning-one-video-at-a-time/

In this APA podcast - part of the Planning for Equity series - Bobby Boone, founder and chief strategist of &Access, discusses economic development strategies for combatting displacement of small minority-owned businesses. Boone shares how planners can work with small businesses, what to look out for, and how to engage owners. Episode URL: https://planning.org/podcast/planning-to-ensure-longevity-for-small-minority-owned-businesses/

In this APA podcast - part of the Planning for Equity series - Daniel Besinaiz, senior comprehensive planner at the City of Colorado Springs, shares his somewhat unexpected and personal journey on learning to celebrate and embrace his Latino heritage. Hear how Daniel re-connected with his roots and applies inspiration from his heritage into his current planning work. Finally, hear how being a part of the Latinos and Planning Division has helped with his journey. Episode URL: https://planning.org/podcast/embracing-heritage-how-culture-influences-your-planning-work/

Three-plus decades after the Americans with Disabilities Act was passed, the built environment remains a maze of obstacles. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than one in four Americans live with a disability. Despite what many think, disability isn’t a rare experience for only people on the edges of society — and planning for it has collateral benefits that improve quality of life for everyone. Rebekah Taussig, advocate and author of Sitting Pretty: The View From My Ordinary, Resilient, Disabled Body, has been navigating the world from her wheelchair since she was 6 years old. She recalls feeling like everyone else created their own narratives for her life. In this episode of People Behind the Plans we sit down with Taussig before her keynote address at APA’s National Planning Conference. She explains how storytelling has allowed her to reclaim the narrative of her own life and help others understand how isolating, cumbersome, unjust, and unsustainable our cities and our culture are for people with disabilities. Listen to hear her vision for a world designed with everyone in mind — not just those considered “average” — and some communication tips for planners trying to build support for their visions. Episode URL: https://planning.org/podcast/disability-advocate-rebekah-taussig-on-built-environment-barriers-you-might-not-see/ This episode is sponsored by AARP

Every two years, the American Planning Association Transportation Planning Division publishes the State of Transportation Planning Report with the intention of highlighting innovative ideas, cutting-edge research, and interesting experiments in transportation planning in the United States. As part of the 2022 edition of the report - titled “Intersections + Identities: A Radical Rethinking of Our Transportation Experiences" - we’re bringing you a series of critical conversations with pioneers and industry leaders across the US who are offering their insights into some of the most challenging issues facing our field. In this episode we hear from Misty Klann and Cole Grisham, who are both closely involved in managing the Federal Highway Administration's Transportation Planning in Tribal Communities Research Study. This research seeks to align available planning analysis tools with Tribal community needs based on a range of contextual factors, and to quantify the benefits of planning analysis in the project selection and delivery processes. The findings are intended to contribute to Tribal communities deciding how best to optimize the funding made available through the Tribal Transportation Program. Episode URL: https://planning.org/podcast/critical-conversations-in-transportation-planning-misty-klann-and-cole-grisham/

Philadelphia is a public art epicenter — and not by chance. The city has long institutionalized investment in local muralists through programs like Mural Arts Philadelphia, a nonprofit created in 1998 by artist and executive director Jane Golden. Through more than 4,000 murals, the program has helped residents celebrate identity, tackle issues like environmental justice, and paint the change they want to see. In this episode of People Behind the Plans, Golden shares the community engagement strategies that help Mural Arts reflect the creativity, concerns, and perspectives of its diverse city. We also discuss ways planners can partner with local arts programs to infuse their projects with public art. Episode URL: https://planning.org/podcast/mural-arts-philadelphia-jane-golden-planning-and-public-art-ignite-change/ Episode Sponsor: Nexus at University of Michigan

Every two years, the American Planning Association Transportation Planning Division publishes the State of Transportation Planning Report with the intention of highlighting innovative ideas, cutting-edge research, and interesting experiments in transportation planning in the United States. As part of the 2022 edition of the report - titled “Intersections + Identities: A Radical Rethinking of Our Transportation Experiences" - we’re bringing you a series of critical conversations with pioneers and industry leaders across the US who are offering their insights into some of the most challenging issues facing our field. In this episode, we hear from Tamika Butler, a national expert on issues related to public policy, the built environment, equity, anti-racism, diversity and inclusion, organizational behavior, and change management, who wears many hats (and bike helmets!). The conversation covers a wide range of topics related to Tamika's research, which employs a critical race, historical, legal, and policy-based approach to examine how transportation policy and infrastructure have been used to segregate, isolate, and prevent the mobility of Black and other historically oppressed groups of people. Tamika is the principal and founder of Tamika L. Butler Consulting and a doctoral student in Urban Planning at UCLA’s Luskin School of Public Affairs. Episode URL: https://planning.org/podcast/critical-conversations-in-transportation-planning-tamika-butler/

As the old saying goes, “when all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail.” For decades, zoning has been the hammer swung by cities at a laundry list of challenges. But this blunt tool, developed to regulate land use and density, has had profound collateral damage, planner Nolan Gray argues. Cities and planners have long been constrained by a zoning “straitjacket,” he says, preventing them from solving the problems that plague communities today: housing affordability, sprawl, segregation, environmental concerns. How can we reverse that trend? Gray’s new book, Arbitrary Lines, looks for answers in the form of zoning reform. “My argument in the book is, yes, zoning has failed, and we should abolish zoning. But it’s not a pure deregulation argument. It’s a ‘we’re-regulating-the-wrong-things' argument. I actually do think planners have a hugely important role to play in the impacts of new development.” —Nolan Gray, Planner and Author of Arbitrary Lines In this special episode of the People Behind the Plans podcast, Gray sits down with guest host Jason Jordan, APA’s director of public affairs, to examine the cities and states charting a new course for zoning reform — and offer advice for planners navigating the myriad interests impacting land use decisions. Episode URL: https://planning.org/podcast/arbitrary-lines-author-nolan-gray-on-zoning-reform-and-hitting-plannings-reset-button/

Every two years, the American Planning Association Transportation Planning Division publishes the State of Transportation Planning Report with the intention of highlighting innovative ideas, cutting-edge research, and interesting experiments in transportation planning in the United States. As part of the 2022 edition of the report - titled “Intersections + Identities: A Radical Rethinking of Our Transportation Experiences" - we’re bringing you a series of critical conversations with pioneers and industry leaders across the US who are offering their insights into some of the most challenging issues facing our field. In this podcast episode, we’ll hear from Judy Shanley, a Project Director with the National Office of Easterseals in Chicago, and Claire Stanley, a Public Policy Analyst at the National Disability Rights Network (NDRN). Their conversation brings forth insightful ideas and guidance on how transportation professionals can reimagine how we plan for maximum mobility and accessibility in our transportation infrastructure and beyond. Advertisement: APA Passport Episode URL: https://planning.org/podcast/critical-conversations-in-transportation-planning-judy-shanley-and-claire-stanley/