Perspectives

Why I was wrong about Willie and Houston

Responses to an essay on music and place lead a writer to reconsider his musical relationship with the two big cities he knows best — Los Angeles and Houston.

Why 'Born to Run' always makes me think of Houston

I know, it's weird — the thing about how music always associates with place. I first heard the Beach Boys on a snowy winter's day in my brother's chilly bedroom — and decades later became the mayor of a surf town. And even though I have been listening to "Born To Run" for 45 years, I now always associate it with a drive from Austin to Houston a few years ago.

5 lessons Trader Joe’s can teach the city of the future

Making the cities of tomorrow more resilient to pandemics and other threats won’t require completely rethinking planning and design as we know them, but it will require functional problem-solving, practical solutions, better data mining and analysis, and more flexibility. All of which have helped the beloved grocery store chain improve its bottom line during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Here’s how the Biden administration will be a boost for American cities

From an eviction moratorium to support for infrastructure, transportation and affordable housing, there are many moves President Joe Biden may make that will benefit cities. Here’s a look at some of them.

Do you have the ‘place gene’?

Urban planners and designers sometimes think they have an exclusive “lock” on an understanding of place. But in fact everybody can develop their own “place gene.”

In Houston, some want to see the mayor lose control — at least some of it

The city’s strong mayor has the power to set the City Council agenda, which means nothing can go before the council without the mayor’s OK. A coalition led by the fire union is trying to rein in that strength.

Big-city planners shouldn’t overlook the lessons of small-town design

Influenced by the Garden City movement, Badin, North Carolina, is a small gem of urban planning whose design called for green space, residential areas and commercial development in proportionate amounts. The planning of small towns like Badin can serve as an example for larger cities as they continue to grow.

Finding the small-scale urbanism his hometown lost to urban renewal

After a car-centric urban renewal plan irrevocably changed the town where he grew up, a young urbanist found the essence of Auburn, New York, in Southern California.

Urban renewal was supposed to save my hometown, instead it ripped it apart

A failed plan to breathe life back into the economy of the beautiful, walkable city where I grew up left it half the place it once was, broke my father’s heart and shaped me as an urbanist.

A car-free, bus-only street in NYC is a case study in transportation equity

The Miracle on 14th Street demonstrates how taking a tiny fraction of road space from car traffic and giving it to bus travel is inherently equitable. And charging a very high price to cars for using scarce road space promotes equity and safety.

Playing on fears of crime and poverty by playing up the myth of the suburbs

The image of the suburbs as being home to only white and wealthy residents whose ‘suburban lifestyle dream’ is being threatened doesn’t square with the reality of American life in 2020. Half of Black Americans live in the suburbs, which are much more diverse — both racially and economically — than many urban areas.

I vote because my father and grandfather couldn’t

Roland B. Smith Jr. is from Washington, D.C., whose residents weren’t allowed to vote in a presidential election until 1964. Growing up, his mother would travel almost 500 miles by bus or train from D.C. to Asheville, North Carolina, where she grew up, just to vote. Roland B. Smith Jr. always votes.

How to remove a statue rather than topple it

In the past four-plus months, many cities have been confronted with renewed outcries to remove offensive or ‘problem’ monuments that commemorate values of a bygone era. In some cases, these statues have been forcibly removed. In the latest essay in his ongoing series of stories about cities and why they are great, Bill Fulton revisits how Ventura, California, handled the controversy surrounding a statue of Father Junipero Serra.

Let’s fund parks like the essential infrastructure they are

Great public spaces are equitable places that bring people who are not the same together. Cities need to think bigger when it comes to funding parks, trails, libraries and other civic assets because the return on investment can be huge.

Pandemic pivot: My favorite street is closed to cars — but open to people

Main Street in Ventura, California, which has been closed to cars and opened to restaurants and other businesses affected by the coronavirus, is my favorite street. This essay is both a discussion of what makes a great street and a personal reminiscence about what this particular street means to me.