City Beautiful

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The Dallas-Fort Worth Metro Area recently crossed the 8,000,000 people threshold. It's one of the fastest-growing areas of the U.S. What is fueling that growth?

Resources on this topic:

- https://www.oklahoman.com/story/news/2021/09/16/native-american-how-did-texas-push-out-native-americans-monument-sparks-look-past/8256336002/

- https://www.nps.gov/bith/learn/historyculture/oil-gas-industry.htm

- https://www.dallasnews.com/business/real-estate/2017/06/02/tall-tales-and-big-holes-are-part-of-dallas-skyscraper-lore/

- https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/how-u-s-oil-production-reached-an-all-time-high-in-2023

- https://www.dallasfed.org/research/heart/dallas

- https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/j.2325-8012.2008.tb00856.x?casa_token=8ZK9Hp7EdmQAAAAA%3Ag0Ex0X8M4p2k3IzmpA_efmPPswamr7xB5IC6o9SIDvRwJs5p_Ddr0ycRIrRTAx8sTxPIZYsRGV8R-g

- https://kinder.rice.edu/urbanedge/texas-cities-are-sprawling-ever-theyre-also-more-dense

- https://www.dallasnews.com/business/autos/2024/06/25/how-bad-is-traffic-in-dallas-one-study-says-its-only-getting-worse/

- https://www.dmagazine.com/urbanism-transportation/2018/06/how-dallas-paved-a-future-of-growth-inequality-and-crisis/

Produced by Dave Amos and the fine folks at Nebula Studios.
Written by Dave Amos.
Select images and video from Getty Images.
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City planners, community members, and decision makers all must decide how the land within their cities should be used. This video discusses the tools and plans used to make those decisions.

This is part of the new "Basics" series. Four more videos to come!

This video is funded by the Cal Poly Research, Scholarly, and Creative Activities Grant program. Thanks!

Produced by Dave Amos and the fine folks at Nebula Studios.
Written by Dave Amos and Sullivan Israel.
Motion Graphics by Anagha Kulkarni and Subha Eranki.
Select images and video from Getty Images.
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Visit: https://aap.cornell.edu/JoinCRP to sign up for an info session. Learn more about getting a Bachelor's or Master's degree from Cornell University's Department of City and Regional Planning!

Drive thru lanes may be convenient, but some cities are labeling them as nuisances. They cause traffic, generate emissions, and can cause restaurants to abandon in-person dining. Should they be banned, or is that too far?

Nebula subscribers, I have a Discord! https://discord.gg/UmNMyDsy

Resources on this topic:

Drive-Thru Dreams: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1250090725/?bestFormat=true&k=drive%20thru%20dreams%20book&ref_=nb_sb_ss_w_scx-ent-pd-bk-d_de_k0_1_17&crid=3R8SIK48YZVW3&sprefix=drive%20thru%20dreams

- https://www.sacbee.com/news/nation-world/national/article259313669.html

- https://charlotteledger.substack.com/p/lets-tackle-charlottes-chick-fil

- https://www.johnfry.com/pages/JackintheBox.html

- https://atomicredhead.com/2022/03/24/a-bite-of-hot-dog-history-at-the-first-wienerschnitzel/

- https://cityobservatory.org/drive-thrus-are-ruining-cities-and-helping-kill-the-planet/

- https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/eda2/c11f55a6590adf2c0aa680146cbda1821c81.pdf
-https://files.dep.state.pa.us/Energy/Office%20of%20Energy%20and%20Technology/lib/energy/docs/climatechangeadvcom/transportation/121708/tbr_drive-thru_idling.pdf

- https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S089040650200052X

- https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S135382921930735X

- https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0277953611005636

- https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1186/s12889-018-5061-1.pdf

- https://www.planning.org/planning/2020/apr/is-fast-food-through-with-drive-thrus/

Produced by Dave Amos and the fine folks at Nebula Studios.
Written by Dave Amos.
Select images and video from Getty Images.
Black Lives Matter.
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Walt Disney World Resort is huge — it consists of four theme parks, 27 hotels with 21 thousand rooms, over 30 thousand parking spaces, shopping, water parks, and all of the backstage areas needed to run such a massive operation. Walt Disney World is set on 27,000 acres in central Florida — roughly the size of the city of San Francisco. It’s also the most visited resort in the world. It’s impressive size and record setting visitor attendance are amazing. For sure. But what might be even more amazing, particularly if you are a city planning nerd like me, is the special district that grants the company unprecedented powers over its land and municipal services.

This video was heavily based on:

Chad D. Emerson, Merging Public and Private Governance: How Disney's Reedy Creek Improvement District "Re-Imagined" The Traditional Division of Local Regulatory Powers, 36 FLA. ST. U. L. REV. 177 (2009).

Video sources:
- Archive.org

Photo sources:
- Orlando Sentinel
- Wikimedia Commons

Produced in sunny Sacramento, California. Filmed on location in Walt Disney World.

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Watch this video on Nebula: https://nebula.tv/videos/citybeautiful-the-case-against-oneway-streets

One-way streets are everywhere in our street grids, moving cars fast through cities, often to highway on-ramps and off-ramps. But cities have increasingly been converting them back to two-way traffic. Why?

Resources on this topic:

- Ortigosa, J., Gayah, V. V., & Menendez, M. (2019). Analysis of one-way and two-way street configurations on urban grid networks. Transportmetrica B: transport dynamics.
- Riggs, W., & Gilderbloom, J. I. H. (2017). How multi-lane, one-way street design shapes neighbourhood life: collisions, crime and community. Local Environment, 22(8), 917-933.
- Riggs, W., & Gilderbloom, J. (2016). Two-way street conversion: Evidence of increased livability in Louisville. Journal of Planning Education and Research, 36(1), 105-118.

Produced by Dave Amos and the fine folks at Nebula Studios.
Written by Dave Amos.
Select images and video from Getty Images.
Black Lives Matter.
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Watch this video on Nebula: https://nebula.tv/videos/citybeautiful-can-trains-save-seattle

Seattle passed Sound Transit 3, an ambitious plan to build new frequent transit routes and expand others. Can transit-oriented development around the stations help the region out of its housing affordability crisis?

Check out The Urbanist: https://www.theurbanist.org
Donate to The Urbanist here: https://the-urbanist.fundjournalism.org/donate/

Resources on this topic:
- https://www.soundtransit.org/sites/default/files/documents/west-seattle-and-ballard-link-extensions-station-planning-progress-report-interbay.pdf

- https://www.psrc.org/sites/default/files/2022-02/vision-2050-intro.pdf

-https://www.seattle.gov/documents/Departments/OPCD/SeattlePlan/OneSeattlePlanDraftPlan2024.pdf

- https://www.planetizen.com/news/2024/09/131817-seattle-launches-new-rapid-bus-line

- https://www.soundtransit.org/system-expansion/federal-way-link-extension

- https://www.theurbanist.org/2021/11/05/transit-oriented-development-planned-for-kent-des-moines-station-additional-feedback-sought/

- https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/6660afcf06e288d8f25a1b3c/6660afcf06e288d8f25a1c58_Seattle Downtown Action Plan - Full Plan - Accessible.pdf

- https://www.theurbanist.org/2023/09/27/seattle-council-approves-batch-of-harrells-downtown-activation-plan-rezones/

- https://cdn.kingcounty.gov/-/media/king-county/depts/executive-services/facilities-management/documents/cci-king-county-civic-ground-20240802.pdf?rev=1e6a585e20c24217870f9b388fae5732&sc_lang=en&hash=3DAFD58A39C1168E0B4D45A82CA72367

Produced by Dave Amos and the fine folks at Nebula Studios.
Written by Dave Amos.
Select images and video from Getty Images.
Black Lives Matter.
Trans rights.

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There’s an ongoing mystery that planners and urban historians have been trying to solve for over 100 years. How did an amateur planner forego centuries of established city design and implement a pattern that resulted in one of the most charming, walkable historic centers in the U.S.? For many, it’s just too hard to believe that he designed it out of thin air — there must’ve been an obvious precedent. Scholars have been searching for this precedent to solve this mystery since the 1800s.

The Making of Urban America, by John Reps: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0691006180/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0691006180&linkCode=as2&tag=cookfrie-20&linkId=808173f37c1a1e52494a3541e3e94a88

Resources on this topic:
http://savannahurbanstudies.blogspot.com/2007/02/urban-planning-in-savannah-past-and.html
Oglethorpe's Sources for the Savannah Plan, Bannister, 1961: http://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/988103.pdf

Savannah video courtesy of Archive.org's Moving Image Archive

Photo sources:
- Wikimedia Commons
- Flickr user Steven Martin

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I do three things in this video. First - I explain what Agenda 21 REALLY is. Second, I describe smart growth, the city planning concept that Agenda 21 promotes. And finally, I give you my explanation for why smart growth became tangled in a conspiracy theory that also relates to climate change denial and fears of a one world government.

Resources on this topic:

Obama Will Abolish the Suburbs? (Slate):
http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/onearth/2013/03/agenda_21_no_the_government_isn_t_going_to_confiscate_your_property.html

Anti-Government Conspiracy Theorists Rail Against UN's Agenda 21 Program (Southern Poverty Law Center):
https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/intelligence-report/2012/antigovernment-conspiracy-theorists-rail-against-un’s-agenda-21-program

I Got Duped by Glenn Beck (Salon.com):
http://www.salon.com/2012/11/19/i_got_duped_by_glenn_beck/

Agenda 21 Revealed (Conspiracy theorist website):
http://guardianlv.com/2013/09/agenda-21-revealed-you-need-to-know-this/

Agenda 21: Conspiracy Theory or Real Threat? (Conspiracy theory website):
https://townhall.com/columnists/rachelalexander/2011/07/02/agenda-21-conspiracy-theory-or-real-threat-n1080301

U.N. Agenda 21 - Coming to a Neighborhood Near You (Conspiracy theory website):
http://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2009/10/un_agenda_21_coming_to_a_neigh.html

Video sources:
- Videoblocks.com

Photo sources:
- Flickr user Beyond DC
- Flickr user National Renewable Energy Lab
- Flickr user Number 10
- Flickr user Reg Natarajan
- The United Nations
- Wikimedia Commons user Gage Skidmore

Music sources:
- Metaphysik by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)
Source: http://incompetech.com/music/royalty-free/index.html?isrc=USUAN1400056
Artist: http://incompetech.com/

Filmed in sunny Sacramento, California.

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Sea level rise viewer (U.S. only, sorry international plan fans): https://coast.noaa.gov/slr/

Sea level rise could submerge land currently home to up to 760 million people worldwide if global temperatures rise 4 degrees celsius by the year 2100. So what are cities and city planners going to do to minimize the potential devastation?

Resources on this topic:

Brecht, H., Dasgupta, S., Laplante, B., Murray, S., & Wheeler, D. (2012). Sea-Level Rise and Storm Surges: High Stakes for a Small Number of Developing Countries. The Journal of Environment & Development, 21(1), 120–138. https://doi.org/10.1177/1070496511433601
http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.940.7848&rep=rep1&type=pdf

"Climate change crusade goes local" By Doug Struck
https://www.csmonitor.com/Environment/2015/0809/Climate-change-crusade-goes-local

Hauer, M. E., Evans, J. M., & Mishra, D. R. (2016). Millions projected to be at risk from sea-level rise in the continental United States. Nature Climate Change, 6(7), 691–695. https://doi.org/10.1038/nclimate2961

"9 Popular Cities Losing War with Rising Seas"
https://www.seeker.com/9-popular-cities-losing-war-with-rising-seas-1767623708.html

"Shanghai Struggles to Save Itself From the Sea" by Coco Liu
http://www.nytimes.com/cwire/2011/09/27/27climatewire-shanghai-struggles-to-save-itself-from-the-s-43368.html?pagewanted=all

"From Miami to Shanghai: 3C of warming will leave world cities below sea level" by Jonathan Watts
https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2017/nov/03/miami-shanghai-3c-warming-cities-underwater

"The three-degree world: the cities that will be drowned by global warming" by Josh Holder, Niko Kommenda, and Jonathan Watts
https://www.theguardian.com/cities/ng-interactive/2017/nov/03/three-degree-world-cities-drowned-global-warming

"Mapping Choices: Carbon, Climate, and Rising Seas, Our Global Legacy" by Climate Central
http://sealevel.climatecentral.org/uploads/research/Global-Mapping-Choices-Report.pdf

"The Rise of Resilience: Linking Resilience and Sustainability in City Planning" by Timon McPhearson
https://static1.squarespace.com/static/552ec5f5e4b07754ed72c4d2/t/5550a70ae4b0134fb5a0bcf6/1431349002346/mcphearson+2014c_the+nature+of+cities.pdf

"Shanghai takes measures against rising sea levels"
https://gbtimes.com/shanghai-takes-measures-against-rising-sea-levels

Photo sources:
- Wikimedia Commons

Produced in sunny Sacramento, California.

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Produced by Dave Amos and the fine folks at Nebula Studios.
Written by Dave Amos.
Select images and video from Getty Images.
Black Lives Matter.
Trans rights.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices