Bryan Robb
Bryan Robb

Urbanism

Posts tagged Urbanism.

TransportationUrbanism

The Future of Portland Transit Hangs in the Balance

The Oregonian podcast Beat Check recently shared an episode titled "A Perilous Moment for Portland Mass Transit" in which it highlighted the growing crisis facing TriMet, Portland's regional transit agency, as it grapples with declining ridership, financial strain, and public perception challenges. While crime on the system has dropped since the pandemic, fare evasion has nearly doubling from 15 percent in 2016 to close to 30 percent in 2024. The agency is pushing for an increase in the payroll

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HousingUrbanism

Portland Auditor Releases Progress Report for Residential Infill Project

In 2017, after about a decade in the affordable housing and community development industry, my career took a turn and I landed in a position as a long range planner in the Portland region. One of the very first projects I worked on was codifying and adopting changes related to Oregon Senate Bill 1051 of 2017. SB 1051 required communities with more than 10,000 people to remove certain barriers to housing production, including giving regulated affordable housing projects priority in the land use

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Urbanism

The Myth of the Walkable Corner Store

For decades, planners have envisioned small, pedestrian-friendly commercial hubs within residential neighborhoods. A local café, a small grocery store, or a retail shop embedded in a walkable area where people can meet their neighbors and run errands without driving. This concept is central to the growing 15-minute city movement, which aims to create neighborhoods where residents can access daily essentials—jobs, schools, parks, groceries—within a short walk or bike ride. As a leader in progres

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UrbanismHousing

Unraveling Urbanism: Housing, Advocacy, and the Battle for Better Cities

Land use planning has always faced scrutiny, but in recent years, the conversation has grown louder and more polarized. Social media and digital activism have brought more voices into the debate, leading to important discussions but also fueling misunderstandings about what planners do and the forces that shape our cities. Like many in my field, I became a planner to help create better places. In fact, very few of us enter the planning profession to defend outdated zoning, reinforce sprawl, or

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UrbanismBook Reviews

Death and Life: Rereading Jane Jacobs and the Legacy of Good Intentions

I recently finished rereading Jane Jacobs’ The Death and Life of Great American Cities. It wasn’t my first encounter with the book. I first read it in graduate school over 15 years ago. At the time, it was eye-opening. I wasn’t particularly familiar with the planning profession then, beyond a vague desire to make places better—a motivation that probably leads many people into the field. Having grown up in Saginaw, Michigan, I witnessed firsthand the fallout of deindustrialization. The once-thri

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Urbanism

Despite Our Best Intentions with Street Frontages

Automobiles are undeniably a significant part of American life. Consequently, accommodating them with roadways and parking lots has come to dominate much of the American built environment, often prioritizing convenience over aesthetics. In an effort to promote desirable outcomes like walkability and the revival of traditional commercial corridors, planners have tried to legislate specific design requirements. They can mandate that developers place parking lots behind buildings, construct structu

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Urbanism

What Planners Know vs. What Planners Do

Why talk about what urban planners know instead of what they actually do? Because more often than not, those two things do not align. To understand that gap, it helps to look first at the system planners work within. Most planners in the United States work within one of the country’s 89,000 local governments, each with its own set of rules, politics, and funding constraints. It is a slow-moving system shaped by history, bureaucracy, and competing interests. It is frustrating and messy, sometime

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