Planning and Land Use

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How We Rated Cities

For this ranking, the data analyzed included park percentage per total city land area (from the Trust for Public Land) as well as a sprawl ranking developed by Smart Growth America in a 2002 study of US cities. SustainLane primary research of cities' pedestrian and bicycle access and planning, transit-oriented development and regional planning efforts rounded out the final rankings.

2008 Rankings

2008 Rankings

New York ranks number one overall in planning, with about 20 percent of its land devoted to parks, combined with a sprawl rating that is best out of the nation's top 50 cities. San Francisco, Portland, Boston, Albuquerque, Austin and New Orleans follow.

Although Atlanta ranks low in park space this time around, we look forward to seeing the city's finished "BeltLine" greenspace, trails, transit, and new development project light a fire under the city's future planning/ land use ranking.

Reference Material

Future city planning students and deep down urbanists, don’t miss:

Cities trailing in the Planning/Land Use category may benefit from reading NAC's interview with James Kunstler and Nikos Salingaros, "Respect for the Human Scale." Every city in our survey can and will probably be doing better in this category by the time you read this page. Some cities are advantaged by historical circumstance; others have plenty of room for improvement. Let the race for more parks and walkable neighborhoods begin!

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Which is the greater danger - nuclear warfare or the population explosion? The latter absolutely! To bring about nuclear war, someone has to DO something; someone has to press a button. To bring about destruction by overcrowding, mass starvation, anarchy, the destruction of our most cherished values-there is no need to do anything. We need only do nothing except what comes naturally - and breed. And how easy it is to do nothing. —Dr. Isaac Asimov

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