Impacts of AirBnB regulation in New York
New York has long been a money spinner for AirBnB. In January 2023 there were 38,500 listings. As…
New York has long been a money spinner for AirBnB. In January 2023 there were 38,500 listings. As…
In 2010 the Commonwealth Association of Planners held its first Student Essay competition. The winners were Jeremiah Atho…
Ken Loach’s film, Kes, was released in 1969. What does it tell us about life in a coalfield…
Cliff is a freelance consultant, researcher, author and trainer. He was the Chair of the Cockburn Association 2016 – 2023.
He is Professor Emeritus of Planning and Spatial Development at Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh.
He is a Past President of the Royal Town Planning Institute, and of the Commonwealth Association of Planners.
He is a past Chair of Built Environment Forum Scotland.
He was awarded the O.B.E. in the 2016 Birthday Honours.
his blog was first posted on the Planning Resource website on 14 June 2011. After spending a month in the USA (the reason for the lack of recent blogs) I have really begun to grasp the scale of the housing market crisis there. The sub-prime US mortgage market triggered the global economic crisis in 2007-8.…
Walking the streets of Dublin, you are never far from the brash excesses of the Celtic Tiger era – or from the havoc that the banking crisis has brought. Just as remarkable is the spirit that seems to have sustained the city, and not least the planners in their attempts to build a recovery. Where…
Planners on an innovative post-graduate course in Zambia are being trained to understand how informal development operates and how to deliver pro-poor planning. The scale of the challenges in rapidly urbanising African cities is familiar. What is less common is the direct engagement of planning students with the day to day realities of life in…
This blog was first posted in February 2020. For my blog on the opening day of the 2010 WUF click here. Can we break the glass ceiling dividing community action and government action? On the second day of the 2020 UN-Habitat World Urban Forum, I have sensed a divide between the actions of governments in…
This blog was first posted in February 2018. South Africa is engaging fully with the New Urban Agenda, and posing some fundamental questions about what it means to be a planner in today’s world. Confession: I only went into one session at the World Urban Forum today. Lest it seems that I was skipping classes,…
This blog was first posted in January 2018. At an Innovation Circle Network conference in December 2017 I spoke about China’s One Belt One Road vision. This blog sketches and comments on this ambitious transnational project. In January 2017 the East Wind arrived in London. The freight train’s journey had taken 16 days and covered 12,000kms from…
Public markets add greatly to the vitality of cities and provide essential goods and jobs for many people. They are an integreal part of our urban cultural heritage across all the continents. Yet a number of these markets are now at risk warns a new study. The Sustainable Cities Collective warns of a number of threats…
Urban This blog was first posted on the Planning Resource website on 16 December 2011. Looking at planning and economic development from a global perspective, 2011 was a year that posed more questions than it answered. At the level of headlines, there was little to raise the spirits or to make you confident that the…