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…
Planning a Refugee Camp
In 2010 the Commonwealth Association of Planners held its first Student Essay competition. The winners were Jeremiah Atho…
Kes Revisited – The welfare state and community in the late 1960s
Ken Loach’s film, Kes, was released in 1969. What does it tell us about life in a coalfield…
Place Identity, Participation and Planning
Link to buy
Regional and Local Economic Development
Link to buy
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.
Books
Some articles fromall categories:
International study of healthy cities and neighbourhoods launched
This itemwas first posted in 2018. A major project to compare urban practices in 14 cities will be led by a team based in Glasgow University in Scotland. A £7.1 million research project into urban conditions and practices has been awarded to Glasgow University. The money will be used to conduct research over a 4 year period,…
A Sense of Place – new futures for Public Markets
Ideas for reviving flagging public markets as places to shop, eat and meet were presented by experts at an international conference in Barcelona this week. With many public markets struggling to adapt to changing patterns of shopping the need for design and innovation has never been stronger, and the answer lies in creating a sense…
NOlympics or GlOlympics
This blog was first posted in December 2015. Klaus Kunzmann proposes a novel approach to staging the Olympic Games after Hamburg and Boston say “No”. Last week, in a referendum, the citizens of Hamburg voted against hosting the Olympics in 2024. To the surprise of the media and a very respected and supportive social democrat…
New Zealand’s planning system faces change
This was first posted in 2016. New Zealand’s right-wing minority government is amending the legislation that defines the planning system, to address what it calls problems with “cumbersome planning processes”. The Minister, Dr Nick Smith called it “a moderate reform Bill that will reduce the cost and delays for homeowners and businesses”. He introduced the…
Governance in metropolitan regions
A new publication that can be downloaded for free sets guidelines for how to plan and manage metropolitan development. Unpacking Metropolitan Governance for Sustainable Development argues that new governance structures are needed in metropolitan areas. It looks at at how and why metropolitan regions work – or not – and how effective metropolitan governance can be…
Urban post-2015 UN sustainable development goal update
Posted September 26, 2014 by cliffhague The ‘urban’ goal remains in the list that the UN general assembly is considering this week. As long as it gets through, then adoption next year should be a formality, unless some country really wants to make an issue about it. As not much information is available about this, and it is an issue…
Convenor, RTPI Scottish Branch, 1983
I was elected Convenor of the Scottish Branch of the RTPI for 1983. The picture shows how the Branch’s magazine reported it. Between 1975 and 1987 the Radical Institute Group (RIG) produced a manifesto backed by a slate of candidates in RTPI elections and also contested some Branch elections. In standing against the sitting vice-convenor…
Would you buy a Frank Lloyd Wright house to demolish it?
This item was first postedin June 2019. The Booth Cottage, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright in 1913, which is in Glencoe, Illinois, could become the third of his buildings to be demolished since 2004. The 882 square foot cottage may be tiny, but it sits on a large lot in an affluent Chicago suburb, which…
WUF10 – Global Planning Aid
This blog was posted ahead of the tenth World Urban Forum, in Abu Dhabi 8-13 February 2020. Despite many endorsements ofthe idea for Global Planning Aid at the WUF, it proved not possible to raise the pump-priming funding required to set up a pilot project in Banjul, The Gambia. The CHOGM planned for 2020 was…
Blow for Smart Cities as Toronto project is scrapped
The recent decision by Alphabet to scrap its ambitious waterfront regeneration project in Toronto is a landmark in the short history of smart cities. Sidewalk Labs’ Toronto Waterfront project was a flagship for the Smart Cities movement. Early in May 2020 it was abandoned. The germination, contestation and demise of the scheme will be mulled…