Planning on The Edge: Conversations with North American Planning Directors
A conversation with the Planning Directors of six of North America's most innovative cities, including San Francisco, San Diego, Portland, Seattle, Vancouver, and New York.
1:24 PM PST on November 2, 2009
A conversation with the Planning Directors of six of North America’s most innovative cities, including San Francisco, San Diego, Portland, Seattle, Vancouver, and New York.
Before he began blogging about land use and transportation, Aaron Donovan wrote The New York Times Neediest Cases Fund's annual fundraising appeal for three years and earned a master's degree in urban planning from Columbia. Since then, he has worked for nonprofit organizations devoted to New York City economic development. He lives and works in the Financial District, and sees New York's pre-automobile built form as an asset that makes New York unique in the United States, and as a strategic advantage that should be capitalized upon.
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