Spring Retreat 2021
Two sessions of the 2021 TAPA Spring Retreat were recorded and are available to watch on-demand here.
For more information about past retreats, see our Past Conferences page.
During a session break, we asked planners what their favorite planning books were, who were some planners we should study, and what cities were the best planned in America outside of Tennessee. Though we are missing some due to a computer crash, below is the list. The results below are listed in the way they came in.
Favorite Planning Books
Death and Life of Great American Cities by Jane Jacobs (1961)
Local Planning: Contemporary Principles and Practice (the "green book") (last updated 2009)
Love Where You Live: Creating Emotionally Engaging Places by Peter Kageyama (2015)
The Great Good Place: Cafes, Coffee Shops, Bookstores, Bars, Hair Salons, and Other Hangouts at the Heart of a Community by Ray Oldenburg (1999)
The Image of the City by Kevin Lynch (1964)
Rural by Design: Planning for Town and Country by Randall Arendt (1994)
The Visual Display of Quantitative Information by Edward Tufte (1998)
Missing Middle Housing: Thinking Big and Building Small to Respond to Today’s Housing Crisis by Daniel G. Parolek (2020)
The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson (2003)
The High Cost of Free Parking by Donald Shoup (2005)
Willie's Way: 6 Secrets for Wooing, Wowing, and Winning Customers and Their Loyaltyby Phillip Van Hooser (2005)
Seven Rules for Sustainable Communities by Patrick M. Condon (2010)
The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our GovernmentSegregated America by Richard Rothstein (2017)
Difficult Conversations: How to Discuss What Matters Most by Douglas Stone, et al (1999)
Crabgrass Frontier: The Suburbanization of the United States by Kenneth Jackson (1985)
Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones by James Clear (2018)
Planners We All Should Study
Bill Terry (TAPA Lobbyist; several planning publications)
Norman Krumholz (Cleveland City Planning Director, 1969-1979; "Cleveland Plan")
Susan Christopherson (Chair or Cornell Department of City and Regional Planning; pioneer of economic geography)
Todd Litman (Head of Victoria Transport Policy Institute)
Mitchell Silver(Lead Planner in NYC and Raleigh; APA President, 2011-2013)
Byron Hanke (Chief of FHA Land Planning Division, 1945-1972; Urban Land Institute life council member)
Best Planned American Cities Outside of Tennessee
Sarasota, Florida (Map | Wikipedia)
Savannah, GA (Map | Wikipedia)
The Woodlands, Texas (Map | Wikipedia)
