The lead article in this issue is Stephanie Ryberg-Webster's ``Preserving Downtown America: Federal Rehabilitation Tax Credits and the Transformation of U.S. Cities." She examines the use of federal tax credits in 10 diverse U.S. cities and finds the credits to be an important tool in downtown revitalization efforts. She concludes that the tax credits should be part of the planners’ toolkit for addressing downtown development; planners should also work to remove regulatory barriers to the adaptive reuse of older buildings and refrain from demolishing older buildings that can be rehabilitated.
In ``Collaborative Planning for Clean Energy Initiatives in Small to Mid-Sized Cities," Damian Pitt and Ellen Bassett describe their survey of a number of such cities, seeking to identify the types of clean energy initiatives they had adopted and the reasons and processes behind those decisions. They find that many cities are actively pursuing clean energy options in municipal operations, but far fewer are promoting community-wide clean energy measures. They suggest that cities should focus first on investments in municipal facilities, then develop community-wide programs that focus initially on financial incentives and emphasize nonenvironmental benefits as well. Above all, for the best outcome, local strategies should be developed through collaborative planning processes that have multiple benefits.
Thomas W. Lester, Nikhil Kaza, and Sarah Kirk's ``Making Room for Manufacturing: Understanding Industrial Land Conversion in Cities" focuses on the competition for land in growing cities. Lester et al. contend that planners need better information on the pressures that lead to the conversion of former industrial land to housing and other purposes. Using an index of vulnerability in Cook County (IL) and Mecklenburg County (NC), they show how specific factors lead to conversion of industrial land to other uses and suggest how policies that attempt to preserve manufacturing land function. Lester et al. argue that local governments need to be strategic about which manufacturing industries should be preserved.
Bumsoo Lee and Yongsung Lee suggest in their article ``Complementary Pricing and Land Use Policies: Does It Lead to Higher Transit Use?" that a shift toward greater use of public transit requires both the adequate pricing of the true costs of driving as well as supportive land use policies, although proponents of each approach rarely understand their complementarity. Studying the interaction effects of gasoline prices and land use policy elements in 67 urbanized areas, they find that while doubling gas prices would increase transit ridership by more than 8% in areas with no regional containment policies, the impact would be much greater in areas that did have such policies, and even greater still in areas adopting a package of smart growth land use options. Lee and Lee conclude that the impact of urban form on travel behavior is strengthened when the costs of driving are more correctly priced.
Finally, this issue concludes with a rejoinder to Gregory Pierce and Donald Shoup on their Winter 2013 article on the innovative SFpark San Francisco parking program (``Getting the Prices Right: An Evaluation of Pricing Parking by Demand in San Francisco," Vol. 79, No. 1). Adam Millard-Ball, Rachel Weinberger, and Robert Hampshire challenge both the findings and methods Pierce and Shoup used. Pierce and Shoup respond, defending their methods and conclusions.