This article examines the complementarity of livability and sustainability at a theoretical level but recognizes that linkage in practice is complex. Connection between these concepts is examined through the analysis of comprehensive plans in fourteen jurisdictions in the Mississippi Gulf Coast, where a federally funded regional planning process was initiated to create “livable sustainability.” Results show variation in local plan compliance with the livable sustainability guidelines in the region, with particular challenge integrating nontraditional planning concerns. Attention to issues of scale, context, and potential to enable change will help planners promote long-term sustainability while recognizing local livability preferences.

Background: Using a community-based participatory research (CBPR) approach, the Wellness Engagement (WE) community partners conducted an asset mapping study as the first step in a comprehensive needs assessment to identify existing and potential assets that could be used to promote better health. Objectives: We used asset mapping as a systematic approach to 1) empower local youth and urban planning students to identify community assets related to physical activity and nutrition and 2) facilitate co-learning between youth and university students to identify assets that could be considered for future pilot interventions that address obesity. Methods: We created five teams of local youth led by an urban planning college student that identified and collated existing and potential assets useful for health promotion. Results: Existing and potential assets were grouped into 12 categories significant for promoting physical activity and healthy food options. Of the 358 identified, 18% were potential assets. Youth and students reported that the collective process enabled them to see assets and the community with new perspective. Discussion: An asset mapping approach that partners local experts (youth) with outside experts (urban planning students) within a larger CBPR framework is an effective model to promote co-learning and appreciating the value of differing expertise.

This article explores the state of the 50 largest, fast-growing, suburban counties in the U.S., arguing that they are key to understanding the changing nature of U.S. metropolitan areas in the early 21st century. These counties contained over 26 million residents in 2000, or more than 1 in 11 Americans. Their residents were clearly more diverse and occupied more densely built environments in 2000 than was the case just 30 years before. As a result, though they are not truly urban, they are very different from suburbs of the past in form and character. Our four case examples trace development trends, transportation improvements, and changing politics in these increasingly complex, post-suburban places. We recommend that planners focus on the future in these places, even when they are booming, anticipating the unique challenges they will face as their growth slows. These similar counties face common problems, and may benefit from sharing successful strategies for making themselves more attractive and economically viable in the long run.

Although a major contributor to environmental degradation and global climate change, most city administrators, policymakers and regulators do not hold restaurants accountable for their adverse impacts. New policies with incentives are urgently needed that leverage existing drivers of sustainable innovation. Using innovation adoption and planned behavior theories, a path analysis model is developed to evaluate the current level of sustainability in the restaurant industry and reveal the predictors of future sustainability behavioral intention. The results show that three predictors ‒ past experience, perceived behavioral control, and perceived innovation characteristics ‒ largely determine whether restaurants engage in sustainable innovation in the future.

Local governments are increasingly forging creative alliances to solve community problems and provide local services. The literature recognizes cultural institutions as partners for local community development, yet these alliances remain underutilized. This article identifies the contributions that local government partnerships with cultural institutions—specifically public gardens—make to community development through their services, presence, and location in urban America. Using data from a national survey and 96 expert interviews of public garden and government officials, we explain why these alliances are forming, document their potential to improve communities, and suggest steps that local governments might take to benefit from this vital partner. Results expand our understanding of how nontraditional community development partners can provide resources to local governments to address urban challenges.

Immediately following Hurricane Katrina, the Mississippi Governor's Commission for Recovery, Rebuilding and Renewal partnered with the Congress for the New Urbanism to provide teams of planners and designers to work with communities along the coast in preparing rebuilding plans. Following a week-long charrette in October 2005, each coastal community was provided with a rebuilding plan that was intended to be based on the principles of New Urbanism. The initial plans have been followed up with further long-range planning. Two years after Katrina, this paper examines the degree to which New Urbanism has been incorporated into the long-range comprehensive, master and other rebuilding plans developed in the communities along the coast in Harrison County, Mississippi. This study finds that New Urbanist principles were integrated into some community plans, but were largely absent from others. In those that do incorporate the principles, the realities of post-Katrina planning created serious challenges to the feasibility of implementing New Urbanist plans. While the goals of the New Urbanist consultants were to create better communities and regions, these good intentions have primarily failed on the Mississippi Gulf Coast. In many cases, communities felt dissatisfied with their design-based plans because they were not appropriate for the time and place of post-Katrina Mississippi. The paper concludes by offering suggestions on how communities can improve their plans relative to integrating the principles of New Urbanism that can help rebuild better communities, while balancing community priorities for rebuilding.