Planning Cascadia

Planning Cascadia will be published in spring 2015. The book is the latest in APA Planner’s Press national conference book series. The series includes Planning Los Angeles (2012), Planning Chicago (2013), and Planning Atlanta (2014). The 2015 edition will support the APA conference in Seattle, and will discuss planning throughout the Pacific Northwest region.

Concept

Planning Cascadia will capture the landmark planning programs of the past and the quirky pragmatism that keeps planning fresh and alive in the Northwest. The book will present a diverse, but balanced set of contributions. Readers should raise their eyebrows and laugh at some vignettes and plan to sit back and read other articles at length. The idea is to balance each section with quirky short bits, pragmatic and practice-oriented pieces, and longer academic works; to blend fun and high interest with practical ideas and thoughtful essays that carry readers through the history and theory of planning, contemporary “green” concepts in the Northwest, and planning’s role in an uncertain future. We are interested in failures (and lessons learned) as well as success stories and in works that dig into the nature of the problems addressed.

While intended to be engaging and entertaining, the book is also designed as a serious effort to show Northwest planning at the cutting edge and to contribute to thoughtful discourse on the role of planning in this century. With the final section’s focus on the future, it is, ultimately, a clarion call to planners throughout the nation to take a leadership role in shaping public discourse and taking action to make our cities, towns and rural places into the vibrant, fair, healthy, and exciting places needed to meet the challenges of the 21st century. Our goals are to provide practicing planners with examples, ideas and outcomes that that can inform practice throughout the U.S. and to educate and inform citizens so they may become more engaged.

Editorial Board

Content for Planning Cascadia will be selected by a give-member Editorial Board: 

  • Dr. Connie Ozawa (PSU professor)
  • Dr. Dennis Ryan (UW professor emeritus)
  • Dr. Ethan Seltzer (PSU professor)
  • Jill Brown Sterrett, FAICP (APA WA Chapter President, UW affiliate lecturer)
  • Dr. Jan Whittington (UW assistant professor)