Karin Franklin, a 1981 graduate, served as Iowa City's Director of Planning and Community Development before her retirement in July 2007.

Iowans may have become poorer since 2000, while housing has become proportionately more expensive. Growth is concentrating in just a few metropolitan areas - Des Moines, Cedar Rapids, and Iowa City.

Field Problems students are traveling even further afield this year. One group will be working with Coon Rapids, one of three recipients in the first round of Iowa Great Places Awards.

My favorite thing about the department is the people and the social events. The department had a flag football team this fall, we’re having a basketball team this winter, and are going to have a softball team this spring.

On February 3, GPURP hosted a policy summit titled “Planning for a Better Region: A Summit for Policy Makers, Planners, and the Public in the Cedar Rapids/Iowa City Region.

Graduating students Bogdana Rus, Kara Homan, and Michael Ayer presented their Mount Vernon Parks and Schools Safe Connections Plan to the city’s Parks and Recreation Commission the evening of Wednesday, April 18.

Students of local development policy in the United States quickly learn that the practice is better characterized by pragmatic responses to interregional competition than by allusions to economic theory or abstract principles.

Professor Ole Jensen, Department of Architecture and Design, Aalborg University, Denmark presented a lecture on the University of Iowa Campus Monday, April 23rd titled, “Making European Space:...

Michael Bodaken, President of the National Housing Trust/Enterprise Preservation Corporation, entertained students in the Housing Finance class recently with the story of how he ended up in community development, via tenant organizing in Topeka, Kansas,

Fifteen Urban and Regional Planning students received their Masters degrees on Saturday, May 12th in Carver-Hawkeye Arena. Two of our faculty, Alan Peters and Rick Funderburg, were honored to assist with commencement this year.