JAPA Awards

Each year, APA and the Journal of the American Planning Association honor authors of excellent JAPA articles with the Best Article Award. Members of the JAPA Editorial Advisory Board serve as judges, and selections are made based on several criteria, which include making a significant contribution to the literature of the planning profession, having the potential to change the nature of discourse on the given topic, and providing useful insights or implications for planning practice or public policy. The award is presented at the APA National Planning Conference, and winners are announced in the following year's spring issue.

According to the selection criteria, the award goes to an article that:

• Makes a significant original contribution on a topic of interest to the planning profession in general or a substantial portion thereof;
• Has the potential to challenge and change the nature of discourse — that is, the way that members of the profession conceive a problem and the scope of possible solutions;
• Has useful insights or implications for planning practice or public policy;
• Shows promise of having permanent value — that is, it is likely to be regarded as a "landmark" in future years;
• Serves as a suitable model for young scholars in the field to emulate;
• Communicates its content in a clear, logical, and comprehensible manner that appeals to a wide audience of different JAPA readers; and
• Places new ideas and findings in the context of previous thinking and research on the subject.

2007

Best Article
Samuel D. Brody, Sammy Zahran, Praveen Maghelal, Himanshu Grover, and Wesley Highfield
The Rising Cost of Floods: Examining the Impact of Planning and Development Decisions on Property Damage in Florida
Volume 73, No. 3

2006

Best Article
George Galster, Peter Tatian, and John Accordino
Targeting Investments for Neighborhood Revitalization
Volume 72, No. 4

2005

Best Article
Judith E. Innes and Judith Gruber
Planning Styles in Conflict: The Metropolitan Transportation Commission
Volume 71, No. 2

2004

Best Article
Alan Peters and Peter Fisher
The Failures of Economic Development Incentives
Volume 70, No. 1

2003

Best Article
Robert Cervero
Road Expansion, Urban Growth, and Induced Travel: A Path Analysis
Volume 69, No. 2

2002

Best Article
Scott A. Bollens
Urban Planning and Intergroup Conflict: Confronting a Fractured Public Interest
Volume 68, No. 1

2001

Best Article
Dowell Myers; Martin Wachs, AICP; Sam Cole; commentary by Linda Dalton, AICP
Symposium: Putting the Future in Planning
Volume 67, No. 4

2000

Best Article
Phillip Berke and Maria Manta Conroy
Are We Planning for Sustainable Development? An Evaluation of 30 Comprehensive Plans
Volume 66, Number 1

Honorable Mention
Anne Vernez Moudon and Paul Mitchell Hess
Suburban Clusters: The Nucleation of Multifamily Housing in Suburban Areas of the Central Puget Sound
Volume 66, Number 3

1999

Co-Winners
Xavier de Souza Briggs, Joe T. Darden, and Angela Aidala
In the Wake of Desegregation: Early Impacts of Scattered-Site Public Housing on Neighborhoods in Yonkers, New York
Volume 65, Number 1

Thomas W. Sanchez
The Connection Between Public Transit and Employment: The Cases of Portland and Atlanta
Volume 65, Number 3

Honorable Mentions
Harvey M. Jacobs
Fighting Over Land: America's Legacy ... America's Future?
Volume 65, Number 2

Raymond J. Burby, with Timothy Beatley, Philip R. Berke, Robert E. Deyle, Steven P. French, David R. Godschalk, Edward J. Kaiser, Jack D. Kartez, Peter J. May, Robert Olshansky, Robert G. Patterson, and Rutherford H. Platt
Unleashing the Power of Planning to Create Disaster-Resistant Communities
Volume 65, Number 3

1998

Best Article
Judith E. Innes
Information in Communicative Planning
Volume 64, Number 1

Honorable Mention
Raphal Fischler
The Metropolitan Dimension of Early Zoning: Revisiting the 1916 New York City Ordinance
Volume 64, Number 2

Best Feature
Michael Neuman
Does Planning Need the Plan?
Volume 64, Number 2

Honorable Mentions
Gary T. Johnson and Christopher Silver (Editors), and Jennifer R. Wolch, John Accordino, Martin Wachs, Brian D. Taylor, and J. Eugene Grigsby III (Contributors)
Welfare Reform, Cities, and Planners: A One-Year Post-Reform Appraisal
Volume 64, Number 1

Evan D. Richert and Mark B. Lapping (Editors), and Robert Fishman, Stephen V. Ward, Kermit C. Parsons, Daniel Schaffer, and Ruth Eckdish Knack (Contributors)
Ebenezer Howard and the Garden City
Volume 64, Number 1

1997

Best Article
Rachelle Alterman
The Challenge of Farmland Preservation: Lessons from a Six-Nation Comparison
Volume 63, Number 2

Honorable Mention
Mohammad A. Qadeer
Pluralistic Planning for Multicultural Cities: The Canadian Practice
Volume 63, Number 4

Best Feature
Reid Ewing
Is Los Angeles-Style Sprawl Desirable?
Volume 63, Number 1 (Winter 1997)

Honorable Mention
Peter Gordon and Harry W. Richardson
Are Compact Cities a Desirable Planning Goal?
Volume 63, Number 1

1996

Best Article
Scott Campbell
Green Cities, Growing Cities, Just Cities? Urban Planning and the Contradictions of Sustainable Development
Volume 62, Number 3

Honorable Mention
Jose A. Gomez-Ibanez
Big-City Transit Ridership, Deficits, and Politics: Avoiding Reality in Boston
Volume 62, Number 1

Best Feature
Stephen E. Barton
Social Housing Versus Housing Allowances: Choosing Between Two Forms of Housing Subsidy at the Local Level
Volume 62, Number 1

Honorable Mention
Donald C. Shoup
Regulating Land Use at Sale: Public Improvement from Private Investment
Volume 62, Number 3

1995

Best Article
John Landis
Imagining Land Use Futures: Applying the California Urban Futures Model
Volume 61, Number 4

Honorable Mentions
Edward J. Kaiser and David R. Godschalk
Twentieth Century Land Use Planning: A Stalwart Family Tree
Volume 61, Number 3

Andrew Isserman and Terance Rephann
The Economic Effects of the Appalachian Regional Commission: An Empirical Assessment of 26 Years of Regional Development
Volume 61, Number 3

Best Feature
Donald A. Krueckeberg
The Difficult Character of Property: To Whom Do Things Belong?
Volume 61, Number 3

1994

Best Article
Linda C. Dalton and Raymond J. Burby
Mandates, Plans, and Planners: Building Local Commitment to Development Management
Volume 60, Number 4

Honorable Mentions
William M. Rohe and Michael A. Stegman
The Effects of Homeownership on the Self-Esteem, Perceived Control and Life Satisfaction of Low-Income People
Volume 60, Number 2

Nico Calavita and Roger Caves
Planners' Attitudes Toward Growth: A Comparative Case Study
Volume 60, Number 4

Best Feature
Barry Checkoway; contributions by Peter Marris, Pierre Clavel, Norman Krumholz, Lisa R. Peattie, John Forester, Chester Hartman, and Dolores Hayden
Paul Davidoff and Advocacy Planning in Retrospect
Volume 60, Number 2

Honorable Mention
Robert E. Mier; responses by J. Eugene Grigsby III; and Teresa Crdova
Some Observations on Race and Planning
Volume 60, Number 2

1993

Best Article
Michael Southworth and Peter M. Owens
The Evolving Metropolis: Studies of Community, Neighborhood, and Street Form at the Urban Edge
Volume 59, Number 3

Honorable Mention
Andrew M. Isserman
The Right People, The Right Rates: Making Population Estimates and Forecasts with an Interregional Cohort-Component Model
Volume 59, Number 1

Best Feature
John Friedmann
Toward a Non-Euclidian Mode of Planning
Volume 59, Number 4

Honorable Mention
Robert W. Lake
Rethinking NIMBY
Volume 59, Number 1

1992

Best Article
Martin Kenney and Richard Florida
The Japanese Transplants: Production Organization and Regional Development
Volume 58, Number 1

Runner-Up
Don H. Pickrell
A Desire Named Streetcar: Fantasy and Fact in Rail Transit Planning
Volume 58, Number 2

Special Mention
Leonie Sandercock and Ann Forsyth
A Gender Agenda: New Directions for Planning Theory
Volume 58, Number 1

Best Feature
L.S. Bourne
Self-Fulfilling Prophecies? Decentralization, Inner City Decline, and the Quality of Urban
Life
Volume 58, Number 4

1991

Best Article
Mark Alan Hughes
Employment Decentralization and Accessibility: A Strategy for Stimulating Regional Mobility
Volume 57, Number 3

Honorable Mention
William M. Rohe and Scott Mouw
The Politics of Relocation: The Moving of the Crest Street Community
Volume 57, Number 1

Best Feature
Lawrence E. Susskind, organizer: "The Coming Global Metropolis"
Cities of the Next Century by Raymond Vernon
Europe's Urban System and Its Peripheries by William Alonso
Obstacles in the Future of U.S. Cities by Anthony Downs
Three Systems, Three Separate Paths by Peter Hall
Preparing the Next Generation of Planners by Lawrence E. Susskind
Volume 57, Number 1

1990

Best Article
Lynne B. Sagalyn
Explaining the Improbable: Local Redevelopment in the Wake of Federal Cutbacks
Volume 56, Number 4

Honorable Mention
Jose Gomez-Ibanez and John R. Meyer
Privatizing and Deregulating Local Public Services: Lessons from Britain's Buses
Volume 56, Number 1

Best Feature
Herbert Gans
Deconstructing the Underclass, The Term's Danger as a Planning Concept
Volume 56, Number 3

Honorable Mention
Bernard Frieden
Center City Transformed: Planners as Developers
Volume 56, Number 4

1989

Best Article
Barry Rubin and Margaret Wilder
Urban Enterprise Zones: Employment Impacts and Fiscal Incentives
Volume 55, Number 4

Honorable Mention
Robert Cervero
Jobs-Housing Balancing and Regional Mobility
Volume 55, Number 2

Best Feature
Donna Shalala and Julia Vitullo-Martin
Rethinking the Urban Crisis: Proposals for a National Urban Agenda
Volume 55, Number 1