With the economy humming along, innovative ideas sprouting up around the state, and, of course, the occasional dispute, 2015 was as lively a year for land use as any other in recent memory. To mark the new year, CP&DR presents its most-read stories of 2015. 

BEVERLY HILLS -This week's Milken Institute Global Conference brought together more CEO's, heads of state, hedge fund managers, and industrialists than, I reckon, any other annual gathering in the United States. It's a strange event at which to be an urbanist - and not just because it takes place in one of our most unusual cities, Beverly Hills. 

Planners, developers, and sundry folk love and believe in our cities. Many of us love our cities, and we are inspired daily by their dynamism and, in some case, their enormity. Los Angeles has 4 million people. And it functions (sort of). Amazing, right?! I think so. >>read more

It's hardly an exaggeration to say that every business today wants to be innovative. Entrepreneurs are motivated by the likes of Apple, Google, Twitter and many others are based in California cities. This is no accident. In his recent book The New Geography of Jobs, Enrico Moretti, professor of economics at the University of California, Berkeley, explains how cities promote innovation (defined not just as technology, but also as medicine, media, manufacturing and other sections that rely on constant improvement of products and services) and, importantly, how innovation affects cities' economies. As it turns out, the cities of Moretti's adopted home state have some of the biggest beneficiaries of the innovation economy�and some that have been left behind. 

Morretti spoke with CP&DR Contributing Editor Josh Stephens about how California became innovative and how it can stay that way. >>read more