Over the past three months, my girlfriend and I have made three trips to the suburbs of Miami. Twice to the Whole Foods we desperately lack on Miami Beach (Yes, Wild Oats is okay, but for us food snobs it just does not compare) and once to the brand new, soul-killing, 283,000 square foot IKEA to partially outfit our 450 square foot South Beach studio apartment.
Humor
Best of the Worst in Planning for 2007
Keeping track of the weird things that occur in the planning and government world – from rules prohibiting screaming on amusement park rides to “green” cremation techniques – isn't really necessary. But someone should do it anyway.
Friday Funny: Crumbling Infrastructure Likely Means 'Something'
This article from The Onion looks back at the infrastructure problems that defined 2007, asking what they signify for the country.
The Onion
Friday Funny: Payback For The Parking Czar
The head of traffic and parking enforcement in Rome, Italy was fired after parking illegally using a fraudulent handicapped permit.
Reuters
Friday Funny: 'Mind Your Mouth'
The voiceover artist famous for reminding passengers to 'mind the gap' on the London Underground was fired after posting a series of subway announcement spoofs on her website.
Jaunted
Friday Funny: It's All About Horsepower
Fuel costs, environmental concerns, and striking transport workers are reviving interest in horse-driven vehicles in some French towns.
Reuters
Friday Funny: How Real Estate Deals Work In LA
A Los Angeles City Planning Department employee accidentally leaves a message intended for the developer on the answering machine of a project opponent: The project will be approved "no matter what."
LA Observed
America's Most Caffeinated Cities
Is your city addicted to caffeine? Need Coffee Dot Com shares a study commissioned by HealthSaver to determine the most and least wired of America's cities. And no, it's not Seattle.
Need Coffee Dot Com
Friday Funny: Disney's 'Urban Adventure'
As the Disney Corporation and the city of Anaheim, California, squabble over a proposal to build affordable housing near the Happiest Place on Earth, Morris Newman suggests turning the affordable housing project into an "urban theme park".
California Planning & Development Report
The Music Of Failed Planning
Some urban planning projects are so frustratingly bad you just have to sing about them ... or at least find some songs to help vent that frustration. This blog post from Stuck Between Stations finds those songs.
Stuck Between Stations
Friday Funny: New York Steak
This article from the meat-focused magazine Meatpaper discusses Manhattan and its similarities to a slab of meat, and looks at how Robert Moses and Jane Jacobs would have sliced their New York steaks.
Meatpaper
The Ugliest City In America - The People, That Is
Survey says: Philadelphians are the ugliest (and perhaps the fattest) people in the U.S, while the beach-loving residents of San Diego and Miami are the most gorgeous.
Yahoo News
Friday Funny: Street Signs Tell Tale Of Love
This video from Do The Green Thing tells the tale of Gusty and Ford -- a street-sign love story that only came to be because of a fortuitous decision one day to walk instead of drive.
Do The Green Thing
Friday Funny: No Kitchen, But Close To The Food Court
The leader of an artist's collective was recently charged with trespassing after he was found by security guards inside a small furnished room his group had secretly built more than four years ago on mall property.
The Boston Globe
Friday Funny: Pigeon Problems? Put 'Em On The Pill
Pigeon poop is driving officials crazy in towns across the world -- crazy enough to propose putting the birds on birth control to cut down their populations.
BBC
Friday Funny: Just Like The Village Trolley -- Everybody Gets A Ride
Before its planners had realized what they'd done, a proposed name for a planned streetcar system in Seattle -- the South Lake Union Trolley, or SLUT -- had already slipped out into the public.
Step One: Kill The Architects
This illustrated list outlines the 10 simple steps to designing the city of the future.
The New York Times
Cycling The Contours of Miami
Sun, 09/09/2007 - 15:01
It is by riding a bicycle that you learn the contours of a country best, since you have to sweat up the hills and coast down them. Thus you remember them as they actually are, while in a motor car only a high hill impresses you, and you have no such accurate remembrance of country you have driven through as you gain by riding a bicycle. ~Ernest Hemingway
Friday Funny: Planning At Its Worst In Kauai?
"ViralKauai" posts a self-made video on YouTube pointing out the problems from overdevelopment of the beautiful island of Kauai.
YouTube
Friday Funny: Really High Density
Plans to accommodate population growth in Los Angeles while facing a land shortage have developers giving a new meaning to "building up".
Weekly World News
