England

Reviving High Streets With Housing

With nearly 20,000 retail outlets shutting down so far this year in England, the future of towns' high streets looks shaky. But some say reviving these main streets is as simple as converting empty shops into housing units.

20 August 2009 - 10:00am

Building

New Eco-Town Plans Meet NIMBY Resistance

The UK government recently announced the sites of four new planned "eco-towns". But local opposition to the projects remains high.

16 July 2009 - 12:00pm

The Christian Science Monitor

New Airport Runway Spawns Town of Activists

Recently approved plans to build a third runway at Heathrow International Airport mean the village of Sipson will be completely paved over. As a result, villagers have become activists, and they discuss their efforts in this video.

19 January 2009 - 6:00am

Guardian

Liverpool's Transformative Year of Culture

As Liverpool ends its year as the European Union's "Capital of Culture", the city is vastly different and better than it was just a year ago, according to this column.

11 January 2009 - 11:00am

Financial Times

'Eco-Town' Plans Falter in UK

The UK's "eco-towns" are feeling the hurt of the current economic situation, with only one or two likely to move ahead.

30 October 2008 - 6:00am

Guardian

Group Says Public Drinking Ban Violates Public Space

Calling it a violation of public spaces, a new report from a civil liberties group in the UK has criticized the banning of public drinking in more than 600 places in England and Wales.

21 August 2008 - 7:00am

Telegraph

Nate Berg

Best Ideas of the Week

Fri, 03/21/2008 - 16:08

We all know there's a lot of planning going on around the world. Much of it is poor, short-sighted and generally just no good. But there are also some really great ideas being developed and adopted, and they should be considered by cities and communities all over the world as instructive examples of good planning. Here are what I think are some of the best ideas in urban planning from the last week.

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