Connecticut

According to Yonah Freemark, the FTA announced that with a "New Starts grant," the 9.4-mile bus rapid transit line that has been under consideration since the late 90's, has finally secured funds to complete the project.

Diana Balmori of Balmori Associates recently completed her work on a nine-mile long linear park along an old railroad line in Connecticut. The Awl presents an excerpt of her 2010 book A Landscape Manifesto.

A prefab steel home built in 1933 on the campus of Connecticut College as a futuristic "home of tomorrow". Today, although covered in rust, it is still standing and being prepped for historic preservation.

Developers in Windsor, Connecticut are transforming a brownfield site into a $1 billion housing project, in the core of its corporate office center.

Last week, the Federal Highway Administration awarded discretionary highway grants in what could be among the last expenditures before the Sept. 30 expiration of the gas tax. Included were $8m for Value Pricing Pilot Program projects in 5 states.

Cities across the country are beginning to realize the mistakes they made years ago dividing their downtowns with urban highways. The city of New Haven has decided to do something about it.

The second round of Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery (TIGER) funds were announced Oct. 20. Awards amounting to $600 million will go to 75 projects, including three highway teardowns.

It's needed, it's not that expensive, and it's doable. But there's one little problem in New Haven's new streetcar plan.

Overall, this $220 million project will be "one of the most ambitious public/private initiatives" in Connecticut.

In Hartford, Connecticut, a former department store that locals call "butt-ugly" is being demolished. Delays in its destruction had come to symbolize all that is wrong with Hartford politics, says Josh Goodman of Governing.

More capacity for the same cost is the case with double-decker commuter cars -- if they can fit into tunnels, that is. Bi-level train were once more common in the commuter trains serving NYC. However, these cars can have their own disadvantages.

As reported earlier this year on Planetizen, the bar cars on Metro-North Railroad's Connecticut trains: train cars were hitting retirement age, and it looked like no replacements were coming for the pubs on wheels. But wait- there's hope yet!

This article looks at how a Connecticut journalist used the online nuisance reporting tool SeeClickFix to get locals involved in his newspaper's newsgathering and storytelling.

New London, Connecticut was dealt a major blow when pharmaceutical giant Pfizer announced plans to pack up and leave the heavily city-subsidized building New London had lured the company with. Bill Fulton looks at the impact of the move.

Drugmaker Pfizer has announced plans to move offices and 1,400 employees out of New London, Connecticut, where it had ignited a heated debate over eminent domain that spawned the landmark Kelo v. New London Supreme Court case. Locals are not happy.

The 2005 Supreme Court decision on Kelo v. New London was a landmark in eminent domain law, paving the way for Pfizer to develop there. Four years later, Pfizer is pulling up stakes.

Chabad Lubavitch of Connecticut has filed suit against the Historic District Commission for denying its application to develop a property there into a center. The Commission said it would consider a revised plan, but Chabad says it's anti-Hasidism.

Instead of waiting for developers to come into town with plans for affordable housing, some Connecticut towns are taking advantage of a statewide grant program that helps establish zones for high density and affordable housing.

In an odd twist of the urban vs. suburban debate, here's an interesting nuance - bank robbers are finding the open atmosphere of suburban banks to be more appealing than the bulletproof glass-protected tellers that one often sees in busy urban areas.