Land Use
A Walk On The High Line
Managing Editor Tim Halbur reviews The High Line, the much-lauded new linear park in Manhattan.
Brainstorm: Can Cities Shrink Gracefully? Should They? How?
As the recession digs in, cities across the country are left with large swaths of abandoned or vacant places. Can these cities shrink gracefully? Do they even need to? Vote on ideas submitted by the Planetizen community, or suggest your own.
REVIEW: Welcome to the Urban Revolution
In his new book Welcome to the Urban Revolution: How Cities are Changing the World, Jeb Brugmann proposes a new way of thinking about citybuilding. Planetizen Correspondent Michael Dudley has this review.
Joining Up Transportation, Housing, and Environmental Policy
Robert Puentes argues that a new federal interagency partnership, debuted before the Senate this week, could provide the federal leadership necessary for a unified vision of transportation, housing, and environmental policy designed to tackle our interrelated economic, energy, and climate challenges.
Masterplanning the Architecture of the Near Future
As the population rises, underused and empty spaces are going to fill in. How well the transition works depends on shifts in demographics and infrastructure, as well as architecture. A studio of UCLA architecture students were asked to plot that transition. But before they could be architects, they had to be planners.
Ocean Zoning Moves Forward
Gov. Deval Patrick of Mass. has released a draft zoning plan to regulate the waters off the state's coast, particularly around Cape Cod and Cape Ann.
Gloucester Daily Times
St. Louis Opens New Art Park
Two vacant lots in downtown St. Louis have been revived as an urban art park, featuring works by world-renowned artists.
ArchNewsNow
Supreme Court Nominee's Eminent Domain Experience
Back in 2006, Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor had a role in a controversial eminent domain ruling. Reason magazine takes a look at the decision and what it might mean for property rights if she's confirmed to the Court.
Reason
Investing In and Revising Mexico City's Center Square
Mexico City's Centro Historico is undergoing a broad redevelopment, which has resulted in more investment, more events, and more use. However, some there are worried that increased commercialization will tarnish the public square.
Next American City
Farming in the Subdivision
Organic farms are increasingly being included in site plans for new subdivisions. And homebuyers seem to like them.
The New York Times
A Tour of America's Nuclear History
The Hanford Nuclear Reservation is called the nation's most contaminated place, with pits containing nuclear waste like plutonium. It's also a historic site in terms of America's dabblings with nuclear weaponry, and now it's open for tours.
Miller-McCune
New Power Grid Would Slice Through Rural Areas
Expanding America's power grid to connect wind and solar power plants to the urban areas they fuel will require thousands of miles of transmission lines. Most of it will be built in rural areas where locals are not likely to be very welcoming.
The Daily Yonder
Mississippi River Dams Doom Gulf Marshes
Marsh loss in the Gulf region is being exacerbated beyond repair by dams along the Mississippi River, according to a recent study.
The New York Times
A Different Kind of New York Street Conversion 100 Years Ago
While New York City is currently taking space away from automobiles and giving it to pedestrians and cyclists, the New York City of 100 years ago was doing exactly the opposite. And it was a popular idea.
The New York Times
Ways to Retrofit the City
You don't have to tear a city down to make it green, according to this piece from the Boston Globe, which offers some emerging ideas.
The Boston Globe
Breaking Out of Silos and Across Borders
With interdepartmental cooperation blossoming within the Obama administration, Neal Peirce wonders how things will shake down when policies hit metropolitan regions -- and the municipal borders that can impede and confuse policy.
Citiwire
Squatters to Gain Legal Land Rights in the Amazon
The Brazilian government has just approved a measure that would grants legal land rights to squatters in the Amazon.
Guardian
What's Holding Back the UK's 'Eco-Towns'
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown's grand plans for 10 carbon-neutral 'eco-towns' haven't lived up to their fanfare, according to some. Now as things move forward, the goals have been watered down a bit.
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