Nevada
Las Vegas Land Worth 75% Less Than 2007 Peak
About half of commercial mortgage defaults in Las Vegas last year were for vacant land. With loans impossible to get and construction at a halt, vacant land is a hard sell.
Las Vegas Review-Journal
Water Rights Ruling Puts Thousands of Permits in Question
A recent water rights ruling in Nevada could potentially endanger the validity of nearly 15,000 water rights in the state dating back to 1947. As a result, new applications for water rights are flooding state offices.
Las Vegas Review-Journal
Nevada Passed Over for High-Speed Rail
The Department of Transportation has decided that the proposed Las Vegas - Southern California maglev train was not far enough along to be eligible for funding, which is meant to go towards more immediate solutions.
Las Vegas Review-Journal
Las Vegas Water Plan Hits Wall
Plans by Las Vegas officials to siphon water from northern Nevada down to the growing city may have hit a wall, as a recent ruling from the state Supreme Court found fault with the region's water rights application process.
Los Angeles Times
Senior Citizens Create Jobs
A business analyst in Las Vegas suggests that the state should attempt to attract senior citizens to retire, because his report shows that seniors 'create jobs, spend a lot of money and are not a drag on government services.'
Las Vegas Review-Journal
Las Vegas Monorail Bankruptcy: An Omen For Private Transit?
Railway Age advances the notion that private transit is simply not feasible in the U.S. due to economic fluctuations, as shown by the declaration of bankruptcy of the not-for-profit Las Vegas Monorail Company.
RailwayAge
The Man Behind CityCenter
Architecture critic James S. Russell interviews James Murren, the man behind CityCenter in Las Vegas. It was Murren's idea to hire the six star architects who designed the site. Murren says the Ground Zero designs inspired him.
Bloomberg.com
Returning to Las Vegas
Nicolai Ourousoff pays a visit to an exhibit at Yale that looks back at 'Learning From Las Vegas,' the famed book on Sin City architecture from the 1970s.
The New York Times
The Bizarre Planning of the Las Vegas Monorail
There's a monorail on the Las Vegas Strip. Well, kinda. It's actually behind the casinos and hotels that line the famous strip. This piece from Metropolis explains how it got there and why it's not so good.
Metropolis
Sin Keeps Development Away, Preserves Nature
The former site of the Mustang Ranch turns out to be an important piece of a floodplain restoration project in Nevada, and was inadvertently preserved because of the presence of the famous brothel.
The New York Times
Libeskind Says Downturn is Right Time for Mega Projects
Architect Daniel Libeskind, designer of part of the new Las Vegas megaproject CityCenter, says now is the right time to be building big and bold projects.
Der Spiegel
From Brothel to Floodplain
A floodplain on the Truckee River -- the original site of a famous Nevada brothel -- is being restored to its natural state.
The New York Times
'A Palace for the Age of Towering Debt and Easy Credit'
Los Angeles Times architecture critic Christopher Hawthorne offers a take on Las Vegas' new CityCenter mega project, highlighting the project's faux-urbanism and what in the end is disappointingly conservative architecture.
Los Angeles Times
Water Planning After the Age of Infrastructure
Despite geologic barriers and in the face of scientific advice, huge infrastructure projects of the 20th century brought water to the arid Southwest and fueled the growth of a megaregion. But now that era of infrastructure-enabled growth is over, leaving planners, developers and policymakers looking for new ways to sustain growth and rising demand amid diminishing resources.
Interconnected Contradictions in the Mojave
This essay from Places looks at the history of development in Las Vegas and how the city has rapidly changed the Mojave Desert.
Places
Starchitects Unite!
Vegas' CityCenter, designed by a handful of notable architects, may be Vegas' first walkable, urban development, complete with LEED Gold Certification.
FastCompany
Last Gasp for Vegas?
The $8.5 billion CityCenter mega project is set to open next week in Las Vegas. Many say it's likely to be the last major project in the struggling city for years.
The Philadelphia Inquirer
Much-Needed Water in Nevada is Radioactive
Over forty years, the federal government exploded almost a thousand nuclear warheads under the Nevada desert. Radiation leeched into the aquifers, in a region with a growing population and a water crisis.
The Los Angeles Times
Walkable Las Vegas?
Developers and locals in Las Vegas are pinning hopes onto the new CityCenter development to bring walkability to the desert city.
MSNBC
Las Vegas: A Model of America's Problems
The problems facing urban America can be exemplified by looking at the city of Las Vegas, according to this piece from the Brookings Institution's Mark Muro.
Citiwire
Planetizen picks
Contribute
- How Much Would You Pay?
- Higher Fees Drive Developers to Outskirts
- Embracing Entrepreneurship to Revive Cleveland
- Replacing Empty Storefronts With Fake Ones
- Forecasting the New American Economy
- Finding Ways to Create "Emerald Necklaces" in Built-Out Cities
- The Urban Farms of New York
- Introducing the "Parklet"
- Israeli Housing Plan Draws Ire of Peace Negotiators
- Waterfront Rail Plans Advance in Philadelphia
Conventional Planning May Be Contributing to Cleveland's Decline -- Samuel Staley
Inside the City of RVs -- Nate Berg
Parking Policy Reform More Important Than LEED Certification -- Todd Litman
Exploring Web 2.0 in Urban Planning -- Chris Steins
Sprawl In Canada and the U.S.: A Comparison -- Michael Lewyn
FREE Upcoming IEDC Webinar: Carbon Cap and Trade and Economic Development
International Economic Development Council
Mar 18, 2010
Baltimore & New Orleans Select INDEX for Regional Visioning Support
Criterion Planners
Mar 18, 2010
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