Tim Halbur

InTransition magazine examined the daunting difficulties transportation authorities and the public faced while trying to evacuate Tokyo on the day of the Great Tohuku Earthquake in March.

Bruce Katz of the Brookings Institution proposes that cities are fueling themselves too heavily through "Starbucks, stadia and stealing businesses," sources he says are just recycling local dollars instead of attracting global income sources.

The master-planned community of Suncoast Meadows in Land O' Lakes, Florida was built partially on a former landfill site. Home buyers were never told, and are now unsure of the value of their homes.

Rep. Earl Blumenauer says that Portland has done great things, but that other cities are catching up to the city's formula for success and will soon outstrip them.

In Grand Rapids, a number of no-longer-needed elementary schools are being transformed into apartment buildings, while the playgrounds and sports fields are turned into city parks.