Government / Politics
Would Bernie Sanders Delay the Obama Climate Initiative?
Watching Wednesday's Democratic debate between Hillary Clinton and Sen. Bernie Sanders, I was startled to hear Clinton claim that Sanders said he would delay Obama's Clean Power Plan rule. PolitiFact investigated, though the result wasn't clear-cut.
Denied: Proposed LNG Export and Gas Pipeline in Oregon Rejected by FERC
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission denied a contentious $7.5 billion Liquefied Natural Gas export facility, pipeline, and power plant in Coos Bay, Ore., which had received environmental clearance.
President Obama and Prime Minister Trudeau Agree to Reduce Methane Emissions
Climate change was front and center at a Thursday morning joint press conference at the White House, where U.S. President Barack Obama and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau agreed to several energy, environmental, and Arctic initiatives.
San Francisco Leading CEQA Reform Process—Scraps Level of Service
The San Francisco Planning Commission took historic action earlier this month, voting to end the use of Level of Service in environmental review.
Open Data Census Finds States Lagging
The recently released U.S. States Open Data Census discovered that the overwhelming majority of states have a lot of work to do in opening their data to the public.
Friday Funny: John Oliver Skewers Special Districts
Last Week Tonight with John Oliver tackles the corruption and mismanagement of special districts, which are well known to professional planners, but perhaps not to the rest of the general public.
California State Senate Reacts Quickly to Air Management Board Shakeup
New Republican majority of SCAQMD voted to adopt oil industry-backed emissions rules on refineries and other major pollution sources
Los Angeles Debuts Open Data Visualization Tool
Containing more than 500 open datasets, GeoHub lets users access the wealth of data Los Angeles makes available. The tool is also intended to help employees from different city departments work together.
Is Cleveland Ready for a New Zoning Code?
The city of Cleveland has begun to build a political consensus around the need to update its 1929 zoning code.
Sleepy Resort Towns Becoming Urban Destinations
Around the country, small, rural towns are experiencing the same political conflicts related to land use and planning more commonly associated with the city.
High-Speed Rail Lawsuit Ruling: California Plan Doesn't Violate Bond Act
The lawsuit by Kings County et.al. was a significant threat to California's $64 billion rail plan, based on the plan's ability to meet the terms promised in the 2008 proposition, such as travel time due to sharing tracks with Caltrain.
Dallas to Consider Smoking Ban in All City Parks
If the city of Dallas bans smoking its parks, it would catch up on a trail blazed (not blazed, rather) by Houston and Frisco.
Street Fighting Woman: New Book by Janette Sadik-Khan Details Time at NYC DOT
The media response to Janette Sadik-Khan's new book has been at scale with the New York-sized ambitions of her tenure as commissioner of transportation.
Top Priority for Federal Railroad Administration: Reducing Crossing Crashes
Vehicle crashes at grade crossings have emerged as a top priority for Sarah Feinberg, the new Federal Railroad Administrator. Fatalities at rail crossings in 2014 increased by 15 percent from 2013.
Zoning Has Not Outlived All Its Uses...Yet
With the sharing economy repurposing and mutating the one-size (and one size only) fits all world of zoning, is it time to jettison our old zoning codes?
Landowner's Response to Development Failure: Call in the Klan
A landowner looking for revenge after neighbors and local officials prevented a proposal to develop 24-acres has gotten creative in irritating the locals.
Big Oil Takes on Clean Fuels, Again
Having lost at the California Supreme Court, Big Oil will take their battle against California's Low Carbon Fuel Standard to the legislature with influential lobbyists.
The Life and Death of Urban Hierarchies
Kristen Jeffers writes that she's changed her mind about the existence of hierarchies among U.S. cities.
Happy Hour: Now You Can Drink on the Streets of Manhattan
The city of New York has decided that police have better things to do than bust people for drinking in public. Cheers!
City Hall 'Outsider' on Opening Up L.A.'s Development Process
Los Angeles is experiencing an elevated anti-growth conversation and suspicion of insider dealings at City Hall. In the midst of this, a councilmember known as an "outsider" aims to reconcile his constituents with the city's development processes.
Urban Design for Planners 1: Software Tools
This six-course series explores essential urban design concepts using open source software and equips planners with the tools they need to participate fully in the urban design process.
Planning for Universal Design
Learn the tools for implementing Universal Design in planning regulations.
City of Camden Redevelopment Agency
City of Astoria
Transportation Research & Education Center (TREC) at Portland State University
Regional Transportation Commission of Southern Nevada
Toledo-Lucas County Plan Commissions
