Government / Politics

A proposal to build a casino in downtown Minneapolis has locals and lawmakers wondering if it's a good deal for the city. The governor wants more than the suggested 25% take of revenues, but others say even that is not worthwhile.

May 6, 2011 - Minneapolis-St. Paul Star-Tribune

D.C.'s Office of Planning is launching a pilot program to do just that.

May 6, 2011 - Fast Company

After a first attempt fizzled in 2007, Toronto is launching a new bike sharing system.

May 6, 2011 - Urban Toronto

Sustainability-focused programs offered at the federal level have received overwhelming support from communities and protection from budget cuts, even in an age of tightened budgets.

May 6, 2011 - Citiwire

In comparing the legacies of artist Andy Warhol and urban thinker Jane Jacobs, this essay suggests that the sort of urban community we think of today is more a result of Warhol.

May 6, 2011 - Places

As Brazil prepares to host the 2014 World Cup and 2016 Olympics, renovations to the Maracana, an infamous soccer stadium in Rio de Janeiro, are pricing out the city's poor. Some say the work is killing one of the city's few egalitarian public places.

May 6, 2011 - The New York Times

Officials in New Jersey are planning to revive a stalled megamall project called Xanadu. The New York Times asks a panel of experts whether the plan should move forward.

May 5, 2011 - The New York Times

Officials in Detroit have demolished 3,000 buildings over the course of the last year, a goal set by Mayor Dave Bing.

May 5, 2011 - Associated Press

Building wind farms in the ocean is an ideal way to generate electricity, but it's not so easy to get that energy back to shore efficiently. This article looks as a transmission project that could address that issue.

May 5, 2011 - Popular Science

As officials in San Francisco debate the city's historic preservation policies, this column looks back at some of the ways the city has successfully preserved its past and some of the ways the process is broken.

May 5, 2011 - San Francisco Chronicle

New York City has created its own version of the census to track transportation in the city, a job it says the federal government's counting system does poorly.

May 4, 2011 - The New York Times

The capper to the San Pablo Avenue Streetscape Project is to be a public art project that would line the boulevard. But the art commission in charge has rejected the artists' plans as "poorly done" and wants them to come back with a new concept.

May 4, 2011 - Patch

National Journal asks its panel of experts whether the U.S. needs more highways, and if they should or shouldn't be a major part of transportation funding in the near future.

May 4, 2011 - National Journal

Michel Martelly is the newly elected president of Haiti. He faces the large challenge of rebuilding much of the country's population center, which was devastated by an earthquake in January 2010.

May 4, 2011 - Architectural Record

This article from The Economist explains why America's transportation system is failing, and how the federal government's infrastructure funding mechanisms are contributing to the decline.

May 4, 2011 - The Economist

Los Angeles has taxed itself to raise money for transit projects, and now officials want to borrow against those future earnings to speed up projects. This article wonders if that's a model other cities can and should follow.

May 4, 2011 - The Minn Post

Megacities are quickly on the rise in China. But as this post from New Geography argues, they've managed to avoid problems currently faced by other megacities in developing nations.

May 4, 2011 - New Geography

Conor Friedersdorf writes that Los Angeles is made up by 88 different municipalities, 10 million residents and a lot of unincorporated territory, making it difficult to decide who controls what.

May 3, 2011 - The Atlantic

Various plans and strategies have been crafted over the years to try to help New Orleans recover from the devastation of Hurricane Katrina. While early plans took a stronger stance, the city is now taking a less heavy-handed approach.

May 2, 2011 - Architectural Record

The Wall Street Journal talks with Gabriel Metcalf, executive director of the San Francisco Planning and Urban Research Association, about where the city is heading and how it needs to change.

May 2, 2011 - The Wall Street Journal