Infrastructure
Despite the best efforts of President Obama, the dream of a countrywide high-speed rail network is still just that. Can a speculative, and tantalizing, map change the debate on high-speed rail in the United States?
The Guardian
How does each of us perceive the city? Using photos of pedestrians in Seattle crosswalks and the highly walkable Las Ramblas in Barcelona, Chuck Wolfe challenges readers to think for themselves about what they see.
The Atlantic Cities
Continuing our focus on the need to invest in transportation infrastructure and unwillingness to raise state gas taxes, the most recent proposal comes from Gov. Tom Corbett: Reducing the excise tax while increasing the wholesale gas dealer tax.
The Wall Street Journal - U.S. News
Planning for the $350 million Better Market Street project, which aims to transform downtown's main thoroughfare into a transit and people-oriented place, has expanded to encompass surrounding streets.
San Francisco Chronicle
Two articles from non-profit organizations - a think tank and an advocacy group, seemingly arrive at the same conclusion: the future of the state gas tax is grim due to lack of political will to raise it. However, some states are bucking the trend.
Stateline
Charles Marohn derides the conflicted approach to creating "Safe Routes to Schools" in the United States. With new data linking transport to school to educational outcomes, is it time to rethink the federal government's popular program?
Strong Towns
Howard Blackson's words of advice for San Diego's new administration are applicable wherever it is you call home. Neighborhoods first!
PlaceShakers
Mike Senese spotlights a new television program on the Science Channel that uses innovative graphics to examine how the world's cities have been built to overcome the challenges of their natural environments and serve their citizens.
Wired
Dave Sotero reflects on the "mammoth undertaking" necessary to build L.A.'s modern subway system. He begins with the completion of the first phase of the Metro Red Line 20 years ago, and ends with a look at its promising future.
The Source (Metro)
Lamenting the lack of a single big, transformative urban idea during President Obama's first term, Richard Florida urges the president to establish a new cabinet-level Department of Cities to build a "lasting urban legacy."
New York Daily News
Baltimore has a lot of bold ideas for changing the face of the city. While we wait for them to happen, why not implement some simple solutions for making the city more livable, proposes Mark R. Brown, AICP.
Car Free Baltimore
While the housing market showed signs of improvement last year, economists are now confident that a recovery is underway. Housing currently adds 13 percent to the nation's economic growth, but is this a good thing?
Urban Land Institute
Although leaders in the Twin Cities seem to agree on the need to improve the appeal of city streets for those on foot, turning those words into actions seems difficult. Bill Lindeke offers three easy solutions that don't involve touching the street.
Streets MN
Our friends at Streetsblog are hunting for the worst intersection in America. Help them decide from among a host of qualified entries.
DC.Streetsblog
Kaid Benfield spotlights an innovative federal program that is "not very well known but deserves to be." The "Greening America’s Capitals" program aims to make America's state capitals showpieces for green infrastructure and green building practices.
NRDC Switchboard
Patrick Kennedy proposes an elegant and cost-effective way to deal with Dallas's aging elevated freeway and the city's "massive pent-up demand for walkable urban housing" - tear the sucker down.
D Magazine
CA Gov. Jerry Brown stated he had big plans in his State of the State speech on Jan 24. Thanks to temporary tax increases under Prop 30 and spending cuts, the budget is finally balanced. Yet he also called for 'fiscal constraint' - contradictory?
Calbuzz
From a giant dam across the Golden Gate to a dozen "ventilated levees," the options proposed for protecting San Francisco Bay from rising seas are neither cheap nor subtle. But with sea level rise "around the corner," hard choices must be made.
San Francisco Chronicle
As Barack Obama takes the oath of office for his second term, Places editor Nancy Levinson argues for an intensified political agenda for architects and urban designers.
Places Journal
Not usually regarded for their outside the box thinking, transportation engineers have nevertheless come up with some radical ideas for improving the flow of traffic and reducing the potential for collisions at busy intersections.
The Atlantic Cities
