Infrastructure
Is Thomas Jefferson to Blame for Los Angeles's Sprawl?
Jeremy Rosenberg examines why Thomas Jefferson may have had more of an impact on the development of Los Angeles than you might suspect. The city's street grid can be traced back to this American founding father.
Slow Progress on America's High-Speed Rail Efforts
Milton Lindsay examines America's efforts to build a national system of high-speed trains and finds mixed results in the nation's eleven intended corridors.
Boston's Big Dig Buries Other Transportation Projects
Completed years ago, the true cost of Boston's "Big Dig" is finally being tallied. Unfortunately, for residents of Massachusetts, the tab is far from paid, imperiling funding for other necessary transportation projects, reports Eric Moskowitz.
Bridging the Gap: Freeway Caps Proposed in Smaller Cities
As plans progress in many large cities to cap their below-grade urban freeways, smaller cities, like Ventura, California, are looking to benefit from similar proposals.
Consuming Class to Rapidly Expand and Shift Markets by 2025
A new report by the McKinsey Global Institute finds that the global consuming class will grow by 1 billion people by 2025, and undergo a profound geographic shift. Cities and businesses should prepare for this shift with targeted investments.
CA Rail: Funded But With Nowhere To Go?
After a much heralded vote on July 6 in the state Senate, the embattled CA high-speed rail project is now eligible to receive $7.9 billion in state and federal funds, but formidable obstacles remain, not the least of which is finding $60 billion.
'Bi-Partisan' Transportation Bill Now Law
President Obama signed the transportation bill known as MAP-21 on July 6 that also maintains low student loan rates, ending the three-year process of three-month extensions of SAFETEA-LU. He praised the bill as bipartisan and job-saving.
Seattle Makes Small Scale Stormwater Management Easy
Seattle's innovative Residential RainWise Program provides tools for stormwater management at home, in the hopes of reducing flooding, safeguarding property, and restoring the area's waters for people and wildlife.
Awesome Infrastructure Projects Around the World
Unsurprisingly, most of the projects compiled by the company KPMG called "Infrastructure 100: World Cities Edition" are in expanding countries like China and Saudi Arabia. Tyler Falk pulls out some favorites.
Can D.C. Afford to Put Power Lines Underground?
It all depends on who you ask, argues David Alpert. Ratepayers have pushed for buried lines before; now, there's reason to doubt it would cost as much as the utility company once quoted them.
Building a 'Slow' Streetcar to 'Speed' Development
A common criticism of streetcars are their relative slow speed combined with high capital and operating costs. Still, streetcars are being constructed in both large in small cities to help incentivize development.
TIFIA Amount Increases & Eligibility Expands - Too Much?
In the coming days readers will learn more about America's new transportation funding plan MAP-21, which will guide surface transportation planning through 2014. In this piece, Tanya Snyder centers on changes to the popular TIFIA lending program.
One of D.C.'s Largest Infrastructure Projects Gets the Go-Ahead
On Tuesday, the Loudoun County Board of Supervisors voted 5-4 to support extending D.C.'s Metrorail to Dulles Airport, ending months of uncertainty over the project's fate.
Coney Island Meets the Grid
In order to save Coney Island from dwindling unemployment rates and high poverty levels, developers rezone the 46-year-old amusement park, but the plans may never actually leave the paper.
Global Warming: It's Real, And It's Here
Editorial draws attention to the impact of global warming on our cities and advocates planning for climate change.
The Incredible, Deficit-Reducing Transportation Bill
Just how does a transportation bill that doesn't increase fuel taxes or introduce new user charges, and maintain the same level of spending reduce the deficit by $16.3 billion? Ask the Congressional Budget Office.
"Gazelles" Are Leading the Pack
Economist David Birch coined the term "gazelle" to refer to small businesses that double their size every four years. Charlie Gandy says these gazelles are incredibly useful when it comes to placemaking.
Filmmaker Shows New Yorkers Tripping on Subway Step - Over and Over
Filmmaker Dean Petersen noticed a troublesome step at the 36th Street subway exit in Brooklyn, and decided to find out how many people tripped over it. Video evidence shows this hazard in action.
Transit in Demand: US DOT Can't Keep Up With Requests
On Friday, the US DOT awarded TIGER 2012 funds to 47 projects totaling $500 million -- far less than the $10.2 billion that was asked for from an astounding 703 applications from all 50 states.
A New Kind of Planning for a New Kind of Africa
Ernest Harsch interviews UN-Habitat Director Joan Clos on the challenges facing African cities in an age of unprecedented urbanization, from the abundance of slums to the threat of natural disasters.
FREE Course: Walkable City 1: Why Walkability?
After describing his path towards focusing on walkability as the essence of good planning, Jeff Speck marches through his five principal reasons for making more walkable places.
Reinventing Malls: Planning Alchemy—Turning Gray Fields Into Gold
The course focuses on the opportunities and imperatives that shape reinvention of mall sites.
City of Thousand Oaks
City of Wisconsin Rapids
Harvard University Graduate School of Design
The Architects Foundation
University of Cincinnati Online
Northern Illinois Transit Authority (NITA)
The Pocatello Development Authority
The Urban Renewal Agency of the City of Pocatello
