Land Use

Bicycle activists in Tel Aviv call for better infrastructure for bicyclists, skaters and pedestrians. "The central question is: Who is the city for - for the car or for the people?" says one.

January 19, 2009 - Haaretz

Recently approved plans to build a third runway at Heathrow International Airport mean the village of Sipson will be completely paved over. As a result, villagers have become activists, and they discuss their efforts in this video.

January 19, 2009 - Guardian

The town of Eden Prairie, Minnesota, has grand plans for a new, pedestrian-oriented downtown, but making this idea reality involves getting rid of one large and vocal neighbor: WalMart.

January 19, 2009 - Minneapolis-St. Paul Star-Tribune

An exhibition in Houston organized by the Center for Land Use Interpretation looks at how the oil industry has transformed the landscape of Texas.

January 17, 2009 - The Blaffer Gallery

The master plan for Salem, Oregon's Pringle Creek Community is ambitious, says Jim Fitzsimons, incorporating mixed-use, sustainable development with the community-enhancing aspects of old city neighborhoods.

January 17, 2009 - Terrain.org: A Journal of the Built & Natural Environments

Rats choose Manhattan because if its logical street grid, according to new research by a team of zoologists and geographers at Tel Aviv University, who are using rats to test wayfinding in cities.

January 16, 2009 - Science Daily

Plans to redevelop a section of the Mississippi Riverfront in New Orleans have been approved and construction could begin by the end of 2009.

January 16, 2009 - New Orleans Times-Picayune

UC Davis Professor Daniel Sperling, a transportation expert and member of CA's ARB has co-written "Two Billion Cars: Driving Toward Sustainability". In this radio interview, Sperling describes cleaner auto technologies but dismisses transit's role.

January 16, 2009 - NPR: 'Fresh Air'

As Secretary of Commerce, Herbert Hoover championed the Standard Zoning Enabling Act. Rick Cole argues it is time to leave Hoover's legacy behind.

January 16, 2009 - Citiwire.net

Plans to build a controversial new runway at London's Heathrow International Airport have been approved.

January 15, 2009 - The New York Times

Environmentalists have stalled the development of a third runway at Heathrow Airport by buying the land first.

January 14, 2009 - CNN

"All of a sudden it's hot", says long-time bike advocate and U.S. Representative Earl Blumenauer, who's hoping the country will ride this momentum towards a more sustainable pattern of development.

January 14, 2009 - The New York Times

Terrain.org takes a look at Plum Creek, a New Urbanist development outside Austin, TX that added 1,400 households to a town that had only 4,000 people in the mid-1990s.

January 14, 2009 - Terrain.org: A Journal of the Built & Natural Environments

The question is no longer how to improve the suburbs, says Allison Arieff, but what we're going to do with all the leftover buildings and unfinished sites.

January 13, 2009 - The New York Times

In Virginia Beach, VA, homeowner Herbert Harris was told that the wheelchair ramp and extra bedroom he was building for his wife and ill daughter needed building permits. Thus began a trip down the rabbit hole of the Board of Zoning Appeals.

January 13, 2009 - The Virginian-Pilot

The suburbs are stereotyped as homogeneous, boring, cookie-cutter communities. But suburbs are evolving, according to this column from Tom Condon. Their relationship with cities is also changing -- and it can be good for both.

January 13, 2009 - The Hartford Courant

Chicago's 100-year anniversary of the Daniel Burnham city plan offers an opportunity to rethink how the city works and how it should look for the next 100, according to this piece from Blair Kamin.

January 13, 2009 - Chicago Tribune

As Liverpool ends its year as the European Union's "Capital of Culture", the city is vastly different and better than it was just a year ago, according to this column.

January 11, 2009 - Financial Times

Creating transit, and planning around it, will be the key to success for metro areas, according to a new report from New York's Metropolitan Transportation Authority.

January 11, 2009 - Citiwire

A NY Times profile of Suffern, NY focuses on real estate, but in the process creates a miniature of the struggles of all small towns- keeping the historic downtown vibrant, offering varied housing options, and competing with neighboring cities.

January 10, 2009 - The New York Times