The Daily Source of Urban Planning News

How Los Angeles' Urban Parks Battle Climate Change

An overview of how Los Angeles County’s Department of Parks and Recreation is creating projects that tackle the effects of climate change, by planner Clement Lau.

August 1 - UrbDeZine

Growing Concentrations of Poverty in American Suburbs

Updating the initial "Re-Emergence of Concentrated Poverty" Brookings report, Elizabeth Kneebone shows where concentrations of poverty have taken root during the Great Recession and subsequently slow recovery period.

August 1 - Brookings Institution

Jobs-Rich Cities: Three Potential Frontiers of Economic Development

Unemployment still looms above 2007 levels, and is coupled with the lowest labor force participation in 30 years. Arthur Burris outlines what kinds of strategies cities can adopt to help their local economies.

August 1 - Living Cities

A Buffer is Better

What's the best street design to keep bicyclists safely out of the door zone? A buffered bike lane beats a conventional bike lane or "wide curb lane" according to a recent study published in TRB, based on observations in Chicago and Cambridge, Mass.

August 1 - Chi.Streetsblog

Friday Eye Candy: Social Pool in the Middle of Mojave Desert

Alfredo Barsuglia's latest work, "Social Pool," is located in an undisclosed location in the middle of the Mojave Desert. Visitors only receive keys and GPS coordinates as their directions on the day of their reservation.

August 1 - Los Angeles Times


Senate Passes House Transportation Funding Bill; On to Obama

After the House rejected the Senate's amendments to their Highway Trust Fund extension bill, the Senate passed the bill 81-13 on July 31. Payments to states will continue unchanged through May 2015 when the next hurdle awaits

August 1 - The Hill

Google Self-Driving Car smaller

FEATURE

How Self-Driving Cars Can (and Should) Improve Transit

Comments on the proceedings of the Automated Vehicles Symposium (San Francisco, July 14-18, 2014), where participants addressed the many transportation and land use implications of an automated future.

August 1 - Daniel J. Fagnant


Welcome to North Dakota

Life in 'America's New Gold Rush City'

A dispatch from Williston, North Dakota, the epicenter of boom conditions compared to the Klondike Gold Rush of the late 19th century. Whether the city has benefitted or suffered from the current oil boom, is a matter of perspective.

July 31 - Guardian Cities

Baltimore Past and Future Found on Brewers Hill

Adaptive reuse of historic breweries has revitalized the Brewers Hill neighborhood in Baltimore, which is well-situated with future Red Line access and proximity to the Port of Baltimore and the Canton Crossing shopping district.

July 31 - Global Site Plans

Profiles of New Yorkers Killed by Car Collisions

A new feature on Transportation Nation will highlight the tragedy of traffic fatalities in New York City, by profiling the people who passed and the traffic circumstances that took them.

July 31 - WNYC: Transportation Nation

Mean Streets

Mapping the Happiest Places in the United States (Disneyland Not Included)

Researchers from Harvard and the University of British Columbia used "self-reported life satisfaction data" from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to locate the cities and regions where Americans are most happy (or unhappy).

July 31 - Vox

Voices of the Train: Meet the Announcers Behind America's Transit Systems

Ever wondered who the announcers are for some of the largest transit lines in the United States?

July 31 - Vice Magazine

Massachusetts Voters May Repeal Automatic Gas Tax Indexing

It's been exactly a year since the state approved a 3-cent increase in the gas tax with hard fought legislation that ties future increases to inflation. However, the automatic indexing of the gas tax may be undone by voters on November 4.

July 31 - Tax Foundation

Can the Tea Party, Property Rights Activists, and Planners Find Common Ground?

Dr. Karen Trapenberg Frick suggests that in public participation processes, planners may find common ground with Tea Party and property rights activists.

July 31 - California Planning and Development Report

Out of the Frying Pan and into the Fire: Summer Temperatures in 2100

A new interactive map titled "1,001 Blistering Future Summers" displays predicted daytime summer heat temperatures for 1,001 cities in the United States for the year 2100.

July 31 - CityLab

Boxing Gyms in Shrinking Cities: Refuge for the Formerly Incarcerated

Sociologist Lucia Trimbur describes how urban boxing gyms provide an opportunity for a particularly vulnerable population, formerly incarcerated men of color, to "recover from detention and establish stability in the free world."

July 31 - Urban Omnibus

University of Chicago

BLOG POST

The University and The City: Location and Structure

Institutional structure and culture can matter as much as location to the success and survival of urban universities.

July 31 - Dean Saitta

Real Estate Woes Hemorrhaging Wealth from the Middle Class

An article on the Washington Post Wonkblog shows how deeply the real estate crash impacted the wealth of the Middle Class—now on the tail end of three lost decades.

July 30 - The Washington Post - Wonkblog

Terminal Island Freeway Commodore Schuyler F Heim Bridge

Southern California First: Freeway Teardown Project Coming to Long Beach

Funded by a grant from the California Department of Transportation, Long Beach released an RFP for conceptual and design services for a plan to transform the Terminal Island Freeway into a "regional serving greenbelt and local serving road."

July 30 - Longbeachize

Senate Passes Transportation Bill; House Not Likely to Play Ball

Three days before Congress goes on recess and with the Highway Trust Fund approaching insolvency, the Senate passed a transportation bill notably different than the House version passed July 15, setting up a showdown between the two branches.

July 30 - POLITICO Pro.

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Top Books

An annual review of books related to planning.

Top Schools

The definitive ranking of graduate planning programs.

100 Most Influential Urbanists

The who's who of urbanism, according to Planetizen readers.

Urban Planning Creators You Should Know

A short list of voices on social, video, and podcasting platforms.

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.