The Daily Source of Urban Planning News

An interview with Thomas Balsley, landscape architect and designer of hundreds of parks and plazas in New York, reveals inside baseball about the evolution of park design, planning, and approvals in the Big Apple.

January 14 - Metropolis

Facing a shortfall of more than $1 million to maintain its roads, the Chicago suburb of Long Grove is looking to privatize nearly half of them by asking residents to pick up the tab. Residents are unhappy about the plan, but see few alternatives.

January 14 - Chicago Tribune

It's already conquered phones and the Internet, and is moving rapidly into the automotive world, but Google's $3.2 billion purchase of smart device maker Nest provides the company with entree into the "connected home" market.

January 14 - PCWorld

The Northern California marijuana industry is booming, but issues with water consumption and downstream pollution produced by the large-scale cultivation of marijuana are threatening populations of salmon already on the brink of extinction.

January 14 - NPR The Salt

The leader of the Liberal Democrats, half of the UK's coalition government, accuses the Conservatives of withholding a report that identifies sites for two new towns in 'safe' Conservative regions.

January 14 - BBC News

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio enters office with strong progressive credentials, similar to those of Los Angeles’ recently-termed-out Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa. Can New York find lessons from the Los Angeles political experience?

January 14 - The Nation

After years of declining carbon-dioxide emissions in the U.S., and growing hope in the country's ability to meet President Obama's emission reduction targets, preliminary data indicates emissions from energy sources increased 2% last year

January 14 - The Washington Post

A new Senate bill aims to give drivers more control over the growing trove of data being collected by sensors and computers embedded in our cars. Most drivers are unaware of how much personal information is being recorded.

January 14 - The New York Times

Call it the Lac-Mégantic effect - the July 6 conflagration that leveled the downtown, killing 47 people, has implications for all jurisdictions where oil and freight trains run. Cities must recognize that rail insurance policies are woefully lacking.

January 14 - The Wall Street Journal

An inordinate amount of traffic fatalities occur in developing parts of the world. In some countries, road deaths have surpassed diseases like AIDS and Tuberculosis as a public health threat.

January 14 - The Washington Post

Construction and permitting for large solar facilities like those located in the desert at the border of California and Nevada is nearly non-existent. Uncertainty over expiring tax credits is only partly to blame.

January 13 - Los Angeles Times

As a leading cause of death in the U.S., car collisions are one of the country's foremost public health problems. But a review of the last century of medical literature reveals increasing reluctance by the profession to weigh in on the subject.

January 13 - DC.Streetsblog

In Valencia, workers will begin removing the sparkling mosaic facade that adorns the Queen Sofía Palace of the Arts today. The opera house's crumbling facade is the latest episode to tarnish architect Santiago Calatrava's professional reputation.

January 13 - The New York Times

Before San Diego can begin to fix its "busted sidewalks and busted sidewalk policies," the city is embarking on a high-tech $1 million effort to assess the quality of its pedestrian infrastructure.

January 13 - Voice of San Diego

In December, the Rockefeller Foundation chose the first 33 cities to receive funding and support through its 100 Resilient Cities Challenge. Here's what comes next.

January 13 - Future Cities

After unceremoniously dispatching the state’s redevelopment agencies amidst California’s recent fiscal crisis, Governor Jerry Brown has formulated a new scheme for cities to achieve their redevelopment goals, but there's a catch.

January 13 - California Planning & Development Report

A new study by the Community Service Society has found that New York City lost an astonishing percentage of apartments affordable to low-income residents over the past decade. The study supports Mayor de Blasio's "tale of two cities" narrative.

January 13 - The Wall Street Journal

BLOG POST

Preserving urban landscapes can be just as important as preserving historic buildings. However, saving our design heritage needs to be balanced with the imperative that places effectively meet the functional needs of contemporary cities.

January 13 - Mark Hough

With women accounting for only 20% of registered architects in Britain and 8% of professional engineers, the incoming president of the Royal Academy of Engineering has a compelling idea to encourage more women to enter the fields: give girls legos.

January 13 - The Guardian

A complete streets program once thought to be on the fast track to approval has provoked strong opposition and is likely headed back to the drawing board in the Gateway City.

January 13 - St. Louis Post-Dispatch