The Daily Source of Urban Planning News

A ballot measure being proposed by the Sierra Club’s San Francisco chapter would take certain waterfront development decisions out of the hands of the city's Planning Commission and Board of Supervisors, and give it to the voters.

January 6 - Sf Examiner

Throughout North America's auto-oriented suburbs, front-facing garages are a common feature of home design. According to Brent Toderian, that design decision has a significant impact on speeding and the quality of neighborhoods.

January 6 - Huffington Post British Columbia

Though the war on poverty launched by President Lyndon B. Johnson has improved the lives of low-income Americans in many ways, poverty remains a persistent problem. Republicans and Democrats disagree over the solutions to the enduring challenge.

January 6 - The New York Times

In one word: safety. And, as Sarah Laskow explains, the more folks take to riding, the safer the streets become, so it builds on itself. Critical to road safety is bike infrastructure, like protected bike lanes, bike boxes and bike traffic signals.

January 6 - Grist

Though their lack of emissions is admirable, the knock on electric vehicles is that their power is likely derived from dirty sources. Could a new solar-powered car unveiled by Ford kick-start the era of renewable energy-powered transportation?

January 6 - Fast Company Co.Exist

In the search for cutting edge, sustainable construction techniques, Brad Pitt's Make It Right Foundation may have taken a wrong step in its selection of materials. The nonprofit is spending $150,000 to replace rotting stairs and decks.

January 5 - The New Orleans Advocate

Here are five urban IT projects that are set to win big this year -- and serve as examples for cities everywhere.

January 5 - Future Cities

Mexico is poised to allow foreign investment in its state-owned oil company, Pemex, for the first time in 75 years. In Venezuela, home to the world's cheapest gasoline, prices are due to skyrocket if President Maduro ends subsidies as he's indicated.

January 5 - BBC News

A new study published in the New England Journal of Medicine examines which types of distractions lead to the most collisions. Researchers found that dialing while driving is the biggest safety hazard.

January 5 - Los Angeles Times

Louise Bethune was a trailblazer in architecture, yet her burial place didn't even bear her name for over a century. Buffalo's industry heavyweights honored her with a memorial marker last month.

January 5 - Fast Co. Design

Though it's been expedited, the cumbersome environmental review process for a plan to raise the deck of the Bayonne Bridge has New York area leaders fuming over impediments to economic development. Others contend the review is being rushed.

January 4 - The New York Times

2013 was a historic year for rooftop solar installation across the United States, and in California in particular. The Golden State added as much rooftop solar capacity as was installed over the prior 30 years combined.

January 4 - Climate Progress

In an opinion piece for the Vancouver Sun, a trio of academics argue that, contrary to popular belief, socially mixed neighborhoods can be damaging to the supposed beneficiaries: low-income groups.

January 4 - The Vancouver Sun

Gas prices will drop due to surging U.S. oil production according to an U.S. Energy Dept. report. Another report from the International Energy Agency points to surging carbon dioxide emissions, not from oil but from coal burning, largely from China.

January 4 - The New York Times - Energy & Environment

Michael Sorkin bemoans the trickle-down planning ethos of the Bloomberg era and sees the need to increase the city's resiliency as an opportunity to "return to the task of physical planning attuned to local desires".

January 4 - Architectural Record

We regret we weren't able to deliver this valuable information last month, but apparently a "hangover taxi" stocked with orange juice, sunglasses, and Tylenol has been offering free rides to stricken Londoners.

January 3 - Los Angeles Times

Led by the nonprofit David Suzuki Foundation, a volunteer workforce of "park rangers" is deploying creative green interventions along private properties and public spaces throughout Toronto to create a citywide green corridor.

January 3 - Fast Company Co.Exist

Launched last summer, the regional bike share program is looking to expand this spring to one thousand bikes in one hundred kiosks, according to Air District officials who administer the five-city, three-county pilot program and view it as a success.

January 3 - San Francisco Chronicle

With the U.S. ranking 35th out of 148 countries in Internet bandwidth and anywhere from 14th to 31st in average connection speed, experts are warning that the country's broadband deficit could harm its economic and technological competitiveness.

January 3 - The New York Times

As part of its quest to become the "Alternative Energy Capital of the World", Lancaster, California will require all new single-family homes to incorporate solar energy systems beginning Jan. 1, 2014.

January 3 - The Civic Bee