The Daily Source of Urban Planning News

Within a few decades, explosive population growth in West Africa will create an urbanized area similar in size to America's eastern seaboard between Boston and D.C., "only far more populous." At one pole is Lagos, a "powerful new city-state."

July 2 - The Atlantic

Hazel Borys concludes her whirlwind European travelog. This week: a look at the DNA of Paris, and how to replicate it elsewhere.

July 2 - PlaceShakers

President Obama recently unveiled his 21-page framework for tackling climate change. But for some economists, that's twenty pages too many. A tax on carbon emissions is a simple, elegant, and relatively painless way to reduce emissions, they believe.

July 2 - NPR

A narrow approach to land use policy makes it difficult for communities to assess, and consider, the full impact of new big-box stores. But on Cape Cod, a regional planning framework allows the hidden consequences of big boxes to inform decisions.

July 2 - Grist

Seeking to maximize the power of the Internet to expand public outreach efforts, a plethora of engagement platforms have proliferated in recent years. Government Technology looks at five of the most promising new models of civic engagement.

July 2 - Government Technology

Move over Amsterdam. A new study of London's road use patterns has found that bicycles account for 24 percent of all road traffic during the morning commute. At nearly a fifth of the areas monitored, bikes actually outnumbered other vehicles.

July 1 - London Evening Standard

Across America's Midwest, resident revolts have challenged the traditional DOT orthodoxy of continuous highway construction. The most recent battleground is St. Louis, where a growing movement is protesting a highway project first conceived in 1957.

July 1 - DC.Streetsblog

For a possible answer, look to Mackinac Island, Michigan, where cars have been banned for 115 years. Does chaos ensue when the island's population grows to 15,000 during the summer tourist season? Not quite, says Stephen Messenger.

July 1 - Treehugger

With the number of serviceable trains dwindling the Sydney Monorail is being scrapped.

July 1 - The Sydney Morning Herald

In its entry for a competition hosted by Swedish building society HSB Stockholm, C.F. Moller Architects has proposed a 34-story wood-framed apartment tower - which would be the world's tallest wood building if constructed.

July 1 - Dezeen

A common question raised by those working in the developing world is whether urban planning is useful in those environments. Since questions often focus on planning of a comprehensive type, they overlook planning's intrinsic value and flexibility.

July 1 - The World Bank Group

Unless an agreement between two BART unions and management can be reached, the Bay Area may experience traffic gridlock on Monday if the heavy rail network shuts down, leaving riders in S.F, the East Bay, and Peninsula with considerably fewer options

July 1 - San Francisco Chronicle

Come September, for tens of millions of dollars, you can be the owner of the latest in healthy living - a "WELL-certified condominium" - which promises to deliver improved air, water, light, sleep, energy and nutrition.

July 1 - The New York Times

Two very different grades are assigned, one from David Hawkins, Director of Climate Programs at NRDC; the other from a college senior working on a fossil fuel divestment campaign. Michael Brune of the Sierra Club differs with Hawkins on natural gas.

July 1 - Living on Earth

The results of a survey conducted last year of the forests of Cambodia, but just published this month, has found a complex landscape of "low-density urban sprawl" connected to Angkor Wat, upending our understanding of pre-industrial urbanism.

July 1 - The Guardian

Dr. Clement Lau, a Los Angeles County Planner, describes what the threatened USC Doctor of Policy, Planning, and Development (DPPD) program meant to him and why he thinks it's worth saving.

June 30 - UrbDeZine.com

The 12-county downstate commuter tax is vilified by many living outside New York City - forced to pay a payroll tax to support transit that they may not use. They sued the MTA and won last August, but MTA had the ruling reversed on appeal on June 26.

June 30 - Second Ave. Sagas

Can we combine our love affair with cars and single-family homes with sustainable growth? Mark Delucchi and Kenneth S. Kurani think so.

June 30 - The Atlantic Cities

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa has certainly fallen short with some of his ambitious agenda items (including his attempt to take over the city's school district). But when it comes to transportation, the mayor has had a dramatic, and lasting, effect.

June 30 - Governing

In a forceful op-ed, professor John D. Echeverria argues the Supreme Court's recent "blockbuster" land use decision will "result in long-lasting harm to America’s communities." Not so fast, says Rick Hills, the decision offers an "exit strategy".

June 30 - The New York Times