The Daily Source of Urban Planning News

A recent partnership between Google and Amtrak will allow users of Google Maps / Google Transit to see Amtrak routes as a possible mode of travel, <cite> Webwire </cite> reports.

August 11 - Webwire

While the Massachusetts Affordable Housing Alliance is helping people buy homes, their aim is to build an army of trained homeowners to engage their own neighbors in organizing and advocacy.

August 11 - Shelterforce Magazine

A new report shows that as the population of the U.S. ages, it is likely that more people will rent than own homes, causing a steep decline in the home building industry.

August 11 - Calculated Risk

The Portland, Oregon area is well known for preserving agricultural land separate from urban areas. In the new town of Damascus on the border of the growth boundary, landowners are seeking a way to mix the two.

August 11 - The Oregonian

The housing crisis may be coming to an end, according to some nationwide indexes. And though prices are likely to continue to fall for about a year, some homebuilders are un-pausing their projects and moving forward.

August 11 - Time

More than $2 billion has been cut from redevelopment programs in California's budget, which many say will exacerbate the building slowdown in the state.

August 11 - The Architect's Newspaper

As bankruptcy hearings for two newspapers in Philadelphia unfold, this piece looks at the state of newspapers in cities and wonders what will happen when a big American city loses its newspaper.

August 11 - The New York Times

A new city being planned on 77 acres of agricultural land in Oregon has prompted some to question the hard difference between urban and rural as compartmentalized by the Portland area's urban growth boundary.

August 11 - The Oregonian

The recent corruption bust that resulted in the arrests of more than 40 people in New Jersey shows the interesting shape of the development process in the state.

August 11 - Associated Press

Local businesses on a busy Vancouver street that had been hosting weekly car-free events this summer have protested and effectively cancelled the event.

August 11 - CBC

Gas taxes, parking charges, toll roads - these are the ingredients to making transit successful, according to experts who state that it's not enough to offer good transit - driving must become more expensive. Add to that high density land use.

August 10 - Los Angeles Times

Since the Columbus Ohio Transit Authority (COTA) put bike racks on the front of their buses, so many people have forgotten and left their bikes on board that hundreds of bikes are piling up in the lost and found.

August 10 - The Columbus Dispatch

Boston has not had a good relationship with cyclists. However, Mayor Thomas M. Menino is a cycling advocate, a city bike czar is on staff, bike lanes and facilities have been added, and a turn-around is evident even to its critics.

August 10 - The New York Times - U.S.

Writer Colin Beavan set a goal for his family to live a year in New York with no impact on the environment. A new documentary film follows their travails as meat, cosmetics, and trash bags get packed away.

August 10 - WorldChanging

With not a moment to spare, the Senate passed the House-approved version of the Clunkers program extension - an additional $2 billion to last to Labor Day, and then went into recess. Any changes would have ended the program.

August 10 - The New York Times - Business

BLOG POST

<span style="font-size: small; font-family: Times New Roman"> </span> <p style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"> <span style="font-size: small; font-family: Times New Roman">Some commentators think that Internet technology will liberate us from the constraints of place; for example, one amazon.com book review of Joel Kotkin’s <em>The New Geography</em> states “Because today&#39;s connected workers can live anywhere they want, they will live anywhere they want.”<span>  </span>Kotkin himself is a little more circumspect, but writes: “Telecommunication allows people who want privacy, low-density neighborhoods and good schools to live in small towns in a way never before possible.”(1)<span>  </span>There is a tiny amount of truth to this claim: the Internet does make it

August 10 - Michael Lewyn

The "Forgiving Highway" concept of the 1960s proposed the idea that wider, straighter freeways would be safer. Not so, says TTI.

August 10 - Sustainable Cities Collective

Last week, New York Mayor Bloomberg released a plan to reform transit in the city. City Journal looks at how that might happen and how New York can pay for it.

August 10 - City Journal

Cities need stations where electric cars can recharge in order for the new technology to take off and become a reality in the future, <cite>The Wall Street Journal</cite> reports.

August 10 - The Wall Street Journal

The Center for Public Integrity runs the numbers, and finds that Americans are cashing in on "Cash for Clunkers" at a rate of $77 million a day, vs. $39 million for the first-time homebuyer credit.

August 10 - Center for Public Integrity