The Daily Source of Urban Planning News

Disasters happen. Being prepared is almost always the ideal, but rarely the reality. A disaster training facility in Texas is trying to change that.

August 3 - Popular Science

BLOG POST

<p> Summer seems to be the season to demolish old schools. There’s nothing that makes people madder than when a neighborhood school is reduced to rubble. One Portland blogger <a href="http://chatterbox.typepad.com/portlandarchitecture/2009/07/an-architectural-tragedy-riverdale-has-been-destroyed.html" target="_blank">compared the wreckage of a 1920s school to Dresden</a>. People in Beaumont, Texas, took the local school district to court to save their 87-year-old high school, and those “Greenies” are fired up on <a href="http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=92556003497&amp;ref=search" target="_blank">Facebook</a>.

August 3 - Margaret Foster

With a 32-story tower occupied only part-time by a single family, America's real estate bust may be most apparent in Fort Meyers.

August 3 - Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Crime numbers and struggling city budgets have caused the Justice department to issue $1 billion in federal stimulus funds to 1,046 communities to beef up their police forces.

August 3 - The Philadelphia Inquirer

Through the use of infrared aerial photography, the lost ancient Roman city of Altinum has been found.

August 3 - Der Spiegel

FEATURE

Builder Fernando Pagés Ruiz discovered by accident that the multicultural groups in his community had special needs that weren't being met.

August 3 - Fernando Pagés Ruiz

Funding from the federal Neighborhood Stabilization Program is finding a lot of use in foreclosure-swamped California's San Bernardino County. But one city is deep in debate over how those funds should be used, and which areas should be saved.

August 3 - The Contra Costa Times

BLOG POST

<p> After more than four years of public meetings, new drafts, extensive revisions, debate, and controversy, <a href="http://www.miami21.org/">Miami 21</a> is finally scheduled for its first City Commission reading on August 6th. For all who have, or continue to work patiently and dilligently on the groundbreaking zoning code, this is exciting and relieving news.   </p>

August 2 - Mike Lydon

A new high-tech system from New Zealand will be installed on L.A.'s 110 freeway, which will feature sensors that will know when traffic slows and open an alternate lane automatically.

August 2 - Los Angeles Times

This slideshow form <em>Mother Nature Network</em> shows seven globa cities that are completely free of cars.

August 2 - Mother Nature Network

As the regionality of urban planning issues becomes more clear, metropolitan planning organizations are uniquely suited to shape the policy response. But, according to this piece from <em>Citiwire</em>, they lack the power to do it.

August 2 - Citiwire

Entrepreneurs are flocking to New Orleans, a boom that some expect to help bring employment levels 98.8% of the way back to pre-Hurricane Katrina levels by 2016.

August 2 - The New York Times

This episode of <em>Smart City</em> examines some new thinking in the realm of city tourism, focusing providing visitors more authentic experiences.

August 2 - Smart City

Responding to a recent controversial review of planning processes, the Department for Communities & Local Government is allowing many types of building alterations to happen without review.

August 1 - bd

The Cash For Clunkers Program or CARS (Car Allowance Rebate System) received a major vote of confidence on July 31 when the House overwhelmingly voted to inject $2 billion into the enormously popular program.

August 1 - The New York Times - Business

Outside Magazine ranks the top 10 U.S. cities for people who like to exercise and be outdoors.

August 1 - Outside

A new study from <em>The Brookings Institution</em> discusses how school quality and neighborhood affordability are linked, and how both can be improved.

August 1 - The Brookings Institution

Collecting an reusing rainwater is one way cities can deal with diminishing freshwater supplies. The more people can collect, the better. And people can collect more water if they have bigger containers.

August 1 - Governing

A sample of public comments from meetings in the eccentrically out-there city of Santa Cruz, California.

July 31 - SoWat TV

The Fed's "Cash For Clunkers" program, which set aside funds to give people an incentive to trade in old polluting cars for newer models, is already reportedly running out of money. (VIDEO)

July 31 - ABC