The Daily Source of Urban Planning News

For the last ten years, the Army Corps of Engineers has been dredging the bottom of Boston Harbor in an effort to make more room for larger cargo ships. Dredging is almost complete on the project.

October 27 - The Boston Globe

Officials in China are moving to implement a handful of strategies to combat the housing slump, including tax breaks, smaller down-payment requirements and lower loan rates for first-time buyers.

October 27 - The Wall St. Journal

Officials in Toronto have decided to keep secret the locations of 90 security cameras installed on public buildings. Residents and union officials are outraged.

October 27 - Toronto Sun

A project to transform a municipal landfill into a terraced landscape wins high honors at the 2008 World Architecture Festival in Barcelona, Spain.

October 27 - CNN

The next president should take farming seriously and personally, according to Neal Pierce, who writes that rethinking the scale of food production is smart for regions, the environment and the economy.

October 27 - Citiwire

FEATURE

October 27 - Nate Berg

Some Canadian communities are seeing their local economies thriving despite -- or is it because of? -- the presence of Wal-Mart.

October 26 - Globe and Mail

In a trial run starting in December, monitors in one New York City subway station will display the exact location of every train on the line, giving riders a more accurate idea about how long they'll have to wait for the next train.

October 26 - The New York Times

BLOG POST

<p> <span style="font-size: xx-small; color: #000000; font-family: Verdana"><span style="font-size: 7pt">Out in the bar, the world as we know it was coming to an end. In the backroom, meanwhile, smart people were trying to figure out the future of suburbia.</span></span> </p> <p> <span style="font-size: xx-small; color: #000000; font-family: Verdana"><span style="font-size: 7pt">The bar was in the lobby of a classic desert resort in Arizona. On the TV, CNN was delivering headlines of imminent doom. It was the last days of September, and the foundations of American finance were cracking under the strains of default and distrust. </span></span> </p>

October 26 - Gordon Price

Income inequality in U.S. cities rivals that of many African cities, which struggle with deep divides between the haves and the have-nots, according to a recent report from the United Nations.

October 26 - Reuters

UNESCO has released a detailed map of the world's aquifers, a move the organization hopes will enable more intelligent use of natural resources.

October 26 - New Scientist

A single bike activist, tired of being honked at by motorists as they passed her in a narrow lane, lobbied her small city for a sign directing motorists to "change lanes to pass", and got it. Motorists have since ceased honking and changed lanes.

October 26 - The Examiner

Following the Ikea model, home builder John Sawyer is bringing a new -- and cheaper -- process to affordable housing in New Orleans.

October 25 - The Christian Science Monitor

A new U of PA study, 'Guaranteed Parking, Guaranteed Driving' compares two NYC neighborhoods, showing decisively that providing off-street parking is a sure way to guarantee more driving.

October 25 - Transportation Alternatives

As part of its series on creating a sustainable future, the <em>San Francisco Bay Guardian</em> has outlined a list of steps for improving land use in the city, and argues that current plans from the mayor won't be enough.

October 25 - The San Francisco Bay Guardian

The San Francisco County Transportation Authority is calling for the elimination of auto levels of service (LOS) as a criteria under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA).

October 25 - coolconnections.org

Dow Jones Architects of London are proposing to create "waste towers", designed to compress waste locally before transporting to landfills outside the city.

October 25 - BLDBLOG

The next president must commit to fixing our infrastructure, says Dave Demerjian of Wired. Such an investment will create jobs, strengthen our economy and make America more competitive.

October 24 - Wired.com

The Open Planning Project's Executive Director Mark Gorton talks with Janette Sadik-Khan about how her agency is redefining public space in New York City.

October 24 - Streetsblog

Plunging oil prices are hitting three oil-producing countries the hardest: Venezuela, Iran, and Russia. This article looks at each of them and evaluates how they will fare if oil prices do not rise, including their relationships to the U.S.

October 24 - The New York Times