The Daily Source of Urban Planning News
America's Dying Middle Class
<p>Rolling Stone pundit Matt Taibbi writes that the media are missing the real story: that millions of Americans are financially drowning under home heating costs, gas prices and debt, and the middle class is disappearing.</p>
Does CA Drought Mean No Growth? Bill Fulton Says No
<p>Although water is a natural resource and often discussed as such, the real issue for California is how water gets used. Bill Fulton argues that California has plenty of water. What it needs is political will to make the best use of the water.</p>
Highway Funding: The Last Bastion of Socialism in America
<p>Since 1956, federal, state and local governments have invested nine times more capital funding in highway subsidies than in transit.</p>
Appalachia Creates a 'Suitability Map' to Entice Responsible Development
<p>A key idea of western North Carolina's Mountain Landscapes Initiative is to create a map of land already in conservation, layered with land that <em>should</em> be preserved, so that developers, builders, and residents together can plan responsibly.</p>
Manhole Theft Plagues Philadelphia
<p>The rising value of iron and steel has prompted thieves to steal an alarming amount of manhole covers from Philadelphia's streets.</p>
San Francisco Locked Out of Own Data By Disgruntled Employee
<p>A systems admin in San Francisco apparently decided to bring San Francisco grinding to a halt, and refuses to divulge the passwords he set up across the city's entire network.</p>
BLOG POST
McKinsey's Pitch for a More Compact Urban China
<p>The McKinsey Global Institute has just published a major report outlining four potential scenarios for urbanization in China.</p><p>The main thrust of the report is that China needs to focus less on growing its cities and more on making them efficient and productive. Given the massive levels of capital investment Chinese cities have seen over the last 20 years, it makes sense that the country's urban planners need to find ways to squeeze more capacity out of these systems. After all, as McKinsey projects, another 350 million people will need to be accommodated, some 250 million of them as rootless rural migrants.</p>
Underpreserved Beijing Feels Sting of Gentrification
<p>As Beijing undergoes rapid redevelopment, many historic buildings have been lost in the scramble. Now the few that remain are inspiring a flood of gentrification.</p>
Fighting Isolation With Sleepovers
<p>After a murder in his neighborhood, writer Peter Lovenheim decided that he needed to become closer to his neighbors. So he packed up his sleeping bag and invited himself over for a sleepover.</p>
S.F. Looks To Kick Cars Off Market Street
<p>Officials in San Francisco have proposed permanently banning cars from a 2.3 mile section of Market Street, downtown's major thoroughfare.</p>
FEATURE
Small Town Apocalyptic Values
Josh Stephens reviews James Howard Kunstler's novel of post-peak oil existence, <i>World Made By Hand.</i>
Fast-Food Moratorium Moves Ahead in L.A.
<p>A proposal to ban any new fast-food restaurants in South Los Angeles for one year has received unanimous approval from a city committee, and will head next to city council for approval. Concerns have been raised about what qualifies as "fast food".</p>
Google Maps Adds Walking Directions
<p>Google announces walking directions feature for Google Maps.</p>
Sierra Club Opposes Use of HOV Lanes By Paying Customers
<p>Houston's MTA is planning to allow drivers to pay a toll to use the High-Occupancy Vehicle (HOV) lane on their freeways, and the local Sierra Club chapter is speaking out against the plan.</p>
Property Rights vs. Height Limits
<p>Local officials in Manasota Key, FL tried to preserve the character of their community by putting height restrictions in place, but a thwarted developer has been awarded $500k for the limitations these restrictions imposed on his property rights.</p>
Least Economically Developed: Fresno
<p>This segment from <em>NPR</em> looks at the economy of the central California city of Fresno, which has been named the least economically developed part of the country by a recent report.</p>
British Town Reduces Carbon Footprint Through Small Changes
<p>Small changes in British Victorian homes yield big changes in energy consumption, and help debunk the stereotype that 'green equals ugly' where architecture is concerned.</p>
A New Downtown for Scottsdale
<p>Scottsdale, Arizona planners have released a new vision for their downtown, in a 'trend toward urban living'.</p>
Paris 'Beach' Opens
<p>The annual transformation of riverbanks to beaches has begun in Paris, where the River Seine becomes a widely visited outdoor public space known as Paris Plages.</p>
Project Lilypad: A 'Floating Ecopolis'
<p>Belgian architect Vincent Callebaut has designed a floating city with the noble goal of housing displaced peoples who's homelands have been destroyed.</p>
City of Moorpark
City of Tustin
City of Camden Redevelopment Agency
City of Astoria
Transportation Research & Education Center (TREC) at Portland State University
Regional Transportation Commission of Southern Nevada
Toledo-Lucas County Plan Commissions
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