The Daily Source of Urban Planning News

<p>Joel Kotkin's recent LA Times Op-Ed is critiqued by Bill Fulton of the California Planning and Development Report. Fulton argues the suburban areas Kotkin defends are actually urbanizing, whereas true suburbia show signs of becoming the new slums.</p>

July 8 - California Planning and Development Report

<p>Americans have been storing a staggering amount of personal belongings in self-storage units. But along with the foreclosure crisis, storage companies are now seeing people foreclose on their lockers.</p>

July 8 - Macleans Magazine

<p>As more families choose to live in denser cities and neighborhoods, apartment dwellers must learn to deal with noisy tots.</p>

July 8 - The New York Times

<p>Joel Kotkin once again leaps to the defense of the suburbs as a choice, and says that urbanists who are hoping that Americans will rush back into the cities are sadly mistaken.</p>

July 8 - The Los Angeles Times

<p>The exurban town of Buckeye, Arizona, is expected over the next two decades to grow from a population of 25,000 to more than 400,000. Planners are trying to do what they can to control the flood.</p>

July 8 - Architect Magazine

<p>With gas prices at more than $9 per gallon in Britain, driving habits are changing.</p>

July 8 - The Christian Science Monitor

<p>In an effort to raise extra money, cities and counties in Florida have been selling advertising in public spaces. Some say it's a good way to get extra revenue, but others worry about the visual pollution of public areas.</p>

July 8 - Herald Tribune

<p>In the Washington D.C.-suburb of Tysons Corner, plans for a major downtown redevelopment hinge on one basic issue: parking.</p>

July 8 - The Washington Post

<p>With housing prices out of reach for many immigrants in the U.S., more and more are investing in houses in their home countries -- and their governments and local lenders are doing all they can to encourage it.</p>

July 7 - The Boston Globe

<p>Former single-screen cinemas in New York City and Long Island are reopening as multi-use art centers and helping to stimulate the revitalization of dormant downtowns.</p>

July 7 - Newsday

Dallas's city council passed an ordinance restricting the percentage of window space a storefront can use for advertisements. Council members say the signs are creating or adding to blight.

July 7 - Dallas Morning News

The Wall Street Journal looks at this "smart growth" thing.

July 7 - Wall St. Journal

BLOG POST

<p> <strong><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial">Basic Elements</span></strong> </p>

July 7 - Mike Lydon

BLOG POST

<p> <span style="font-family: Arial"><span style="font-size: small">In my recent post outlining Council&#39;s approval of the <a href="http://www.vancouver-ecodensity.ca/content.php?id=42" target="_blank">EcoDensity Charter and Initial Actions</a> I referenced that two new rezoning policies approved by Council (Actions A-1 and A-2) may give Vancouver the highest green requirements for private-sector building design and large site design in North America. Here are these two policies that are in effect as of May 13, 2008.</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial"><span style="font-size: small"> </span></span> </p>

July 7 - Brent Toderian

<p>The Red River Floodway, built in the 1960s to protect the City of Winnipeg from flooding, has been named by the International Association of Macro Engineering Societies as one of the engineering wonders of the world.</p>

July 7 - The Winnipeg Free Press

<p>It's known as the Iron Triangle, though some call the sewerless 13-block collection of auto junkyards just east of Shea Stadium an eyesore and disgrace. A controversial application of eminent domain is at the heart of the $3 billion makeover plan.</p>

July 7 - Queens Chronicle

<p>Landscape architecture firm dlandstudio is taking the stench out of the Gowanus Canal by building a new public park that is beautiful as well as functional.</p>

July 7 - The New York Sun

<p>Street posters play an important role in participatory civic life, according to this article from <em>re:place</em> magazine.</p>

July 7 - re:place

<p>City officials in Lockhart, near Austin, consider allowing golf carts on arterial streets.</p>

July 7 - Fox 7 KTBC Austin

<p>It has been a long time since the State of California was a public policy innovator. But a draft plan for implementing a greenhouse gas reduction law places California right on the cutting edge.</p>

July 7 - California Planning & Development Report