The Daily Source of Urban Planning News

<p>The latest report on America's most dangerous cities has been released, and Detroit is once again at the top. Critics are bashing the study, saying the FBI crime statistics it is based on do not tell the whole story of each city.</p>

November 19 - CNN

<p>Despite predictions of heavy use, a mere 200 vehicles a day are using a high-capacity expressway U-turn intended to ease traffic on the city's surface streets.</p>

November 19 - The Boston Globe

<p>The Pittsburgh City Council is unanimously backing legislation to allow LEED-certified buildings to be taller and bigger than zoning ordinances would normally allow.</p>

November 19 - Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

<p>The scene of white-clad lawn bowlers playing amid highrises, long an icon of downtown Victoria, will soon vanish, as the city plans to turn a long-established club's greens into underground parking and a hard-surfaced urban plaza.</p>

November 19 - Victoria Times Colonist

<p>'Retail incubation' is finding footing in New Jersey and nationally as a downtown revitalization tool.</p>

November 19 - New Jersey Herald

FEATURE

November 19 - Nate Berg

<p>Kansas City's ambitious urban-renewal effort to reinvent its downtown is being captured on film.</p>

November 19 - The Los Angeles Times

According to new analysis of satellite data, Hurricane Katrina destroyed 320 million trees. Dead trees will release about 367 million tons of carbon dioxide as they decompose.

November 19 - Los Angeles Times

The daylight savings time change earlier this month has been blamed for a rash of pedestrian deaths and injuries from car collisions in Toronto. The city is looking to police to step up enforcement to cut down the number of injuries.

November 19 - The Toronto Star

<p>Demographers are estimating that the population of Alaska will surpass 800,000 by the year 2030. The population 65 and older is expected to grow the fastest between now and then.</p>

November 19 - Anchorage Daily News

<p>Housing affordability is becoming a major issue in Washington, where workers increasingly have to "drive to qualify".</p>

November 19 - The Columbian

BLOG POST

<p>Last year California was one of the states targeted by libertarians in the post-Kelo environment for an initiative that, if successful, would essentially outlaw takings. The country is still at near-fever pitch about eminent domain, but the really scary aspect of the legislation (modeled on Oregon&#39;s Prop 37) was that it would have virtually tied local governments&#39; hands with regard to regulatory takings as well. In California Proposition 90 failed to pass after the New York developer who was financing the campaign stopped funding it. However, the Yes campaign had created some strange bedfellows, with poor African-Americans in particular advocating Yes votes as a way to end the destruction of their neighborhoods through badly managed redevelopment initiatives.</p>

November 18 - Lisa Feldstein

<p>The golf community evolves to include more amenities and place-making design.</p>

November 18 - The New York Times

<p>Atlanta and the southeast are running out of water. But they're not alone: this year has been the driest on record in many parts of the globe. It's time to consider some worst-case scenarios, writes Tom Engelhardt.</p>

November 18 - Tom Dispatch

<p>The L.A. planning commission approved regulations requiring that major new developments meet U.S. Green Building Council LEED standards, with the goal of reducing energy use in new building by 15%.</p>

November 18 - The Los Angeles Times

<p>An extensive tunnel system exists beneath the city of Paris, playing a major infrastructural role, but also serving as an interesting tourist attraction and look at the underbelly of the historic city.</p>

November 18 - Smithsonian Magazine

<p>Orange County, California's Little Saigon is not the tourist and cultural center it should be, according to the Urban Land Institute, which has completed a study of the area and released recommendations for revitalization.</p>

November 18 - The Los Angeles Times

<p>This article from <em>The Guardian</em> looks at how the world's major cities are portrayed in film.</p>

November 17 - The Guardian

<p>San Jose, California is considering a plan to require all new private developments to follow strict environmental standards. Builders and developers are opposed and claim the move will be bad for the city as it tries to encourage business growth.</p>

November 17 - San Jose Mercury News

<p>San Francisco plans to test out a double-decker bus for possible adoption into its public transit fleet.</p>

November 17 - The San Francisco Chronicle