The Daily Source of Urban Planning News

<p>Cars and shipping will all be controlled automatically and traffic jams will be a thing of the past, according to a new book that posits a futuristic transit system within 50 years.</p>

August 28 - The Observer via Guardian Unlimited

<p>In the communities on the Texas side of the U.S.-Mexico border, development is an incremental process. But with an influx of public services and infrastructure, the humble villages are blossoming.</p>

August 28 - International Herald Tribune

<p>As global demand for ethanol and other plant-based energy sources booms, farmers have to make the choice between feeding people or feeding their energy habits. Many predict they will increasingly opt for the latter, causing food shortages worldwide.</p>

August 28 - The Times

<p>Individual ownership, privately operated services, and professional management are part of the new face of the kibbutz -- Israel's cooperative intentional communities founded on Marxist and socialist principles.</p>

August 28 - International Herald Tribune

<p>Billions have been invested in redeveloping Houston's downtown. Now, civic boosters are looking to revive a waterfront section of the city by creating active parkspace and increasing preservation efforts for a nearby historic building.</p>

August 28 - The Houston Chronicle

<p>Citing the city's poor economic stature, residents of a section of Gary, Indiana, are proposing that they split from the city. Some say race and class differences are the undercurrents spurring the idea.</p>

August 28 - The Chicago Tribune

<p>Two years later, many New Orleans neighborhoods remain abandoned and former residents report no intentions of returning.</p>

August 28 - The Washington Post

<p>Five mansions on the U.S. housing market are looking to become the most expensive homes ever sold in the country, and maybe the world.</p>

August 28 - The Wall Street Journal

<p>Geoff Manaugh observes that truly sustainable architecture goes unnoticed while designs that end up "ornamentalizing sustainability" get the "green" label and the media's attention.</p>

August 27 - BLDGBLOG

A trend of dense downtown development in Los Angeles has some calling the city's new urban growth pattern a move towards "Manhattanization".

August 27 - The Los Angeles Times

<p>This column from <em>The Wall Street Journal</em> argues that the best way to prevent damages from natural disasters is not to fight carbon emissions, but to prevent people from living in disaster-prone areas.</p>

August 27 - The Wall Street Journal

<p>Urban farming takes root in Detroit.</p>

August 27 - The Detroit Free Press

<p>A major rezoning in Jamaica, Queens, to allow more jobs and housing, up to six stories, is cautiously supported by some community boards, and opposed outright by others.</p>

August 27 - The New York Times

<p>36 Chinese cities are on the fast track to building rail-based mass transit system. Within the next decade Shanghai's subway system is expected to become the world's largest.</p>

August 27 - The Los Angeles Times

<p>The population shift from rural to urban areas is making big changes in the Great Plains. While many rural small towns are disappearing, the shift is opening new doors for business and preservation.</p>

August 27 - USA Today

<p>A population increase of 60% over the last 7 years is threatening land and history in a rural Virginia county that contains federally-recognized Civil War battlefields.</p>

August 27 - The New York Times

<p>Climate change legislation that is expected to be introduced into the U.S. House of Representatives next month includes a provision that eliminates a tax deduction for any home over 3,000 square feet.</p>

August 27 - The Washington Post

<p>California's 52-day delayed budget was just signed by Gov. Schwarzenegger and the biggest loser is transportation -- to the tune of $1.3 billion. Public transit agencies will be taking the biggest hit of all.</p>

August 27 - San Francisco Examiner

<p>A widely watched lawsuit by California's attorney general against the state's fastest growing county over the issue of inventorying and reducing greenhouse gas emissions in the update of a county general plan has been settled.</p>

August 26 - The San Bernardino Sun

<p>A Canadian city suspicious about the low population count reported in the national census decided to do its own count. The city found 2,000 more people than the census -- a figure that would have equated to $600,000 more in federal grant money.</p>

August 26 - CBC