The Daily Source of Urban Planning News

<p>Government officials have plans to keep more than a million cars out of Beijing for four days this summer as an experiment to see how the city's notoriously poor air quality can improve.</p>

August 10 - The Times Of India

The idea of creating "complete streets" for cyclists, pedestrians, mass transit, and cars is gaining popularity across the country.

August 10 - USA Today

<p>After the collapse of the Interstate 35W bridge in Minneapolis, many commuters have had to rearrange their commute by finding new routes or taking transit.</p>

August 10 - Minneapolis-St. Paul Star Tribune

<p>The city of Toronto originally had more park space than New York's Central Park. But the need to generate revenue caused the city to sell off much of its parkspace over the years, leaving a city with comparably few open spaces.</p>

August 10 - The Toronto Star

BLOG POST

<p>After the dramatic collapse of the Minneapolis freeway bridge last week, the collective hand-wringing began. The bridge was known to be faulty, but had not been replaced. Our entire public transit system is underfunded, we were told.</p><p>In addition to transportation infrastructure, those concerned with urban issues have a litany of complaints about American cities. Our transit systems are not adequately linked to zoning laws. Our high <a href="http://www.planning.org/APAStore/Search/Default.aspx?p=1814" target="_blank">parking </a>requirements doom alternative modes of transit and drive up development costs. Our policies encourage uncontrolled sprawl, which seemingly nobody likes. Planners&#39; recommendations are too often overruled by ill-informed and politicized zoning boards. Our buildings aren&#39;t energy efficient. City mayors and councils <a href="http://rethinkcollegepark.net/blog/2007/429/" target="_blank">play politics</a> with projects painstakingly approved through highly democratic review processes. And nobody&#39;s happy when local activists hold undue power over individual projects.</p><p> The solutions we are given are almost as varied as the problems. More centralized planning is often called for, or perhaps more regional planning. However, this seems highly difficult and unlikely in <a href="http://blog.commonmonkeyflower.net/node/233" target="_blank">most places</a> where land use is regulated by many small municipalities. Some suggest the solution is more public input on infrastructure and private projects to enhance their quality, while others think we need less input to speed them along and reduce the costs incurred by delays. Some are convinced elaborate flexible or form-based zoning holds the key to better cities, although implementation seems frustratingly difficult. Some cynics conclude that perhaps it is American cultural biases that produce our flawed cities: maybe Americans just like it this way, living with decaying infrastructure, long commutes, but low taxes.</p><p> The motley list of solutions almost never includes the one thing that actually has overcome the myriad of obstacles to good city building before: a broad-based and robust conversation to create solutions, money, and political support.</p>

August 10 - Robert Goodspeed

<p>New urbanist designs can be beautiful in the hands of experts, but the developer's version of idealistic plans may be something else altogether, says Morris Newman, who examines the design of a 500-acre project in Fresno.</p>

August 10 - California Planning & Development Report

<p>City officials have approved a $3.7 million half-infrastructure, half-preservation project to replace water and sewer lines beneath Houston streets that were paved with bricks by freed slaves after the Civil War.</p>

August 10 - The Houston Chronicle

BLOG POST

<p>The August 1 collapse of the Interstate 35W bridge over the Mississippi River in Minneapolis has briefly reminded municipalities across the continent that they, too, have crumbling infrastructure. Local officials have reacted to this tragic current event by reassuring their respective constituencies that they will do whatever they can to make sure their bridges are safe. But if that bridge in Minneapolis hadn&#39;t collapsed, would America&#39;s formerly-unconsidered bridges be getting all of this attention?<br />

August 9 - Nate Berg

<p>High technology and the Internet will have an increasingly broad impact on the way our cities and communities deal with transportation, traffic, and mobility, according to commentator John M. Eger.</p>

August 9 - Government Technology

<p>A small town in Quebec will be cut in half due to bridge repairs. The town will be halved for more than four months.</p>

August 9 - CBC

<p>A rare tornado and torrential storms caused havoc in New York City Wednesday, flooding subway tracks and creating major delays for commuters.</p>

August 9 - The New York Times

<p>The price of farmland is rising rapidly as ethanol fever grabs many farmers who are looking to cash in on the corn-based fuel. But the rising prices are making things harder for smaller farmers, and keeping many prospective farmers out of business.</p>

August 9 - The New York Times

<p>The City of Berkeley, California, is considering changing is long-held policy against auto malls within city limits.</p>

August 9 - The San Francisco Chronicle

<p>State and local officials are angered over being left out of disaster planning measures, after the Bush Administration adopted a unilateral approach that concentrates planning authority in the White House.</p>

August 9 - MSNBC

<p>Numbers continue to rise in New Orleans, where multiple demographic sources show the population at 60% of the total population before Hurricane Katrina hit in August 2005.</p>

August 9 - Associated Press via The Clarion-Ledger

<p>The City of Atlanta and a group of investors have purchased another plot of land for the city's Beltline project -- a loop of open spaces, rail lines, and housing and retail developments. This is the first plot purchased in more than a year.</p>

August 9 - The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

<p>Local government has big plans for redevelopment in the inner suburbs of Washington D.C. But some say the approach is too segmented and lacks a greater vision for many of the region's smaller towns.</p>

August 9 - The Washington Post

<p>In the Alberta Province of Canada, a loophole in a law meant to protect tenants from being evicted for condo conversions has been discovered that allows landlords to legally raise the rents as high as they want, effectively pricing tenants out.</p>

August 9 - CBC

<p>Facing the prospect of not receiving crucial state funding, the Chicago Transit Authority has released a "doomsday" plan to guide the system's reaction to the budget shortfall. Some services would have to be cut, but not as many as expected earlier.</p>

August 8 - The Chicago Tribune

<p>A city-sponsored streetscape beautification project currently under construction in Washington D.C. has been keeping many customers away from local businesses. Many are calling on the city to help out businesses during the construction-caused lull.</p>

August 8 - The Washington Post