The Daily Source of Urban Planning News

<p>If public participation is a goal, local government should work harder to make public hearings more user-friendly.</p>

May 30 - Sarasota Herald-Tribune

<p>FasTracks, the Denver metro area's plan to add over 100 miles of rail service, is forcing once suburban communities to consider higher density development.</p>

May 30 - The Denver Post

<p>In their annual trip to cities that work better than theirs does, Atlanta leaders visit Vancouver to see first-hand the benefits of density, transit and regional planning.</p>

May 30 - The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

<p>Land use is finally being addressed in California as an intrinsic part of the state's global warming reduction strategy, thanks to passage of the Global Warming Solutions Act and a recent lawsuit by the attorney general against a sprawling county.</p>

May 30 - The San Francisco Chronicle

<p>Policies can create a yin and yang effect in gentrification movements.</p>

May 30 - On Common Ground

<p>Toronto, Canada's largest city, could learn a lot by looking at Chicago, writes Margaret Wente.</p>

May 30 - The Globe and Mail

<p>A bill facing parliament in India would provide a broad social security program for nearly 400 million poor workers in India. Some say the $22 billion program will cost too much to sustain.</p>

May 30 - BBC

<p>L.A. Times editorial compares carbon taxes and carbon trading schemes and argues that carbon taxes are the best way to combat global warming.</p>

May 29 - The Los Angeles Times

BLOG POST

<p class="MsoNormal">With the coming of summer, students finish courses, faculty head off to do research, and practitioners think about vacations. However, for those interested in keeping up to date with academic issues in planning, a number of bloggists provide useful insights into the politics and hot issues in planning education. For students they are a window into the work of educators and for practicing planners they are an easy way to keep up to date with what’s happening in the schools.</p>

May 29 - Ann Forsyth

<p>Heathrow Airport is set to launch what may be the world's largest trial of a personal rapid transit (PRT) system. The electric "pod cabs" will carry passengers and luggage from a parking area to a new terminal -- a journey of about four minutes.</p>

May 29 - The Times (UK)

<p>This column from <em>The Washington Post</em> examines the city's general opposition too revising its building height restrictions -- limits that have been in place for nearly 100 years.</p>

May 29 - The Washington Post

<p>A German tour operator has purchased the entirety of a village in Tuscany with plans to turn it into a mega-resort for vacationing Europeans. Many in the village were upset at the sale, which they say will destroy the local character.</p>

May 29 - The Guardian

<p>Arizona legislators have passed a bill limiting urban and rural growth in areas where water is in low supply. Final approval is expected from the governor.</p>

May 29 - The Los Angeles Times

<p>Strict guidelines have been proposed in Berkeley, California, that would require local residents and businesses to make broad energy efficiency improvements and to make other environmentally-conscious lifestyle changes.</p>

May 29 - The San Francisco Chronicle

FEATURE

May 29 - Wayne Senville

<p>Washington Post columnist Steven Pearlstein offers his ideas for a fleet of ferries shuttling passengers across the Potomac river.</p>

May 29 - The Washington Post

<p>Affordable and eco-friendly, electric bikes and scooters are becoming popular in many Chinese cities -- a welcomed contrast to rising auto usage.</p>

May 29 - McClatchy Washington Bureau

<p>City planners in Pittsburgh broadened their conventional public participation process and worked with local kids to get their feedback and ideas about the new community plan for the South Side neighborhood.</p>

May 29 - Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

<p>For 37 years, L.A.-based non-profit TreePeople has advocated an enlightened method of community and governmental engagement to create healthier urban ecosystems and built environments.</p>

May 29 - The Planning Report

BLOG POST

<p>Houston or Holland? The rapidly growing suburbs of Madrid uncomfortably (and instructively) amalgamate some of both. I was lucky to receive a recent tour from David Cohn, a long-time colleague and 20-year resident of Madrid; Sylvia Perea, a post-doctoral student and, until recently, an editor at the journal Arquitectura Viva, and Emilio Ontiveros, a young architect of the local Research Group on Social Housing. </p><p><img src="/files/u10275/DSC_0122_0.jpg" alt="" width="320" height="212" /> </p>

May 28 - James S. Russell