The Daily Source of Urban Planning News

BLOG POST

<p>I&#39;m glad this blog to date has provided fertile ground both to challenge planning as a profession as well as to compliment planning when it happens to do something worthy.  In this spirit, I&#39;d like to irritate many of my colleagues out there and definitively say that starchitects are not the problem.  </p><p>I wish I could play the role of <a href="http://newstandardnews.net/content/fourthcolumn/?itemid=4244">Stephen Colbert</a> and ridiculously declare the end to this debate, but alas, I do not have the television airtime (or wit) to make this point as effectively as I would like.  This forum will have to do.</p>

March 16 - Scott Page

<p>Forget buying a home -- an increasing number of middle-class Americans are having a difficult time even finding affordable rental apartments.</p>

March 16 - Apartment Finance Today

BLOG POST

<p><img src="/files/u4/sl-spanish-sm.jpg" alt="Spanish-style home at Darrow Estates (small)" title="Spanish-style home at Darrow Estates (small)" hspace="5" vspace="5" width="200" height="128" align="left" />I&#39;m making a <strong>prediction</strong>: While the real estate market in RL (real life) is cooling off, the<strong> real estate market in Second Life</strong> (SL) is heating up.<br /><br />I was recently contacted via IM (instant message) by Elliot Eldrich. I interviewed Elliot several months ago for a feature-length article about urban planning in Second Life. (The article appeared in the January, 2007 issue of the American Planning Association&#39;s <em>Planning</em> magazine, but is now also <a href="http://www.urbaninsight.com/virtual/2ndlife0307.html">available online</a>.)</p>

March 16 - Chris Steins

<p>The city council unanimously approved the real estate tycoon's plans for a 70-story hotel and condo tower.</p>

March 16 - New Orleans Times-Picayune

<p>In Perris, California, a bedroom community in the outer orbit of Los Angeles, 1 out of every 53 homes is in default.</p>

March 16 - The Los Angeles Times

<p>Voters have approved construction of a bridge over the Elbe River in Dresden, Germany -- a construction project that puts the city in danger of losing its status as a United Nations World Heritage Site.</p>

March 16 - Der Spiegel

<p>A list of neighborhoods heading towards gentrification in the nation's 10 largest cities aims to give homebuyers and investors a chance to get in before prices skyrocket.</p>

March 16 - Business Week

<p>The proposed Florida Hometown Democracy constitutional amendment calls for citizens to vote directly on whether to make changes in local comprehensive plans, instead of elected officials advised by professional and citizen planners.</p>

March 16 - Florida Trend

<p>The city of Toronto plans to devote dedicated lanes to some of the city's major light rail routes. The project was promised in the mayor's re-election campaign and is expected to cost more than $2 billion.</p>

March 16 - The Globe and Mail

<p>Protests and violence have erupted in China's rural areas, where many of the country's poorest people struggle to find jobs. The government has pledged to improve spending to help provide for the rural poor and improve access to public services.</p>

March 16 - The Economist

<p>Bicycle advocates in San Francisco want the city to pave bike lanes with colored pavement, but so far the city has resisted the plan, citing a lack of standards.</p>

March 16 - Beyond Chron

<p>With three sections, five doors, and a 300-person capacity, the "world's largest bus" has been unveiled in Shanghai. The new buses will be used for a planned bus rapid transit line in the city.</p>

March 15 - Shanghai Daily

<p>Is the growing business behind the Global Warming "problem" perpetuating a myth that is becoming politically incorrect to question?</p>

March 15 - British TV, Channel 4, via Google Video

<p>With Census figures predicting a doubling in the population by 2030, the Central California county of San Joaquin has begun an eight-city planning process to help shape the region's future.</p>

March 15 - Tri-Valley Herald

<p>The state legislature is moving to place explicit limits on local government's power to take private land in response to the 2005 U.S. Supreme Court's Kelo ruling.</p>

March 15 - New West

<p>The governor of North Carolina has called on a state grant program to dedicate more funding to encourage job growth in rural areas.</p>

March 15 - The Raleigh News & Observer

<p>Forbes Magazine names 10 architects who are most influencing today's culture and society.</p>

March 15 - Forbes Magazine

<p>Spurred by extraordinary economic and urban growth, Ho Chi Minh City is experiencing a building boom. But preservationists are worried about the danger to the city's priceless colonial era heritage.</p>

March 15 - The Christian Science Monitor

<p>One man has set up his home with a series of solar panels, hydrogen fuel cells, and storage tanks to enable him to produce all of his own energy. But many say this system couldn't be feasible on the wide scale.</p>

March 15 - The Christian Science Monitor

<p>A new school master plan for the Western International School of Shanghai looks to create an entire urban environment geared toward children.</p>

March 15 - Shanghai Daily