The Daily Source of Urban Planning News

<p>Many mixed-use projects have been popping up recently in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Many say this trend is fueled mainly by a population influx of New Orleans evacuees and new development incentives.</p>

March 15 - National Real Estate Investor

BLOG POST

<p class="MsoNormal">In its most forward attempt to ensnare the fabled “discretionary rider,” my local transit agency recently set out handsome billboards touting the pleasures of the bus and the miseries of driving alone. They employed pithy admonishments and graphics such as a hand cuffed to a gas pump and a merry executive knitting and purling his way to the office. <br />

March 14 - Josh Stephens

<p>An Internet networking site intended to help people organize rideshares is being unveiled in the Minneapolis-St. Paul metro area, and many local officials hope the ease of arranging rides via the Internet will encourage more shared rides.</p>

March 14 - Minneapolis Star-Tribune

<p>Seattle residents roundly rejected two options to replace the city's crumbling double-decker Alaskan Way Viaduct highway. Though the vote is not binding, the politicians were listening closely to what the voters had to say.</p>

March 14 - The Seattle Post-Intelligencer

BLOG POST

Big city mayors (and even some smaller city leaders) are making a big splash! LA’s Antonio Villaraigosa is dealing with crime; Chicago’s Richard Daley is turning that dusty city green; Philadelphia’s John Street has agreed to an important re-thinking of seven miles of highly developable waterfront; Miami’s Manny Diaz is working closely with Donna Shalala, President, University of Miami, to harness anchor-institution strength to downtown development. And Michael Bloomberg became a winner when he took on New York City’s school system. But of equal note is his soon-to-be announced PlaNYC, a strategic vision for 2030.<br />

March 14 - Eugenie Birch

<p>During the conclusion of a recent charrette in Jackson, Mississippi, Andres Duany advised redevelopment and placemaking as the most important strategy for the struggling area.</p>

March 14 - The Clarion-Ledger

BLOG POST

<p><img src="/files/u10403/images.jpg" alt="" hspace="10" width="150" height="113" align="left" />Anyone seen any of the <a href="http://www.mcny.org/exhibitions/current/466.html">three</a> <a href="http://www.mcny.org/exhibitions/current/466.html">museum</a> <a href="http://www.learn.columbia.edu/moses/">shows</a> in New York on Robert Moses, the colossus of urban planning? I myself have not, seeing as how I live 3,000 miles away from them. To recap: highly controversial figure, built many public works from the 1920s through the 1960s, in the end wanted to destroy neighborhoods to build freeways, ultimately brought low by grassroots organizing and the sainted Jane Jacobs via her book <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Death-Life-Great-American-Cities/dp/0375508732/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/105-3662130-2734002?ie=UTF8&amp;s=books&amp;qid=1173894137&amp;sr=8-1"><em>The Death and Life of Great American Cities</em></a>.</p><p>The exhibits have gotten a lot of ink in the New York press and the planning press. An excerpt from Ada Louise Huxtable&#39;s review in the <em>Wall Street Journal</em> today, and other rantings, after the jump.</p>

March 14 - Anonymous

<p>Will Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's plan to provide free wireless access really benefit Los Angeles?</p>

March 14 - The Los Angeles Times

<p>The Asian Development Bank has partnered with the Singapore government on a new educational initiative to help improve conditions for poorer residents of the region's cities.</p>

March 14 - People's Daily Online

<p>Many so called 'gay ghettos', such as San Francisco's Castro District or D.C.'s Dupont Circle, are succumbing to the forces of gentrification and attracting large numbers of heterosexual residents -- causing some in the GLBT community to worry.</p>

March 14 - AP via International Herald Tribune

<p>The American Public Transportation Association reported that transit ridership on US systems is at its highest levels since 1957, having increased for the last three consecutive years. Light, heavy, and commuter rail, respectively, led the increase.</p>

March 14 - USA Today

<p>Many Chinese residents facing displacement are protesting the planned expansion of a high-speed magnetic levitation train in Shanghai. Others who won't be displaced are also opposed, fearing increased noise pollution and accidents.</p>

March 14 - Der Spiegel

<p>Georgia and South Carolina have announced plans to build a port at the mouth of the Savannah River, jointly operated by the two states.</p>

March 14 - The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

<p>Early results coming in from Canada's census show a shift to urban areas and high population growth, mainly due to immigration.</p>

March 14 - The Globe and Mail

BLOG POST

My friend Wes was talking about a burger joint. Wes is from Texas, so sometimes that gives him the right. <div> <br /> <div> <br /> <div> The Beef Burger Barrel, a barrel-shaped hunk of roadside architecture in Amarillo, <a href="http://www.preservationnation.org/magazine/2007/todays-news-2007/60-year-old-texas-eatery.html">closed last month</a> after 60-odd years of hamburger heaven. </div> <div> <br /> </div> <div> <br /> </div> <div> &quot;It wasn&#39;t beloved until everyone heard it was closing,&quot; Wes told me. The Barrel started out selling A&amp;W root beer on Route 66 in the 1930s and was rolled later to a less-traveled part of town. Now locals are trying to find a way to reopen Amarillo&#39;s quirkiest building. </div> <div> <br /> </div> <div>

March 13 - Margaret Foster

<p>Conservative columnist George Will slams urban planners and says that because less than five percent of American workers use public transportation, the U.S. should put money into building more roads.</p>

March 13 - The Washington Post

<p>Michael Lewyn offers a thorough critique of Joel Kotkin's pro-sprawl, anti-urbanism arguments in the media.</p>

March 13 - Congress For New Urbanism

<p>All the indicators are pointing to a disastrous year for the American housing market.</p>

March 13 - Bloomberg

<p>The new LEED-ND program is seeking pilot projects to be certified under its new rating system, though developers of some greenfield New Urbanist communities worry the system will penalize them.</p>

March 13 - New Urban News

Free shuttle service is intended to attract and retain the Bay Area's top talent.

March 13 - The New York Times