The Daily Source of Urban Planning News

<p>In one of the clearest directives to states yet, an FHWA official stated publicly that they want to award money to highway departments to actually implement -- not simply study -- congestion pricing.</p>

March 27 - The Advocate (Stamford, CT)

<p>Near the California desert resorts in and around Palm Springs, huge slums have built up in trailer parks, occupied by migrant farm workers. These areas are overcrowded with thousands of people, many of whom have no access to clean water or plumbing.</p>

March 27 - The Los Angeles Times

<p>If most planners do not like cul-de-sacs why are so many being built in Southern California?</p>

March 27 - The Los Angeles Times

<p>This summer more than 20,500 rental bikes will be available to Parisians at 1,450 bike stations for a faster, cheaper travel alternative.</p>

March 27 - The Washington Post

<p>Habitat for Humanity takes its expertise in creating builder-owners in suburban settings to Los Angeles, which desperately needs affordable housing. <em>The Planning Report</em> interviews CEO Erin Rank.</p>

March 26 - The Planning Report

<p>Legislation up for consideration in Wisconsin looks to make it easier for towns in the state to legally change their municipal status to avoid being annexed. The bill hopes to reduce the amount of cross-town border disputes incited by annexations.</p>

March 26 - Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

<p>Plans for a light rail system in Kansas City may move forward only by sacrificing the city's bus system. Federal funding currently supporting the buses would have to be diverted to the proposed light rail system, adversely affecting bus service.</p>

March 26 - The Kansas City Star

<p>A recent survey reveals that more than two-thirds of Ohio residents are opposed to the state's eminent domain law, and would be in favor of throwing it out.</p>

March 26 - The Cincinnati Enquirer

<p>Americans prefer traditional architecture. Is Modernism dead?</p>

March 26 - The Los Angeles Times

<p>Medford Oregon's newly opened public library is about to close its doors -- but it is just one of 15 across the region suffering from a loss of federal subsidies.</p>

March 26 - Voice Of America

<p>Transportation problems and needed improvements are expected to cost the state of Oregon billions in the next 20 years. A new report is also estimating costs of nearly $2 billion a year in lost productivity due to the transportation problems.</p>

March 26 - The Portland Tribune

BLOG POST

<p class="MsoNormal"><font face="Times New Roman" size="3">As one of my favorite colleagues says, all anyone ever cares about at any public meeting is “where do I live and where do I park?” Public process, in short, asks people to accept changes to their homes and lives. And people generally do not like change. </font></p>

March 26 - Barbara Faga

<p>As part of a series of opinions about traffic and transit, The Los Angeles Times gives one transit advocate the fantasy situation of having $100 billion to spend on rail, buses, and a host of other transportation improvements.</p>

March 26 - The Los Angeles Times

<p>Mayor Livingstone's sledgehammer approach to congestion management lacks imagination, and travel in the UK capital isn't that much better, according to a recent commentary.</p>

March 26 - Spiked

FEATURE

Evacuating people after Hurricane Katrina revealed chronic shortcomings of local and regional evacuation planning. The barriers that hindered efforts in New Orleans apply not only to evacuation planning, but to planning in general.

March 26 - Thomas W. Sanchez, Marc Brenman

<p>The first of its kind development is hoping to transform the booming interest in all things green into, well, green.</p>

March 26 - Business Week

<p>With many single family neighborhoods unhappy with the encroachment of large apartment complexes, one city councilmember is backing new guidelines to limit the number of apartments in the city.</p>

March 26 - KHOU 11 Houston

BLOG POST

This week, the <em>Economist</em>’s cover story, &quot;The trouble with the housing market,&quot; details the downward-spiraling &quot;subprime&quot; mortgage market and its potential effects on the U.S. economy.<span> </span>The collapsing market certainly poses problems to Wall Street traders and taxpayers in general, but what about the physical toll it&#39;s taking on our cities?<span> </span>Abandoned, foreclosed homes now increasingly dot the nation&#39;s inner ring suburbs, helping spread neighborhood decline out from inner cities, while developers build more homes farther into the urban periphery.

March 25 - David Gest

BLOG POST

<p style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><font size="3"><font face="Times New Roman">How important are the names we use?<span> </span>As Shakespeare said, </font></font><font size="3"><font face="Times New Roman">&quot;</font></font><font size="3"><font face="Times New Roman">What&#39;s in a <span>name</span>? That which we call a <span>rose</span> by <span>any</span> <span>other</span> name <span>would</span> <span>smell </span>as <span>sweet</span>.&quot;<span> </span>I’ve been struck by this thought recently as I’ve been considering the myriad of organizations and stakeholders trying to have their particular term for stormwater management techniques be more widely adopted in the nomenclature.<span> </span></font></font></p>

March 25 - Anonymous

<p>The city's government is requiring that high-ranking officials use transit at least one day a month.</p>

March 25 - Shanghai Daily