The Daily Source of Urban Planning News

<p>A city ordinance in Orlando, Florida, does not allow social service groups that help the city's homeless population to expand or renovate their facilities, out of fear that development will be hindered. Many groups are looking to change this law.</p>

January 31 - Orlando Weekly

<p>A license has been granted to the city of Manchester to host the United Kingdom's first "supercasino" -- a 5,00 square meter gambling and hotel complex similar to Las Vegas casinos. However, many in the UK are worried about resulting social problems.</p>

January 31 - The Guardian Unlimited

<p>A cadre of architects, planners, and designers descended upon Detroit for the 9th annual University of Michigan Detroit design charrette. The focus: a more livable and inhabited downtown for the country's most maligned, but up-and-coming cities.</p>

January 31 - The Detroit News

<p>Interest-only loans and ARMs once touted as a panacea have now become the vehicle for massive foreclosures as financially distressed owners can no longer afford their expensive homes.</p>

January 31 - The Sacramento Bee

<p>As Rome tries to provide transit options for its millions of residents and visitors, city planners and preservationists have struck a delicate balance between providing modern transportation and acknowledging the city's rich buried history.</p>

January 31 - The Wall Street Journal

<p>Funds have been approved to identify site selection for a multi-modal transit center in downtown Boise. The city is also pushing its public transit system to create fixed bus stops so that riders won't have to flag down buses to get a ride.</p>

January 30 - The Idaho Statesman

<p>Critical of the current proposals for alternative energy, James Howard Kunstler provides a "wake up call" for citizens, and provides a glimpse at life after the world makes its inevitable transition to a post-oil society.</p>

January 30 - Orion Magazine

<p>Can Frank Gehry's plan for Downtown L.A.'s Grand Avenue transform it into the cultural center civic leaders have been chasing for decades?</p>

January 30 - The New York Times

<p>Geoff Manaugh interviews Architect Ed Mazria about his efforts to promote ecological literacy and his challenge to the architecture and planning community to stop climate change.</p>

January 30 - BLDGBLOG

<p><em>Wired</em> presents this slideshow of some of the extravagant and futuristic buildings planned for Dubai.</p>

January 30 - Wired

By focusing on certain "pressure points" in urban areas, a city can dramatically increase its quality of life, argues Jaime Lerner, the former mayor of Curitiba, Brazil.

January 30 - WorldChanging

<p>Some fear that New York has lost its foothold as the pedestrian capital of America.</p>

January 30 - The New York Times

<p>Leasing the New Jersey Turnpike, Garden State Parkway, and Atlantic Expressway to private companies may bring a payment equal to the state’s debt of $30 billion, but the political repercussions for Governor John Corzine could be severe.</p>

January 30 - The New York Times

<p>A broad study of the travel habits and neighborhood choices of more than 18,000 Atlanta residents has found that a third of the people living in suburbs would have preferred a more walkable neighborhood.</p>

January 30 - The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

<p>As more and more buildings are designed to be energy efficient and car companies offer to take back and dispose old vehicles for free, sustainable design is increasingly on the agendas of major corporations.</p>

January 30 - International Herald Tribune

<p>Portland, Oregon, boasts one of the most extensive uses of public transit in American cities. The addition of its newly-opened aerial tram adds to transit options, but some still feel the project is not worth the price.</p>

January 29 - The New York Times

<p>Who says we have to stop driving in order to prevent global warming? Two columnists present reasons why an auto-oriented society is not only an ideal solution but the preferred choice of Americans.</p>

January 29 - The Washington Post

<p>Since 1990, inland California counties have contributed five times the job growth as coastal counties. Southern California's Riverside and San Bernardino counties accounted for 510,000 of the 1.1 million jobs added by the inland regions.</p>

January 29 - The Los Angeles Times

<p>In New York City, the first juried design competition for affordable and sustainable has found its winner.</p>

January 29 - Architectural Record

<p>U.S. drivers changed their driving habits in 2005 and 2006.</p>

January 29 - The Los Angeles Times