The Daily Source of Urban Planning News

A populist petition puts the "FasTracks" plan to construct six new rail lines in the Denver region on the November ballot.

July 7 - The Denver Post

BLOG POST

Via <a href="http://www.smartmobs.com/archives/003430.html">SmartMobs</a>, an interesting piece of forthcoming software called <a href="http://www.civicspacelabs.org/">CivicSpace</a>. According to the site, it's based on DeanSpace, one of the pieces of social networking software that the Dean for President campaign used as an organizing tool. Salient bits from the description:<br /> <br /> <blockquote>CivicSpace is being built with the needs of distributed organizations in mind. It will give you and the supporters within your community a solid framework for organizing and engaging those around you in action. But it also will allow you to plug your community into a network of other communities where you can share your ideas, knowledge, relationships, and organizational information.</blockquote>

July 6 - Anonymous

BLOG POST

I herewith draw your attention to the High Line, an unused, elevated railway that cuts through Manhattan's Meat Packing district. Some good, artsy pictures <a href="http://www.kottke.org/photos/highline0204/index.html">here</a>, the official site of the organization that wants to redevelop the High Line <a href="http://www.thehighline.org/">here</a> and a book with even better artsy pictures (and an essay by brilliant Harvard landscape/urban historian John Stilgoe) <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/388243726X/qid=1089163838/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/002-9877415-8018419?v=glance&s=books">here</a>.

July 6 - Anonymous

Neal Peirce discusses how cities such as Boston and Chicago are betting on green buildings.

July 6 - The Washington Post Writers Group

An Michigan appellate court rules in favor of private property rights over public access to lake shorelines.

July 6 - Michigan Land Use Institute

The executive director of Virginia Department of Rail and Public Transportation responds to an editorial about the Metrorail project.

July 6 - The Washington Post

Bicycling Magazine picks Chicago as the best big cycling city in the United States.

July 6 - Chicago Sun-Times

New Urbanism is just "window dressing" writes David Knopf.

July 6 - Des Moines Register

The viability of a community is linked to its access and use of information and communications technologies. How are communities planning for technology?

July 6 - Planning Magazine

Joel Kotkin traces a shift in the role of cities.

July 6 - Joel Kotkin

A dispute among residents, environmentalists town officials leads to an exodus from the posh Georgica Pond region of East Hampton.

July 6 - Wall St. Journal

Small NC town changes zoning ordinance to accomodate Walmart.

July 6 - Winston-Salem Journal

Aging stadiums in Houston and Los Angeles have been reborn as megachurches. Is this the next commercial real estate boom?

July 6 - The Los Angeles Times

Deterioration of the West Coast's most travelled highway -- Interstate 5 -- could lead to disaster.

July 5 - The Los Angeles Times

While Thailand's Traffic Office plans to charge drivers for using center-city roads, high-speed railways will shuttle commuters around the city of 10 million.

July 5 - The Straits Times

The Northern Calfornia city of Rancho Cordova plans to build mini downtowns around each of its light rail stations.

July 5 - The Sacramento Bee

Cleveland's neighborhoods have been revitalized, and along with the now-sparkling Erie lake, it is becoming a tourist destination.

July 5 - CNN

A new Associated Press poll finds that while two-thirds altered their routes or allowed more time for a commute, only one in twenty took mass transit.

July 5 - The State

Urban Atlanta would be transformed if the innovative transit currently being planned was actually built.

July 4 - The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Technology and telecommuting are fueling the new migration from urban areas to rural areas.

July 4 - American Planning Association