The Daily Source of Urban Planning News

Matt Flegenheimer reports that a bill making its way through the State Senate could ban the jughandle - New Jersey's "signature driving quirk."

February 6 - The New York Times

FEATURE

Urban planning professionals and researchers increasingly face information overload. Todd BenDor and Rob Goodspeed suggest three techniques for strategically monitoring the web for new research and ideas.

February 5 - Todd BenDor

The Texas A&M Transportation Institute (TTI) is out with its annual Urban Mobility Report. You'll probably hear a lot in the next day about how awful your city's traffic is. But you likely won't hear much about why that might not be so bad.

February 5 - Slate

Following the surge of “pacifying” missions in many of Rio de Janeiro’s famed favelas, Forbes’ Ricardo Geromel discusses the arrival of private sector investments and how they may evolve in the future.

February 5 - Forbes

Hydraulic fracturing may finally allow drillers to extricate oil from the Monterey Shale, creating a shale oil boom that could dwarf ones in states such as North Dakota. Environmentalists are digging in to limit the controversial practice.

February 5 - The New York Times

An announcement last week indicates that Wikipedia will become the newest player in the increasingly competitive effort to connect virtual information with physical places.

February 5 - The Atlantic Cities

The Economist Intelligence Unit has released its list of the world's most expensive cities. Not one city from North America cracks the top twenty.

February 5 - CNN

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) would like to create free public 'super' WiFi networks across the nation, reports Cecilia Kang. The $178 billion wireless industry is fighting the initiative.

February 5 - The Washington Post

An effort to bring jobs and the first Whole Foods to Prince George's County confronts rezoning debates and backhanded tactics.

February 5 - The Washington Post

Mike Senese spotlights a new television program on the Science Channel that uses innovative graphics to examine how the world's cities have been built to overcome the challenges of their natural environments and serve their citizens.

February 5 - Wired

Presenting the case of New York's High Line, student Sahra Mirbabaee questions who benefits from the city's investments.

February 5 - POLIS

In a budget unveiled last month, Minnesota Gov. Mark Dayton proposed a .25 percent sales tax increase to fund an expansion of the Twin Cities metro area's public transit systems. The proposal has garnered enthusiastic support.

February 5 - The Minn Post

Kaid Benfield pens a provocative column in which he suggests that the traditional American Main Street is a thing of the past, and may no longer fit our modern retail economy. Are traditional main streets still worth preserving and emulating?

February 4 - NRDC Switchboard

An ambitious plan being proposed by Gov. Andrew Cuomo would see $400 million spent to purchase homes damaged by Hurricane Sandy with the intent of demolishing them and returning their properties to undeveloped coastline, reports Thomas Kaplan.

February 4 - The New York Times

Since the Federal Highway Administration relaxed a rule against digital billboards in 2007, communities across the country have struggled with how to balance concerns about distracted drivers and disfigured landscapes with the desires of advertisers.

February 4 - USA Today

Dave Sotero reflects on the "mammoth undertaking" necessary to build L.A.'s modern subway system. He begins with the completion of the first phase of the Metro Red Line 20 years ago, and ends with a look at its promising future.

February 4 - The Source (Metro)

Kelly Anderson's documentary My Brooklyn tells the story of gentrification through the lens of corporate interests in urban planning.

February 4 - Hyperallergic

BLOG POST

Having served on the editorial board of Plan Canada for more than four years now, I've gained a pretty good sense of what makes a solid article on planning practice, and the common pitfalls to which authors often fall victim. As such, I offer below some guidelines that should assist prospective authors interested in submitting to the practitioner literature in producing the most suitable submissions requiring the least amount of revision.

February 4 - Michael Dudley

If the 43-year-old California Environmental Act is going to be changed - as Gov. Brown hopes, most agree the legislation will be championed by Michael Rubio, a young, moderate Latino Democratic in the second year of his first term in the senate.

February 4 - The Sacramento Bee

Unless a catastrophic natural disaster strikes your city (we're not hoping it does), the chances of being able to gaze upon the wonders of the cosmos from an urban perch are slim. Thierry Cohen provides a glimpse of the night sky without pollution.

February 4 - The New York Times