The Daily Source of Urban Planning News

With the Super Bowl just around the corner, it's time to reconsider the allegiance of cities to professional sports teams.

February 3 - Next City

Michael A. Harper, FAICP worked over 32 years as a public sector planning manager. During that time, he used paid and unpaid interns extensively. Harper's article focuses on the many ways to effectively engage interns and use their talents.

February 3 - The Western Planner

Cities such as Dallas, Denver, Sacramento and Tampa are reversing course on their one-way streets for a number of reasons; but improving traffic flow likely isn't one of them. Eric Jaffe looks at a recent study that upends conventional wisdom.

February 3 - The Atlantic Cities

Chile's most influential newspaper makes urban issues accessible and interesting to millions by using 'human-scaled' and annotated panoramic photos in its local coverage.

February 3 - Urban Times

Baltimore has a lot of bold ideas for changing the face of the city. While we wait for them to happen, why not implement some simple solutions for making the city more livable, proposes Mark R. Brown, AICP.

February 2 - Car Free Baltimore

As we reported last week, the central question facing the Board of Supervisors was how could they approve a project that appeared to violate a regional sustainability plan - one that they voted for as MPO members? They did - by a 4-1 vote.

February 2 - The Sacramento Bee - City News

Mark Byrnes explains the recent renovations - both inside and outside - of New Orleans' Superdome, home to Sunday's Super Bowl. The work was funded, at least in part, by FEMA.

February 2 - The Atlantic Cities

Friday brought word that Energy Secretary Steven Chu will leave the Obama administration once a replacement is in place. With his departure, each of the cabinet's energy and environmental positions remain vacant.

February 2 - The Hill - E2 Wire

Montgomery County planner John Marcolin details the ongoing creation of an urban core in Silver Spring, Maryland, the thriving unincorporated area just northeast of Washington, D.C.

February 2 - Terrain.org: A Journal of the Built + Natural Environments

The crack investigative team at the satirical newspaper The Onion has revealed the real reason for outgoing Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood's resignation. He's been implicated in the mysterious disappearance of a "beautiful country road."

February 1 - The Onion

Could Vienna's century of experience in creating housing that is both affordable and attractive offers lessons for how the U.S. can address its growing affordability crisis? In the Austrian capital, more regulation, not less, leads to cheaper rents.

February 1 - Governing

This week, the UK government announced the controversial route for phase 2 of "the first major railway line north of London since Victorian times." The line, dubbed HS2, will halve journey times between northern cities and to the capital.

February 1 - The Guardian

As cities across the country consider ways to limit teardowns and large home construction in established neighborhoods, Anthony Flint argues that communities should be flattered by "mansionization" and accommodating to this form of smart growth.

February 1 - The Atlantic Cities

A new report indicates that carbon dioxide emissions in the U.S. have fallen by 13% in the past five years. The last time carbon emissions were this low, Ace of Base was topping the charts and "Pulp Fiction" was reviving the career of John Travolta.

February 1 - The Guardian

The California High Speed Rail Authority settled its CEQA lawsuit with the City of Chowchilla, the first of three that need to be dealt with in the Merced to Fresno section in the Central Valley where construction of the project will initially begin

February 1 - The Fresno Bee

While the housing market showed signs of improvement last year, economists are now confident that a recovery is underway. Housing currently adds 13 percent to the nation's economic growth, but is this a good thing?

February 1 - Urban Land Institute

Former adversaries - developers along with labor and the construction industry - have formed "an unusual alliance" to push the Bloomberg administration to consider more expansive development rights for the area around Grand Central Terminal.

February 1 - The New York Times

Although leaders in the Twin Cities seem to agree on the need to improve the appeal of city streets for those on foot, turning those words into actions seems difficult. Bill Lindeke offers three easy solutions that don't involve touching the street.

February 1 - Streets MN

Our friends at Streetsblog are hunting for the worst intersection in America. Help them decide from among a host of qualified entries.

February 1 - DC.Streetsblog

An editorial in the Los Angeles Times praises the Cornfield Arroyo Seco Specific Plan as a model for how the city can break free of outdated zoning laws that force residents into obsolete living, working and commuting patterns.

January 31 - Los Angeles Times