The Daily Source of Urban Planning News

Now that redevelopment projects in CA are officially dead, a retrospective on one of the state's 'most successful' redevelopment projects reveals an inconvenient truth: demolition for surface parking has undermined much of its accomplishments.

January 22 - UrbDeZine.com

The old cool: Sealing yourself inside suburban air conditioning. The new cool? According to Howard Blackson, it's the joy to be found outside, connecting with one another and the world we share.

January 22 - PlaceShakers

Philadelphia spends $64 on parks and recreation facilities per resident, one of the lowest totals in the nation. Ryan Briggs uses the city as a lens to examine the growing impact of budget cuts to park systems on their surrounding communities.

January 22 - Next City

Part bike, part car, part solar power, part human power - the Elf is a pedal-powered mini-car that just finished a "massively successful" Kickstarter drive and could be coming to a street near you very soon.

January 22 - Fast Company Co.Exist

Shannon Mattern visits a "a publishers’ enclave" that is seeking to reinvent Korean publishing, architecture and urban planning in the wetlands near the Demilitarized Zone.

January 22 - Places Journal

Matt Bevilacqua found much to cheer in the 'renewed focus on urbancentric topics' that President Obama delivered in his second inaugural address. Climate change, immigration, and inequality were among the speech's primary topics.

January 22 - Next City

With average rents $2,800 more than the rest of the country, and the average home costing $1.46 million, it's increasingly difficult for the non-wealthy to live in Manhattan. Amy O'Leary goes in search of the borough's vanishing middle class.

January 21 - The New York Times

One of the cities that's led the growing trend in urban freeway removal is considering another tear down, report Phillip Matier and Andrew Ross.

January 21 - San Francisco Chronicle

Unfortunately, many of us have likely suffered a bout of foot-in-mouth syndrome during a past presentation. Edward W. Erfurt IV lists the 10 worst things to say during a public meeting, in the hopes of clearing then from our minds.

January 21 - Restless Urbanist

Rachel L. Swarns traces D.C.'s transformation into a younger and livelier city to when a former senator from Illinois moved into a stately mansion on Pennsylvania Avenue, and brought with him urbane tastes and an iPod filled with Nicki Minaj.

January 21 - The New York Times

What is the future of the "deeply flawed" state gas tax? Lemov Penelope compares the approaches taken by VA and OR - both plan to eliminate it and replace it with alternatives - a state sales tax and a vehicle-miles-traveled (VMT) fee, respectively.

January 21 - Governing Magazine

Paris, Barcelona, New York City...Cleveland? Like the oft-hidden urban oasis that are the subject of this article, you may come across some surprises in Crai S. Bower's list of the best cities for pocket parks.

January 21 - MSN

The Rockefeller Foundation unveils its innovative plan to incentivize private investors to provide the infrastructure solutions for eight U.S. cities most vulnerable to extreme storms and rising seas.

January 21 - The Washington Post

The homes designed by architect John Lautner have appeared often in films, many times as characters themselves and many times associated with villains. Adam Baer examines what it is about Lautner's designs that inspire associations with evil.

January 21 - The Virginia Quarterly Review

Now that we know the two teams who will duke it out on Feb 3rd, fans and advertisers can turn their attention to the year's biggest sporting event. But the Super Bowl is more than just a football game, it's also a transportation-planning challenge.

January 21 - Transportation Radio

As the 100th anniversary of its opening approaches, The New York Times recounts the birth of one of the finest railway stations in the world - Grand Central Terminal.

January 21 - The New York Times

For those that've wondered about the fate of New York's "occasionally controversial" Plaza Program projects after the administration that's championed them leaves office: Have no fear, says Janette Sadik-Khan, "This is set in stone."

January 20 - The New York Observer

"America is renewing itself from the bottom up." That is the premise underlying the second annual “Innovations to Watch” list just released by The Brookings Metropolitan Policy Program and The Rockefeller Foundation.

January 20 - Brookings

So said Thomas Donohue, CEO of the world's largest business organization, in calling for raising the gas tax at a press conference following the annual State of American Business address to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

January 20 - Governing

In this compelling essay, authors Matias Echanove and Rahul Srivastava take a look at Tokyo's post-war development and explore how lessons learned from its unplanned growth may be useful for other rapidly urbanizing Asian cities today.

January 20 - Next City