The Daily Source of Urban Planning News

Residents of a neighborhood filled with historic Shanghai architectural style buildings, shikumen, found themselves removed by their government in favor of new, modern luxury condos, hotels, up-scale retail stores, and trendy cafes.

January 20 - Global Site Plans

In Sydney, "the most unaffordable housing market in the English- speaking world", sky-high housing prices are driving residents priced out of the suburbs into apartments downtown, reports Nichola Saminather.

January 19 - Bloomberg

Renting out luxury homes has become an attractive choice in today's housing market. High-end renters get many of the benefits of owning a home, with greater built-in flexibility, and without the financial risk.

January 19 - The Wall Street Journal

Susan Elkin points to alarmingly low statistics on the number of children who walk to school, especially when compared with historic rates. She lays out some “blindingly obvious” and “child-centered” reasons why this trend needs to be reversed.

January 19 - The Independent

Transit schedules, especially for buses, are notoriously inaccurate. A new app seeks to give a better picture of the status of the bus or train you keep trying to spot in the distance.

January 19 - Fast Company Co.Exist

India’s foremost environmental think tank is touting a recently developed sustainable building certification program "Green Rating for Integrated Habitat Assessment" (GRIHA) as more holistic than LEED. Could it also help enforce labor laws?

January 19 - Green Futures Magazine

Interactive before and after images taken nearly six decades apart show L.A.'s changing urban landscape.

January 18 - Los Angeles Times

In a short film for The New York Times, Jason DaSilva documents how New York's famed public transit system, which serves millions of riders every day, fails the city's disabled residents.

January 18 - The New York Times

The decade-long transformation of Toronto's historic Maple Leaf Gardens into a new centerpiece for its neighborhood may serve as a model for one of the trickiest types of adaptive reuse, reports Mark Byrnes.

January 18 - The Atlantic Cities

Neal Peirce looks at how Philadelphia has used light to help transform the image, and fortunes, of Center City.

January 18 - Citiwire

The EPA has released plans for how it intends to clean up Brooklyn's Gowanus Canal Superfund site. Branden Klayko reports on the $500 million, two pronged approach.

January 18 - The Architect's Newspaper

Declining populations and economic malaise in many European countries are just some of the forces contributing to what most agree seems like a lasting decline in the continent's demand for automobiles.

January 18 - The Wall Street Journal

Are we growing more connected, yet further and further apart? And how does this bode for the resilience of the communities we share? Scott Doyon finds promise as of yet unfulfilled.

January 18 - PlaceShakers

The conservative commentator has proposed a $2 billion "city-theme park hybrid" that "would bring several of Glenn’s seemingly disconnected projects into one place." You'll be surprised at the similarities with certain Smart Growth principles.

January 18 - DC.Streetsblog

31 atmospheric scientists have written a new study on the major component of soot called 'black carbon', long identified with causing respiratory problems - and have shown how it is the 2nd most important agent of climate change after carbon dioxide.

January 18 - The New York Times

Mexico City's emergence as a "commuter's paradise" due to a focus on people and places, rather than cars and driving, has earned the city this year's Sustainable Transport Award from the Institute for Transportation and Development Policy (ITDP).

January 18 - National Geographic

A new book on the subject argues that we shouldn't be so quick to discount China's increasing instances of architectural mimicry. The practice reveals much about 'the hopes, dreams and contradictions of China's middle class.'

January 17 - The Atlantic Cities

This week, the U.S. House of Representatives approved a two-part bill to fund the recovery from Hurricane Sandy. In an essay written prior to the vote, Rob Young criticizes the rush to approve rebuilding the entire coast as it was before the storm.

January 17 - Bloomberg

With yesterday's announcement that Interior Secretary Ken Salazar will soon step down, the three top environmental posts in the federal government are waiting to be filled. The vacancies are further muddling the administration's second term agenda.

January 17 - The Washington Post

In a preview of his statewide transportation plan, Mass. Gov. Deval Patrick unveiled an ambitious agenda and an appetizing menu of potential funding options on Monday. The final plan released yesterday has some wanting to send their meals back.

January 17 - Streetsblog