The Daily Source of Urban Planning News

I'm sure your mother had good reason to tell you not to eat on the run. But times have changed, and one group in London is utilizing the city's public transportation network to help popularize the benefits of healthy eating and urban greening.

July 31 - The Guardian

In an urbanizing world, density is being recognized for its ability to stimulate the "metabolism of daily life." In an essay for <em>The Wall Street Journal</em>, Richard Florida argues that all density is not created equal, however.

July 31 - The Wall Street Journal

London's Olympics are just the most recent example of the growing trend in building temporary architecture and urbanism in response to financial and practical considerations. Christopher Hawthorne asks whether this trend is too short sighted.

July 31 - Los Angeles Times

With Citi Bike, New York's landmark bike-share program, set to miss its expected July launch, city officials and the company running the program are giving few clues as to what's causing the delay and when the program may actually become operational.

July 30 - The New York Times

Although the Obama administration is still weighing whether to give the Keystone XL pipeline the necessary approvals to begin construction, the courts are already deciding that eminent domain can be used to secure access to private land.

July 30 - The Washington Post

Whatever Atlanta area voters decide when they head to the polls tomorrow to vote on a proposed 10-year, 1 percent sales tax to fund transit and road projects, the outcome will be a historic moment in the area's history. Ariel Hart puts it in context.

July 30 - The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

An exhibit remembers the days when the Boston Redevelopment Authority dreamed enormous dreams and asks: have we lost our ambition?

July 30 - The Boston Globe

For cities across the U.S. facing mass foreclosures and shrinking populations, demolition of abandoned homes is an attractive avenue (see Detroit and Cleveland). Roberta Brandes Gratz argues that the value of preservation deserves to be considered.

July 30 - Citiwire.net

Topping a new list of America's coolest cities is Portland? New York? Austin? Nope, it's Houston.

July 30 - Forbes

The gateway to the London Olympic complex isn't marked by an iconic work of art or public plaza, but rather by a store - Fat Face - which is part of a gigantic new mall. Some aren't too happy with the blatant mix of commerce and competition.

July 30 - The New York Times

Sandy Apgar and Tony Canzoneri aim to clear up myths and misconceptions about PPPs (P3s), "the vehicle of choice to plan and execute many development projects that neither private nor public sector participants could perform on their own."

July 30 - Urban Land

Steve Mouzon finds fault with the uniform application of the 1/4 mile walkability radius, regardless of context. And, in the first in a series of articles, he introduces a new tool for understanding and building walkable places.

July 30 - Original Green

Finding new uses for vacant gas stations is a major challenge throughout the U.S. The days of the small, independent service station are fading, yet they often occupy prime, gateway sites. Whether razed or transformed, challenges are formidable.

July 30 - The New York Times - Commercial

In the latest entry in its fascinating series on the "Laws That Shaped L.A.", <em>KCET</em>'s Jeremy Rosenberg looks at the city's brief, but golden, age of the Jitneys, and whether they deserve a return to L.A.'s growing mix of transit modes.

July 29 - KCET Departures

For a city of its size, London and its skyline are notoriously flat. Now, as the city struggles to expand its housing stock to meet the needs of it surging population, increasingly taller solutions are being prescribed, concerning some.

July 29 - The Global Urbanist

After decades of planning and development of its urban rail networks, will the American West change its image from car cornucopia to transit paradise?

July 29 - The Architect's Newspaper

California's Governor Jerry Brown unveils his administration's new plan in hopes of finally balancing the state's competing water interests. The cost? $14 billion over a decade.

July 29 - The New York Times

Animated GIFs provided by <em>The Atlantic Cities</em> show the dramatic growth of several global cities over the past four decades, as captured in photographs taken by NASA's Landsat satellite system.

July 29 - The Atlantic Cities

The historic rainstorm that struck the Chinese capital last Saturday washed away the gloss of decades of rapid growth, revealing the failures of its infrastructure and its leaders, write Jacob Fromer and Edward Wong.

July 28 - The New York Times

Many new light rail lines have been built in western cities in the hopes of attracting new development to greenfields. Los Angeles' Expo Line, however, is threaded through a heavily built-up area, thus complicating dreams of TOD.

July 28 - California Planning & Development Report