The Daily Source of Urban Planning News

After a much heralded vote on July 6 in the state Senate, the embattled CA high-speed rail project is now eligible to receive $7.9 billion in state and federal funds, but formidable obstacles remain, not the least of which is finding $60 billion.

July 10 - The Wall Street Journal

A new park and plans for increased waterfront access seek to reintroduce Newark's residents, and even tourists, to the Passaic River, the longtime industrial dumping ground that flows through the city, writes Sharon Adarlo.

July 10 - The Wall Street Journal

Ride share websites and mobile apps take the guesswork out of finding a ride and move social networking offline and onto the open road, fueling a revival of car-pooling, reports Mickey Meece.

July 10 - The New York Times

A new bill proposing major cuts to the EPA could rob cities across the country of a specialized set of programs created to boost economic well-being.

July 10 - Next American City

The fight to bring efficient public transit to the Indian capital in the form of a dedicated Bus Rapid Transit corridor may be headed for the country's Supreme Court, as the government fights the city’s wealthy, car-owning minority.

July 9 - The New York Times

Revisiting the metric he developed a decade ago in his groundbreaking book "The Rise of the Creative Class", Richard Florida ranks the American metros with the largest concentrations of creativity.

July 9 - The Atlantic Cities

Pedestrian malls have had a very mixed success ever since Victor Gruen debuted them back in the 1960s. Scott Doyon says the problem is that going pedestrian-only is the flipside of being autocentric.

July 9 - PlaceShakers

Award-wining author Taras Grescoe pens an opinion piece for the <em>Los Angeles Times</em> in which he makes an argument that may surprise many Angelenos - that their city is at the cutting edge of forward-thinking transportation planning in the U.S.

July 9 - Los Angeles Times

Having two of the top universities in the world within a couple of miles of each other doesn't hurt. But Boyd Cohen looks at Boston's cutting-edge efforts to foster innovation within and outside of its universities, that make it a global leader.

July 9 - Fast Company Co.Exist

An editorial in The New York Times looks at the dramatic growth of poverty in America's suburbs over the last decade, and asks if the government safety net is up to the challenge.

July 9 - The New York Times

As several major Canadian cities seek to hire new chief urban planners, candidates are facing an emerging set of demographic and political challenges, while some question the role such officials should have in shaping the country's landscape.

July 9 - The Globe and Mail

President Obama signed the transportation bill known as MAP-21 on July 6 that also maintains low student loan rates, ending the three-year process of three-month extensions of SAFETEA-LU. He praised the bill as bipartisan and job-saving.

July 9 - The Hill's Transportation Blog

Alexandria Abramian Mott spotlights several grassroots ways -- from signs to screams -- in which "fed-up residents are reclaiming their streets, or at least trying to."

July 9 - Los Angeles Times

Sam Lubell pens an opinion piece for <em>The Architect's Newspaper</em> examining the ethical and cultural implications of unpaid internships in the architecture profession.

July 9 - The Architect's Newspaper

The Shard, as it is known, has brought about much debate for its futuristic design and the expensive apartments in a part of town that is facing economic challenges.

July 8 - The Times Colonist

Seattle's innovative Residential RainWise Program provides tools for stormwater management at home, in the hopes of reducing flooding, safeguarding property, and restoring the area's waters for people and wildlife.

July 8 - Global Site Plans - The Grid

New Orleans has only one supermarket for every 350,000 residents, and they are often in locations that are more than a mile from where low-income residents live, writes Rosa Ramirez.

July 8 - NEWS21

Community agriculture this is not. Large scale, urban agriculture is the vision of wealthy businessman and 20-year Detroit resident John Hantz that would transform blighted, East Side's vacant and city-owned properties into a profit-making tree farm.

July 8 - The Wall Street Journal - U.S.

Rebecca Solnit poses that yes, inserting food gardens into the urban landscape results in more local fruits and vegetables, but the more important crops are things like hope, justice, and community.

July 8 - Orion Magazine

Unsurprisingly, most of the projects compiled by the company KPMG called "Infrastructure 100: World Cities Edition" are in expanding countries like China and Saudi Arabia. Tyler Falk pulls out some favorites.

July 7 - SmartPlanet