The Daily Source of Urban Planning News

Friday Funny: Detroit Neighborhoods Perfect Site for 'Zombie Park'

One brazen entrepreneur from Detroit is looking to raise funds to bring his "zombie theme park" concept to life, Sarah Cox reports.

June 29 - Curbed

Imagined Air-Cleaning Technologies are Good Enough for CA Supreme Court

The court set a standard of "reasonable anticipation" that improved cleaner technologies will be developed, allowing government agencies to set more stringent standards for that anticipated future.

June 29 - Governing

"Gazelles" Are Leading the Pack

Economist David Birch coined the term "gazelle" to refer to small businesses that double their size every four years. Charlie Gandy says these gazelles are incredibly useful when it comes to placemaking.

June 29 - Project For Public Spaces

Census: Cities Growing Faster Than Suburbs

Historically the one-year data may be an aberration as suburbs have outgrown cities for every decade since the 1920s. It may be as much a consequence of the recession and housing bust as a preference for urban living, but builders are responding.

June 29 - The Wall Street Journal

Filmmaker Shows New Yorkers Tripping on Subway Step - Over and Over

Filmmaker Dean Petersen noticed a troublesome step at the 36th Street subway exit in Brooklyn, and decided to find out how many people tripped over it. Video evidence shows this hazard in action.

June 29 - Boing Boing


Buffalo Zoning Supports Sprawl

David Steel explains how Buffalo's zoning code not only makes it impossible to build the type of neighborhoods people love, but also guarantees that low density development pays less taxes.

June 29 - Rust Wire

The Rise of the Creative Class, 2012 Edition

Workers making up the 'creative class,' a term first coined by author Richard Florida, continue to grow and prosper, generating trillions in wages. What cities in the U.S. have the largest creative economies?

June 29 - The Daily Beast


Oklahoma Tribal Nations Help Fund U.S. Roads

Often downplayed of their role in both planning efforts and in the economy, tribal governments are working collaboratively with other local governments in Oklahoma to help build and maintain roads.

June 29 - Tulsa World

Innovative Map Shows Estimated Time of Arrival for Entire Regions

Want to know how long it will take to pick up the kids at school, drive to your favorite restaurant, drive the baseball game, take the bus to the park? And all at once? Trulia's new innovative map does just that.

June 29 - Fast Company

Sisters Spark Tactical Urbanism in Philadelphia

Young activists Emaleigh and Ainé Doley take matters into their own hands to clean up their neighborhood street in run-down Germantown.

June 29 - The Philadelphia Inquirer

Seven Cities That Have Gone Bust (And Lived to Tell the Tale)

Nate Berg takes a look at the seven biggest cities to have filed for bankruptcy in the last two decades, the largest of which officially broke the bank as of yesterday.

June 28 - The Atlantic Cities

Technology Alone Won't Save Our Cities

Brent Toderian, recently the planning director for Vancouver, was interviewed by Denmark's Sustainable Cities about technology and planning. Toderian was contrarian when it came to technology's ability to save the world.

June 28 - Sustainable Cities

Testing Our Nation’s Beaches

A new report from the Natural Resources Defense Council ranks the cleanest and dirtiest beaches in the U.S. Jessica Camille Aguirre gives an overview of the group’s findings and discovers a less than significant improvement in overall water quality.

June 28 - NPR

Enviros Want To Nix Fireworks on the Fourth: Locals Say Nay

In pollution-heavy San Joaquin Valley of California's Central Valley, some cities are considering replacing Fourth of July fireworks with laser light shows. Locals aren't so sure.

June 28 - Governing

Neighbors, Restaurant Clash over Liquor License in D.C.

Eric Fidler observes how residents of a Washington, D.C. neighborhood fight against the granting of a liquor license to a proposed restaurant, using the emotional health of school children as part of their argument.

June 28 - Greater Greater Washington

BLOG POST

If I'm eating chowdah I must be in Boston

<p> <span style="white-space: pre" class="Apple-tab-span"> </span>One of the ways we identify places is by foods for which those places are known. Baltimore – crab. Maine – lobster. Cincinnati – chili. San Francisco – sourdough bread. Vienna – pastry. Even for a city to which you’ve never been, chances are that in your mind that city has some food association. </p>

June 28 - Lisa Feldstein

FEATURE

What's to Become of Small Towns?

June 28 - John Wilbanks

Transit in Demand: US DOT Can't Keep Up With Requests

On Friday, the US DOT awarded TIGER 2012 funds to 47 projects totaling $500 million -- far less than the $10.2 billion that was asked for from an astounding 703 applications from all 50 states.

June 28 - Transportation Nation

A Tale of Two Shopping Centers

As the global recession continues to hit the global economy, shopping centers take on two distinct development patterns in developed and developing nations.

June 28 - Retail Traffic

Federal Court Decision Dooms Most New Coal Power Plants

A unanimous decision by a 3-judge panel affirmed a central 2009 finding of the EPA that greenhouses gases pose a threat to public health, clearing the way for applying regulations controlling their emissions to stationary sources and vehicles.

June 28 - Reuters

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