The Daily Source of Urban Planning News

Blair Kamin reports on proposals from five teams of celebrated designers vying to re-imagine Navy Pier. They reflect big ideas, and big budgets.

February 1 - Chicago Tribune

Ken Bernstein, Principal Planner for the City of L.A., explores how the expansion of transit in Los Angeles is changing how the department approaches its plans and the planning process.

February 1 - The Planning Report

The city’s MillionTrees program fights asthma and global warming. But tightening maintenance budgets, increasingly severe weather and decades-old planting decisions complicate trees’ contribution.

February 1 - City Limits

Writing in the Economix blog for the <em>New York Times</em>, Nancy Folbre investigates the economic impact of traffic and revives the idea of congestion pricing for Manhattan.

January 31 - The New York Times

Christine Grant was fortunate enough to win a fellowship that allowed her to spend six months in the world's most bike-friendly cities. In this article she shares with us the 10 essential lessons she learned along the way.

January 31 - Grist

A lawsuit based on the Americans With Disabilities Act may leave Los Angeles responsible for over a billion dollars' worth of crumbling sidewalks.

January 31 - Los Angeles Times

The Miami City Commission will give a nonprofit group the green light to rehabilitate Miami Marine Stadium, an abandoned Modernist landmark that was identified as one of the country's most endangered places in 2009, reports David Sokol.

January 31 - Architectural Record

Jim Rendon has some inventive suggestions for those priced out of the most beloved and exclusive neighborhoods in New York.

January 31 - The New York Times

A new bridge completed this month is a key element in a $1.5 billion "superhighway" intended to bring economic development and the rule of law to a place now dominated by some of the country’s biggest illegal drug growers and gangsters.

January 31 - The Washington Post

Did it seem odd when Stanford University withdrew from a competition to build a new $2 billion Applied Sciences and Engineering campus in New York City just as officials were about to decide the winner, and Stanford was the perceived front-runner?

January 31 - The Stanford Daily

Sam Roberts reports on a new study of census results that found the nation’s cities are more racially integrated than at any time since 1910.

January 31 - The New York Times

Even in New York City, it's a pain to try to "green" a building with insulation, overhangs, and other methods that violate zoning. Katharine Jose reports on the Zone Green Text Amendment, which addresses such impediments, and the team behind it.

January 31 - Capital New York

A new report by the Rails-to-Trails Conservancy titled "Active Transportation Beyond Urban Centers,” debunks the myth that "nobody walks" in rural America.

January 31 - Streetsblog D.C.

FEATURE

January 30 - Jonathan Ford

Christine MacDonald looks at efforts by everyone from home gardeners to municipal water authorities to rethink and rebuild the infrastructure to handle urban runoff.

January 30 - The Atlantic Cities

Governor Brown claims not only that the project will cost less than the $100 billion currently estimated by the state, but that he's found a funding source to help pay for it.

January 30 - The Sacramento Bee

Is it justified to believe that a proposed SoHo business improvement district, widely embraced elsewhere in the city, would only attract more hordes of visitors and non-residents? Proponents say that residents are fear-mongering.

January 30 - The New York Times

Just a year into his term, Christopher Hume delivers a scathing critique of Toronto Mayor Rob Ford and his pro-vehicular policies.

January 30 - Toronto Star

Last week, Gov. Jerry Brown announced reforms to the state's Environmental Quality Act that will ease approval for infill development and special projects. Josh Stephens provides the details.

January 30 - California Planning & Development Report

Fifty years after they last plied its streets, Washington D.C. awaits the return of the city's streetcars in 2013 with nostalgia and hope.

January 30 - The Washington Post