The Daily Source of Urban Planning News

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<p> <span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: 'Courier New'">Last week, at an event attended by over 300 Vancouverites, we announced the winners of our re:CONNECT Open Ideas Competition regarding the future of our Viaducts and Eastern Core. If you missed my past posts on the steps leading up to the big night, it might help to read <a href="/node/52012" target="_blank">here</a> and <strong><a href="/node/52571" target="_blank">here</a></strong> first. </span><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: 'Courier New'"> </span><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: 'Courier New'"> </span> </p>

December 5 - Brent Toderian

Despite depressed home prices around the U.S., Toronto's condo market is still so hot that the city government is considering getting a piece of the action.

December 5 - The Globe and Mail

While the news appeared positive in last week's jobs report, the public sector was significantly worse, with 20,000 government workers laid off in November alone.

December 5 - The New York Times

In this era of computer simulations, are models like the Bay Model (a giant replica of the San Francisco Bay previously used for research on estuary hydraulics and fluid dynamics) relevant? Janice Sinclaire says yes.

December 5 - Miller-McCune

Will Doig asks, "Are urban bicyclists just elite snobs?" Turns out the answer is, basically, no.

December 5 - Salon

Hal Johnson argues that the idea that it can be beneficial to a city or region to inspire the growth of industry clusters is still an effective way to go, and creating a sense of place to inspire clustering is essential.

December 5 - Area Development Online

Architect Mattias Hollwich talks about BOOM, a community designed with the unique needs of gay and lesbian retirees that has become a blueprint for new retirement developments the world over.

December 5 - SmartPlanet

Sam Graves at Dwell says that Detroit's Lafayette Park, planned by Mies van der Rohe in 1956, is a rare success story from the planned developments of that era.

December 5 - Dwell

The Port Authority of N.Y & N.J toll increase on Hudson River bridges and tunnels causes a 4% drop in vehicles and 3.7% increase in PATH train ridership despite fare increase; 3/5% increase in E-Z pass usage, and 20% increase in toll revenue.

December 5 - The New York Times- N.Y. / Region

David Levinson poses some possible answers, such as inaccurate project scopes, insufficient economies of scale, and an increase in safety standards.

December 5 - The Transportationist

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Bad planning simply extrapolates past trends: “We experienced 2% annual growth during the last decade, so we’ll assume that will continue into the future.” Good planning attempts to understand underlying factors that affect change.

December 4 - Todd Litman

Eric Jaffe reports on new research by urban travel behavior expert Bradley Lane of U. of Texas/El Paso on elasticity of gas prices and bus and rail ridership. Interestingly, rail ridership spiked twice as much as bus ridership when gas prices rose.

December 4 - The Atlantic Cities

One of the few remaining prototypes for Buckminster Fuller's "autonomous dwelling machine" - a 24 ft geodesic dome - has been restored and is on view now in Miami's Design District.

December 4 - The Art Newspaper

The Cleveland National Forest Foundation is suing SANDAG over a $200 billion transportation plan that purportedly only promotes sprawl through freeway extensions.

December 4 - KPBS

Brainchild of libertarians, seasteads are brand new cities built upon the ocean. It's not as far-fetched as it sounds, according to this article's author, but it will have to overcome the myriad engineering, energy, and legal challenges.

December 4 - The Economist

Tod Newcombe reports on pedestrian-only malls like Buffalo's, which after 25 years has been so unsuccessful that they want to turn it back into a road. So why are these ped malls failing?

December 3 - Governing Magazine

A new report from the Federal Housing Finance Agency says that U.S. counties with a significant number of jobs in the energy sector have seen a rise in home prices that is unusual in this recession.

December 3 - The Oklahoman

Architect and planner Alexander Garvin takes a walk through New York City's public spaces, and says the city has been paying too much attention to new buildings and not enough on the public realm.

December 3 - The New York Times

A recent rezoning led to high economic hopes for downtown Brooklyn. But a more recent economic downturn seems to have undermined those expectations. Indeed, some growth has occurred, but success depends on whom you ask.

December 3 - Brooklyn Bureau

Various reports detail how Mumbai can become a world-class city by listing infrastructure and development goals, but, as Nayantara Kilachand points out, "cultural and social nuance" need to be--but aren't--factored in.

December 3 - The Wall Street Journal