The Daily Source of Urban Planning News

Light rail is expanding to Los Angeles' Westside, and with it is coming a wave of transit-oriented developments.

July 11 - The New York Times

The Obama administration is trying to rein in suburban sprawl. But is it any match for 70 years of unsustainable development?

July 10 - The American Prospect

USA Today does some interesting analysis of the 18.4 cent federal gas tax and comes to some startling conclusions about how historically low it is when considered with vehicle miles driven and per capita income.

July 10 - USA Today

Designer Nick Talbot, who worked on Virgin Galactic projects, is proposing a floating hotel he's calling "Aircruise" which would take a leisurely 37 hour journey between London and New York.

July 10 - The Brisbane Times

Bamboo homes survive earthquakes and typhoons, it grows like a weed, and has twice the compression strength of concrete. Elisabeth Best reports on the wonder material and the image problem bamboo must overcome to be used more widely.

July 10 - Miller-McCune

The nation's first electric highway could be coming to the Pacific Northwest.

July 10 - Seattle Post-Intelligencer

A total of 1.6 million people experienced homelessness last year alone. President Obama has decided to attempt to remedy this sobering fact with the new Interagency Council on Homelessness' (USICH) "Opening Doors" plan.

July 9 - The Daily Caller

Melissa Lafsky asks if citizen initiative facilities like '311' and 'fixmystreet' should be expanded into an "operating system" for cities.

July 9 - The Infrastructurist

The Project for Public Spaces has begun to publicize improvements it has made to main streets across the country with a new web feature, reports Kaid Benfield.

July 9 - Sustainable Cities Collective

Fast Company reports on a branding company that is working to get biking out of the "hipster ghetto" and into the mainstream.

July 9 - Fast Company

The relationship between agriculture and cities is becoming increasingly important. Daniel Nairn suggests building "garden blocks" within cities to meet community food needs.

July 9 - Grist

New York City is updating their Uniform Land Use Review Process. Tom Agnotti says there is a lot that is broken and needs fixing.

July 9 - The Gotham Gazette

In a move to cement its importance as an urban waterway, the EPA declared the Los Angeles River a 'traditionally navigable waterway.'

July 9 - The Los Angeles Times

Oakland, California recently closed off two miles of city street to cars, creating a Bogota-inspired ciclovia, dubbed 'Oaklavia'.

July 9 - Streetsblog

The manufacturing industry is rapidly growing in Brooklyn. But unlike the black smokestacks of the past, this new industrial revolution is both green and high-tech.

July 9 - Metropolis

Rome, a city steeped in history, is struggling to retain and protect its historical identity as the city modernizes and expands.

July 9 - The New York Times

Renata Simril, regional VP for national developer Forest City, describes the financing and policy mechanisms she sees as necessary to bring TOD to cities.

July 8 - The Planning Report

New York's historically Italian Little Italy is steadily being transformed by its growing Mexican population.

July 8 - The New York Times

<em>The New York Times</em> calculates the cost difference between living in a single family house versus an apartment in the New York area.

July 8 - The New York Times

Adam Greenfield looks at issue tracking systems for cities, and suggests that they can be taken a step farther by adding unique identifiers to urban infrastructure that automatically notifies city systems when problems arise.

July 8 - Urban Omnibus