The Daily Source of Urban Planning News

A private company, working with the City Council of Nairobi, sells advertising space to fund streetlights in the city. Smart public/private partnership, or intrusion of advertising on public spaces?

May 28 - Next American City

Don't call them granny flats or inlaw units! These are separate units that can only be built on lots of 4,000 sq. ft. minimum. Only 50 have been built or permitted since the trial began in 2006. The goal is to bring affordabllity to SFH neighborhoods

May 28 - USA Today

John Shirey, executive director of the California Redevelopment Association, talks about the recent court ruling that allowed California to take $2 billion in redevelopment from local municipalities, leaving hundreds of projects at risk.

May 28 - The Planning Report

Lebanon, Kansas is the true middle of the contiguous United States. Photographer J. Bennett Fitts is documenting this Middle America, a town that has lost a lot of population over the years.

May 28 - GOOD Magazine

A coalition of social welfare organizations in Ontario is preparing a legal case compelling the federal and Ontario governments to provide affordable housing as a human right.

May 28 - The Globe and Mail

With fruit prices way down, some farmers in British Columbia are taking their fields out of production and renting them out as RV parks. The government in Kelowna, BC, is not happy.

May 28 - The Globe and Mail

State governments in the U.S. are radically rethinking how they work. With tight budgets and little sign of improvement anytime soon, big ideas are bubbling. But few have been put in motion.

May 28 - The New York Times

As South Africa prepares to host the soccer World Cup, questions remain about whether the estimated $6 billion investment will be worth it. Some say those questions won't be answered for years.

May 28 - Sports Illustrated

Like Daniel Burnham's famous Chicago plan, a bold plan for Columbus, Ohio has been proposed by the Columbus Downtown Development Corp. The plan, developed by consultant MSI Design, hearkens back to turn-of-the-century city plans that went unrealized.

May 27 - The Columbus Dispatch

Pennsylvania's roads, bridges, transit, and water infrastructure received near-failing grades according to a American Society of Civil Engineers' "2010 Report Card for Pennsylvania's Infrastructure" and the DOT rebuffed the state's tolling solution.

May 27 - Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Former Interior secretary Bruce Babbitt believes that the federal government needs to create a new agency to do the planning necessary to prepare the coastline for rising waters due to climate change.

May 27 - Lincoln Institute of Land Policy blog

A 30-story residential building will be at the core of a transit-oriented development project at Canada Line's Marine Drive Station in Vancouver.

May 27 - The Vancouver Sun

Columnist Roger K. Lewis says Washington D.C. has a lot to learn from New York City in terms of reusing old and outdated infrastructure.

May 27 - The Washington Post

Officials in the Saudi capital of Riyadh are planning to build a central rail hub with an annual passenger capacity of more than 800,000. The station is expected to be complete by 2013.

May 27 - Building

With one of Philadelphia's best-supported public parks in danger of losing the private funding that keeps it maintained, <em>Philadelphia Inquirer</em> architecture critic Inga Saffron looks at the sad state of the city's parks.

May 27 - The Philadelphia Inquirer

Americans are driving fewer miles than they were a year ago, despite an improving economy. Some say the American demand for oil will be low throughout the rest of this year.

May 27 - USA Today

Five years in the works, Denver's new zoning code has been introduced. The form-based code now faces a period of public input before its expected approval.

May 27 - The Denver Daily News

Plans to expand Charlotte's CATS light rail system to a nearby university could be delayed by a decade or more.

May 27 - The Charlotte Observer

FEATURE

May 27 - Tim Halbur

Richard Florida and his team have ranked the Best Places for Recent College Grads using nine different indicators, including the number of singles, unemployment rate, rental housing stock, and of course, creative capital.

May 26 - The Daily Beast