The Daily Source of Urban Planning News

Most crosswalks are straight lines, but many people walk across streets in an arc. One designer has proposed changing the way crosswalks are painted to improve pedestrian safety.

September 7 - Fast Co. Design

A new book by Robert Gatje gives public squares and piazzas the coffee-table treatment, meticulously detailing what makes these historic spaces work.

September 7 - The Architect's Newspaper

Contention over how California's high speed rail train from Los Angeles should access the Bay Area appears to be the dispute that won't go away. Having just lost their case in court only 2 weeks ago, approval of the Pacheco Pass may continue.

September 7 - San Francisco Chronicle

The New York Times reports that yes, construction is beginning to move more rapidly at Ground Zero.

September 7 - The New York Times

Developing countries have begun importing Western-style pro-sprawl urban planning policies, often to their detriment. Kuala Lumpur and cities across the communist world are examined.

September 7 - Market Urbanism

The BBC reports that there is a surge in urban beekeeping in Paris, with 400 hives and growing within the city limits.

September 7 - BBC News

Low income housing can also be green housing. A new trend in home design and community activism is giving even inexpensive housing a green sheen.

September 7 - Los Angeles Times

The recent controversies surrounding the building of mosques in cities across America have their resolution in one simple acronym: RLUIPA.

September 6 - The New York Times

Mary Newsom questions the current and diminishing lack of public worth in the United States today. " Americans have stopped believing that value is something everyone deserves," she writes.

September 6 - Charlotte Observer

BLOG POST

<p> It&#39;s already disappearing. The temporary city that forms during the annual Burning Man event is fading away, as the tens of thousands of people who traveled out to live in the desert of northwestern Nevada for the past week have filed out of the void and returned back to the rest of the world. The event&#39;s organizers and volunteers are still erasing the traces of the event, from demolishing structures to removing fencing to picking up trash. Within another week or so, the entire city will have disappeared.<br /> <br /> It&#39;s an interesting way for a city to exist -- just a few weeks at a time, once a year. But it&#39;s been working for Burning Man and Black Rock City, the name of that temporary city that forms and disbands almost as soon as it comes to full life. On top of what&#39;s already a unique experiment in citymaking, the theme of this year&#39;s event was Metropolis, which spurred the tens of thousands of people and artists who make up the city to think a little more about how their &quot;party in the desert&quot; is actually a little city and community (the fourth largest city in Nevada during its run), and how it relates to their world beyond the desert.

September 6 - Nate Berg

New Orleans will have to do something about its Claiborne Avenue Expressway in the coming decade, because after more than 40 years of service, it has seen better days and needs renovation.

September 6 - Next American City

BLOG POST

<p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt" class="MsoNormal"> <span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small">Planning decisions often have significant indirect effects. As planners, our challenge is to clearly describe these impacts and quantify them as much as possible so they can be incorporated into decision making. An example of this is the effect that transportation planning decisions have on human health. These impacts are significant but often overlooked or undervalued in the planning process. I have worked on several research projects that explore the nexus between transport planning decisions and public health, and are developing practical tools for incorporating them into planning. Let me share some of my current thinking about this issue. </span> </p>

September 6 - Todd Litman

Drake Bennett rounds up a host of new ideas for cities like Detroit and Cleveland that are forced to consider how to manage their shrinking cities.

September 6 - The Boston Globe

A documentary airing nationally on PBS today looks at the work of Daniel Burnham and the emergence of the urban planning profession.

September 6 - Architectural Record

GOOD Magazine has an infographic illustrating the world cities with the most pedestrian fatalities per 100,000 residents. Unsurprisingly, 3 American cities are at the top of the list.

September 5 - GOOD Magazine

A new study says that the bump in sales brought on by the Cash for Clunkers program was immediately followed by an equal plunge in sales, effectively wiping out the economic benefit.

September 5 - NPR

No, it's not a teen zombie movie -- a skate park planned for Miami is causing an uproar because of its proposed location, adjacent to the historic Miami Cemetery.

September 5 - The Miami Herald

Dan Bertolet argues that adding expanding car capacity in cities just inspires more people to drive and ruins the qualities that make the city attractive in the first place.

September 5 - Publicola

Even as the City of Buffalo is spending millions to build new historically appropriate buildings on the waterfront, true historic buildings are allowed to be destroyed mere blocks away, says Donn Esmonde.

September 5 - The Buffalo News

Marina Hyde writes that the "horrible thing about China's 62-mile nine-day jam was that it destroyed the certainty that travel will inevitably result in arrival."

September 4 - The Guardian