The Daily Source of Urban Planning News

A group of investors bought New York City's Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village in 2006 at the height of the market for $5.4 billion. The speculative deal is now underwater and the investors have decided to walk away from their loans.

January 26 - The Wall St. Journal

BART's people-mover connection to the Oakland Airport is jeopardized by an FTA ruling that the agency failed to reach out to minorities, potentially denying the agency of $70 million in stimulus funds. Might the funds go to other transit needs?

January 26 - SF Gate - Oakland Blog

A university in British Columbia is opening a "biological pest control laboratory" to develop strategies for small and urban farms to control pests through microbe- and insect-based systems.

January 26 - The Vancouver Sun

An underground trolley station in Washington D.C. that later had a turn as a short-lived underground food court is being eyed by local artists as a possible site for a new underground cultural center and art space.

January 26 - The Washington Post

The city of Baghdad is looking to revitalize its Sadr City slum through a $10 billion, 10-year redevelopment plan.

January 26 - Reuters

'I'm pretty convinced we're in the midst of a transformation which is probably as profound as what happened immediately after the Second World War,' says planner Ken Greenberg in an interview in Metropolis.

January 25 - Metropolis Magazine

Raymond Joseph, Haitian ambassador to the U.S., sees the opportunity to build a smaller, better city from the ruins.

January 25 - The Seattle Times

In this op-ed, CA state Senator Leland Yee (D-SF/San Mateo) discusses the result of his legislation to apply double traffic fines, as well as city street improvements, on two of the most dangerous roads in SF, 19th and Van Ness Aves.

January 25 - San Francisco Examiner

While cities may seem permanent, a group called Architecture 2030 claims that a majority of the buildings in cities today will be rebuilt by the year 2035.

January 25 - Grist

The recent election of a new mayor in a small town on the Japanese island of Okinawa has severely threatened plans to build a new U.S. military base in the town.

January 25 - The New York Times

FEATURE

Human-scaled, creative development isn't getting built because most of the money in real estate comes from institutional investors that prefer predictable, large scale projects like subdivisions and strip malls, says Neil Takemoto of CoolTown Beta Communities.

January 25 - Neil Takemoto

Amanda Levete argues that the planning process in the U.K. should be taken out of the hands of government and public process and handed to a panel of qualified architects.

January 25 - Building

As offshoring becomes more expensive due to the higher costs of shipping an international infrastructure, more companies are making plans to expand their manufacturing operations at home.

January 25 - AreaDevelopment Online

Laredo, Texas is losing its only bookstore, a B. Dalton (the chain is going out of business).

January 25 - CNN

The Kelo decision of 2005 caused states across the US to think twice before using eminent domain. But not in New York, where the controversial strategy seems to be experiencing a renaissance.

January 25 - The Architect's Newspaper

The standard apartment building puts the public spaces (hallways) on the inside. Vancouver's new False Creek development "extroverts the circulation spaces," says Erick Villagomez.

January 25 - re:place Magazine

Dan Zack, downtown development coordinator for Redwood City, CA, gave a 50-minute presentation on Delightful Density to a Palo Alto audience on Nov. 5. This 12-minute excerpt is composed of 17 buildings - get out your pencils and guess their density.

January 24 - YouTube

With a substantial investment, it would be possible for the eastern half of the U.S.to get 30% of its electricity from wind power, according to a new report from the Energy Department's National Renewable Energy Laboratory.

January 24 - Grist

The City of Chicago, in a much criticized move, recently privatized its parking enforcement. Stephen Goldsmith says the program should be celebrated instead of booed.

January 24 - Governing Magazine

Lisa Gray paints a picture of downtown Houston's inexorable evolution from a city full of ground level parking lots to a denser metropolis where multi-level garages are commonplace.

January 24 - The Houston Chronicle