The Daily Source of Urban Planning News

<p>An unusual art installation in Trafalgar Square draws attention to Vancouverism: Westcoast Architecture and City Building, an exhibition about the city's achievements in urban development, engineering and architecture.</p>

June 24 - The Vancouver Sun

<p>Boston's Fort Point Channel neighborhood, New England's largest artist community, is struggling to retain its identity as developers continue to transform studio space into condominiums.</p>

June 24 - The Boston Globe

<p>A year after a new freeway was completed in Southern California, traffic data shows increased use. Officials plan to widen the freeway to handle the increased load.</p>

June 24 - The San Bernardino Sun

BLOG POST

<p> In August of 2006, an unknown Irish company called Steorn took out a full-page ad in The Economist to announce that they had created a magnetic technology that produced more energy than it used- essentially, a perpetual motion machine, the Holy Grail of energy. </p>

June 24 - Tim Halbur

<p>A developer in New Jersey is looking to shipping containers as building blocks for affordable housing.</p>

June 24 - Courier-Post

<p>In this excerpt from his forthcoming book, Subprime Solution, economist Robert J. Shiller writes of our tendency to succumb to "bubble thinking," and the role this has played in the current mortgage crisis.</p>

June 24 - Atlantic Monthly

BLOG POST

<p> Yesterday’s Washington Post contained <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/06/23/AR2008062300297.html?hpid=news-col-blog">a list of elite public schools</a>- schools where the average student SAT is over 1300. Since suburban schools generally have better reputations than urban schools, one might expect that all the schools on the list would be in prestigious suburban school districts. But in fact, this is not the case. Three New York City schools (Stuyvestant, Hunter College, Bronx High) and one school near downtown Richmond (Maggie Walker) are on the high-SAT list- despite the fact that the New York City and Richmond school districts, like nearly all urban school districts, have mediocre reputations. </p>

June 24 - Michael Lewyn

<p>Transit officials in Chicago are calling on the city to rebuild its historic streetcar system. Rails still exist on many streets, but city officials are leaning away from streetcars and towards bus rapid transit.</p>

June 24 - Chicago Sun-Times

<p>In this op-ed piece, Kevin C. Phelan and Yanni Tsipis argue that Boston's 'Big Dig' has only fought half the battle, calling for a more proactive approach to building over the city's other auto sewer, the Massachusetts Turnpike.</p>

June 24 - The Boston Globe

<p>Despite predictions that the city was dying, St. Louis has just won an "All-America City" award. Neal Peirce looks at how the city turned itself around.</p>

June 24 - The Washington Post Writers Group

<p>A new airport overlay district in Sioux Falls, South Dakota has nearby homeowners crying 'taking!' Airport officials say, 'All we're trying to do is make sure we have good neighbors.'</p>

June 24 - The Argus Leader

<p>Building a strong country is reliant on strong urban regions, according to Senator Barack Obama, who recently spoke with a conference of U.S. mayors about the importance of urban growth. Federal funding, however, will be limited, he said.</p>

June 23 - The New York Times

<p>This story from <em>NPR</em> looks at a new bike lane in New Orleans, and other efforts the city is taking to update its street infrastructure.</p>

June 23 - NPR

<p>A new building by Rem Koolhaas in Beijing is part of a wave of modern construction that is changing the tightly-planned urban fabric of the Chinese capital.</p>

June 23 - The New Yorker

<p>San Francisco's rapid loss of low and middle-income residents is taking a toll on the city's social fabric.</p>

June 23 - The San Francisco Chronicle

<p>Traffic signs on American roadways are so numerous and so distracting to drivers that they are having the opposite effect intended, writes John Staddon.</p>

June 23 - Atlantic Monthly

<p>Bruce Fisher laments Buffalo's decades-old decision to put their university campus outside of town, missing the lesson that "eds and meds" are central to the prosperity of a city.</p>

June 23 - ArtVoice

<p>With gas and food prices climbing to unprecedented levels, many families are turning to pawnshops to cover their bills. Unfortunately, pickups are down and people aren't buying, putting smaller operations at risk of closure.</p>

June 23 - The News & Observer

<p>Heather Stewart's vision of a country wedding in a resorted country barn are thwarted by code enforcement officers at the last minute. 'We have zoning rules and building codes that always get in the way of dreams,' Reinsborough said.</p>

June 23 - Portland Press Herald

<p>A recent L.A. Times series suggests that we should build more Southern California freeways for long-distance commuters, and prevent additional job development in employment-heavy areas. Bill Fulton suggests a different approach.</p>

June 23 - California Planning & Development Report