The Daily Source of Urban Planning News

Seeking Sponsors As Infrastructure Dies

This piece from New Geography looks disparagingly at an idea in San Francisco to allow corporate sponsorship of the Golden Gate Bridge in order to raise money for infrastructure projects.

January 15 - New Geography

Getting Kids Off the Street- And Up In The Air

Want to get kids off the street? Build playgrounds on top of skyscrapers, like in this retro-future design from 1957's Mechanix Illustrated.

January 15 - Modern Mechanix

A New Community Center in Brooklyn, With New Ideas

Architect George Ranalli's new Saratoga Avenue Community Center attempts to redefine the form by focusing on permanence and design.

January 15 - ArchNewsNow.com

BLOG POST

Quest to Grad School: The Beginning

I decided to apply to graduate schools in urban planning before I had even finished up with my undergrad work. Urban planning spans many topics, and when I minored in it in college I realized I had a lot still to learn about architecture and design, the environment, and public policy. What really got me interested, however, was when I saw how planning intersects with community organization. I first saw the two forces at work while I volunteered with a philosophically grassroots, non-profit planning organization. I think we did some good work in some not-so-glamorous places, which still encourages me as I think about my career goals.

January 14 - Judy Chang

Tunnel Picked for Seattle Viaduct Replacement

Officials in Washington have come to a consensus on plans to replace the Alaskan Way Viaduct, Seattle's damaged inner-city arterial. They've decided on a $4 billion tunnel, but the plans still need approval from the state legislature.

January 14 - The Seattle Post-Intelligencer

Bike-Riding On Long Island

This editorial looks at the hostile environment of bicycling on much of Long Island, and ties it to the precarious life of many immigrant laborers, who already suffer from apparent hate crimes. Sadly, riding a bike only increases their vulnerability

January 14 - The New York Times

Can Brutalism Clash with Religious Exercise?

A Washington, D.C. church contends that its current facility, a historic Brutalist buildling, interferes with its theology and should be able to replace it with something more "welcoming" and fitting with "the scale of the community."

January 14 - The Christian Science Monitor

Electric Car Race Heats Up

It's clear that both domestic and international auto companies are gearing up to manufacture all-electric (battery-powered) vehicles, though whether the market goes for them is another story with gas prices at historic lows.

January 14 - The New York Times

Restoring the San Joaquin

One of the largest and most complex river restorations in the West, on the San Joaquin River, should pass the Senate later this week- but not without controversy.

January 14 - The Modesto Bee

In Protest, Greenpeace Buys Runway Land

Environmentalists have stalled the development of a third runway at Heathrow Airport by buying the land first.

January 14 - CNN

Blumenauer Sees Brighter Future As Bike Momentum Builds

"All of a sudden it's hot", says long-time bike advocate and U.S. Representative Earl Blumenauer, who's hoping the country will ride this momentum towards a more sustainable pattern of development.

January 14 - The New York Times

No Superfund Status for Rocketdyne Site

California has rejected a proposal to list a polluted nuclear testing facility as a federal Superfund site. State officials believe they can clean it up more quickly and thoroughly.

January 14 - Los Angeles Times

A Study in Texas New Urbanism

Terrain.org takes a look at Plum Creek, a New Urbanist development outside Austin, TX that added 1,400 households to a town that had only 4,000 people in the mid-1990s.

January 14 - Terrain.org: A Journal of the Built & Natural Environments

Vancouver's Troubled Olympic Village

Vancouver's 2010 Olympic Village construction is way over budget and the city is holding the bill.

January 14 - The Globe and Mail

Recycling the Suburbs?

The question is no longer how to improve the suburbs, says Allison Arieff, but what we're going to do with all the leftover buildings and unfinished sites.

January 13 - The New York Times

A Plea For a Pub in Salt Lake City

Salt Lake City Mayor Ralph Becker is talking about reforming the city's longstanding restrictions on alcohol. Writer Luke Garrett puts in his pitch for relaxed zoning to allow an old-fashioned pub in his neighborhood.

January 13 - The Salt Lake Tribune

Entering the 'Maze of Zoning'

In Virginia Beach, VA, homeowner Herbert Harris was told that the wheelchair ramp and extra bedroom he was building for his wife and ill daughter needed building permits. Thus began a trip down the rabbit hole of the Board of Zoning Appeals.

January 13 - The Virginian-Pilot

City/Suburb Relationship Doesn't Have to Be Zero-Sum

The suburbs are stereotyped as homogeneous, boring, cookie-cutter communities. But suburbs are evolving, according to this column from Tom Condon. Their relationship with cities is also changing -- and it can be good for both.

January 13 - The Hartford Courant

BLOG POST

Death and "De-Planning" in Gaza

Like all of us I have been watching the carnage in Gaza with concern and growing despair. And like many people, I have struggled with how best to understand this conflict, fraught as it is with historic hatreds, accusations and counter-accusations. If it is at all possible I would like to attempt a pragmatic view, starting with the recognition that the historic conflict over Palestine concerning land ownership, use and associated rights may be seen as falling within the spectrum of issues related to land use planning.

January 13 - Michael Dudley

A Year For City Ideas in Chicago

Chicago's 100-year anniversary of the Daniel Burnham city plan offers an opportunity to rethink how the city works and how it should look for the next 100, according to this piece from Blair Kamin.

January 13 - Chicago Tribune