The Daily Source of Urban Planning News

<p>Sierra Magazine asks Matt Stoller, Michael Bocian, David Orr and Newt Gingrich to square off on how climate change will figure in the 2008 Presidential election.</p>

January 14 - Sierra

FEATURE

There are many voices in the process of community planning. To create effective plans, planners need to welcome these many voices and their respective differences, not suppress them into consensus.

January 14 - Lewis D. Hopkins, Marisa A. Zapata

<p>A new approach to urbanism in suburban Atlanta, the Tributary community is based on a mixed-use master plan integrating and interconnecting a range of residential neighborhoods, a village center, a town center, and more.</p>

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

<p><em>The Examiner</em> looks at the loss of middle-class housing in San Francisco, and how, based on a new report by a local urban think tank, allowing more flexibility in zoning would allow affordable, but market-rate housing to meet the demand.</p>

January 13 - San Francisco Examiner

<p>Part of a week-long series, Randal O'Toole and blogger Will Campbell debate federal funding for bike infrastructure and question whether a broad bike system should be built before or after the demand presents itself.</p>

January 13 - The Los Angeles Times

<p>Dubbed 'the world's cheapest car' and the 'People's Car', the Tata Nano promises either a transportation revolution or an environmental nightmare.</p>

January 13 - Associated Press

<p>Building housing fro the homeless in Seattle is saving the city more than $3 million per year, according to this editorial from the <em>Seattle Post-Intelligencer</em>.</p>

January 13 - The Seattle Post-Intelligencer

<p>Located seven miles south of the town of Loreto in Baja California Sur, the Villages of Loreto Bay is an 8,000-acre new urbanist development that strives to be North America’s largest sustainable resort development.</p>

January 13 - Terrain.org: A Journal of the Built & Natural Environments

<p>In Washington, D.C., the historic preservation office will not allow a ramp to the front door of a 1930s rowhouse, so elderly residents must live in the basement that has access to a back alley.</p>

January 12 - The Washington Post

<p>Part of a week-long series, Randal O'Toole and blogger Will Campbell debate why some cities are good for cyclists, how they got there, and why L.A. is still far off.</p>

January 12 - The Los Angeles Times

<p>Canadian officials will revisit plans to create a high-speed rail system connecting Toronto, Ottawa and Montreal.</p>

January 12 - CBC

<p>Citing staff inexperience, the head of Georgia's Department of Transportation has raised the idea of abandoning all of the state's toll road plans.</p>

January 12 - The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

<p>Plans to develop a transit village around one of the San Francisco Bay Area's BART stations is gaining support, but some local officials are voicing concerns over the increased load on city infrastructure and services.</p>

January 12 - The Contra Costa Times

<p>The satirical newspaper <em>The Onion</em> lists some dubious water conservation strategies being contemplated in American cities.</p>

January 11 - The Onion

<p>The infamous 1,100-mile Iditarod sled dog race course has been adjusted due to urban sprawl moving into the traditional course route.</p>

January 11 - The Seattle Times

<p>A slowing economy will lead to the era of the 'ghost mall', according to this article from <em>Slate</em>.</p>

January 11 - Slate

Funding shortages are leaving officials at the national parks with little or no power to acquire new lands, enabling private interests to buy up sensitive lands before they can be protected federally.

January 11 - The Christian Science Monitor

BLOG POST

<p><span style="font-size: 9pt; font-family: Verdana">Often times I’m struck by the advances we’ve made in mapping, modeling and depicting our cities.  What was once the purview of mapmakers, surveyors or architects is now a democratized, engaging process that brings unexpected results.  And the more advanced the technology, the more transparent our cities seem to become.  </span></p>

January 11 - Scott Page

<p>The fate of industrial properties is the subject of a huge, ongoing battle in Los Angeles. City planners and economic development boosters want to prevent conversions to residential uses — much to the consternation of free-market advocates.</p>

January 11 - California Planning & Development Report

<p>Efforts to improve Europe's network of high-speed rail systems may also result in loosened border crossing rules.</p>

January 11 - Der Spiegel