The Daily Source of Urban Planning News
The Manhattanization Of L.A.
<p>In this piece from the <em>Los Angeles Times</em>, Joel Kotkin writes about how L.A. politicians are blindly following the lead of developers in densifying the city without adequately debating the consequences.</p>
Planned Windmill In Atlanta Neighborhood Causes Controversy
<p>Neighbors are so far unsuccessful in their attempts to prevent one homeowner from erecting a 45-foot high windmill turbine generator in his yard.</p>
Reinventing A Downtown Civic Plaza
<p>City leaders in Raleigh, North Carolina, are planning to transform a underutilized downtown plaza into a new public square.</p>
Living In A Food Desert
<p>Researchers in Rhode Island find that residents in many parts of the state lack easy access to food.</p>
Is Joel Kotkin The Anti-Planner?
<p>Los Angeles pundit Joel Kotkin's most recent diatribe about the alleged "Manhattanization" of Los Angeles has put Bill Fulton over the edge. Kotkin's arguments are old, tired and contradictory, says Fulton.</p>
Will Architects And Planners Fail The World's Urban Dwellers?
<p>With rapid urbanization overtaking the world, experts worry that planners and architects are too few and lack experience to tackle the coming challenge.</p>
Bringing Seoul To Los Angeles
<p>Korean American architect Christopher Pak is successfully bringing high density living to Los Angeles.</p>
Taking Transit 'Out' Of The City
<p>While more work needs to be done to make transit work for urban dwellers, thought should also be given to how transit can let those car-free city residents reach the great outdoors.</p>
Why Cities Should Raise Their Parking Rates
<p>Market-based pricing for street parking could help cities like Boston reduce congestion and raise badly needed revenue.</p>
Wal-Mart Town Center Project Is Missing The Town Center
<p>In North Lauderdale, Florida, a Wal-Mart-anchored town center is struggling to live up to its promises.</p>
A Boomtown Built On Illegal Immigration
<p>In the Mexican city of Altar, just 60 miles from the U.S. border, a booming economy has built itself around catering to those looking to make the treacherous walk through the desert to cross into the U.S.</p>
Funding And Timing Issues Critical To Creation Of Transit In Tampa
<p>With three different public transit funding plans up for consideration, officials in Tampa, Florida, are trying to decide which is the best and when is the best time to start the work on the city's long-sought transit system.</p>
Good Management The Secret To Successful Communities
<p>Cerritos, California, has become one of the more successful suburbs of Los Angeles by applying superb management techniques.</p>
BLOG POST
Design is Social Activism
“I have always thought that design can be a form of social activism,” says Don Meeker, environmental graphic designer and co-creator of “Clearview” typeface. This small but radical quotation was buried in an article from the 8.12.07 NY Times Sunday magazine (<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/12/magazine/12fonts-t.html" target="_blank">http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/12/magazine/12fonts-t.html</a>) on the redesign of highway sign typeface. Meeker, James Montalbano, and a team of collaborators understood that it was the design of highway signage that was contributing to highway fatalities. They applied an understanding of human psychology and function to the solution of a “civic issue.” <br /><br />Radical idea. It’s called Universal Design. Or social activism.
U.S. Cities Feel Hurt Of Tourism Slump
<p>The amount of overseas tourists visiting the U.S. has dropped recently, and with revenues in many cities taking a hit, a coalition of American mayors are calling on the federal government to loosen restrictions on foreign travelers.</p>
Updating New York's Bicycle Network
<p>Plans to expand the bicycle network in New York City are underway as part of Mayor Michael Bloomberg's long-term plan to make the city more environmentally friendly. But proposals to increase the city's bike lanes are meeting opposition from locals.</p>
Environmental Protection Through Cap-And-Trade
<p>As carbon trading systems gain notoriety as successful methods of protecting those natural resources that are good at sequestering the harmful emission, some see a bright future for similar cap-and-trade systems to preserve nature for its benefits.</p>
Poor Benefitting From 'Poverty Tours'
<p>In the squatter settlements in South African slums, a burgeoning new industry is developing around so-called "poverty tours", where Western tourists are taken off the beaten tour path to see what life is like in impoverished squatter communities.</p>
Water Shortages Alter Growth Patterns In Las Vegas
<p>Low water supplies are forcing changes to the growth patterns of booming Las Vegas, Nevada.</p>
California Publishes New Hazard Mitigation Draft Plan
<p>The California Hazard Mitigation Plan (SHMP) is the state's plan for reshaping and strengthening the built environment to significantly reduce disaster losses created by natural and human-caused hazards.</p>
City of Thousand Oaks
City of Wisconsin Rapids
Harvard University Graduate School of Design
The Architects Foundation
University of Cincinnati Online
Northern Illinois Transit Authority (NITA)
The Pocatello Development Authority
The Urban Renewal Agency of the City of Pocatello
FREE Course: Walkable City 1: Why Walkability?
After describing his path towards focusing on walkability as the essence of good planning, Jeff Speck marches through his five principal reasons for making more walkable places.
Reinventing Malls: Planning Alchemy—Turning Gray Fields Into Gold
The course focuses on the opportunities and imperatives that shape reinvention of mall sites.
