The Daily Source of Urban Planning News

<p>A rare tornado and torrential storms caused havoc in New York City Wednesday, flooding subway tracks and creating major delays for commuters.</p>

August 9 - The New York Times

<p>The price of farmland is rising rapidly as ethanol fever grabs many farmers who are looking to cash in on the corn-based fuel. But the rising prices are making things harder for smaller farmers, and keeping many prospective farmers out of business.</p>

August 9 - The New York Times

<p>The City of Berkeley, California, is considering changing is long-held policy against auto malls within city limits.</p>

August 9 - The San Francisco Chronicle

<p>State and local officials are angered over being left out of disaster planning measures, after the Bush Administration adopted a unilateral approach that concentrates planning authority in the White House.</p>

August 9 - MSNBC

<p>Numbers continue to rise in New Orleans, where multiple demographic sources show the population at 60% of the total population before Hurricane Katrina hit in August 2005.</p>

August 9 - Associated Press via The Clarion-Ledger

<p>The City of Atlanta and a group of investors have purchased another plot of land for the city's Beltline project -- a loop of open spaces, rail lines, and housing and retail developments. This is the first plot purchased in more than a year.</p>

August 9 - The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

<p>Local government has big plans for redevelopment in the inner suburbs of Washington D.C. But some say the approach is too segmented and lacks a greater vision for many of the region's smaller towns.</p>

August 9 - The Washington Post

<p>In the Alberta Province of Canada, a loophole in a law meant to protect tenants from being evicted for condo conversions has been discovered that allows landlords to legally raise the rents as high as they want, effectively pricing tenants out.</p>

August 9 - CBC

<p>Facing the prospect of not receiving crucial state funding, the Chicago Transit Authority has released a "doomsday" plan to guide the system's reaction to the budget shortfall. Some services would have to be cut, but not as many as expected earlier.</p>

August 8 - The Chicago Tribune

<p>A city-sponsored streetscape beautification project currently under construction in Washington D.C. has been keeping many customers away from local businesses. Many are calling on the city to help out businesses during the construction-caused lull.</p>

August 8 - The Washington Post

<p>War damage, fuel shortages, insurgent attacks and a lack of regional cooperation is leading Iraq's power and water infrastructure towards a state of collapse.</p>

August 8 - BBC

<p>A society that values lower taxes above all other considerations shouldn't be surprised when its public realm crumbles beneath it, writes Joshua Holland.</p>

August 8 - AlterNet

<p>Widely touted as a way of making America energy-independent, corn-based ethanol is instead a heavily subsidized, fossil-fuel dependent and environmentally destructive political boondoggle.</p>

August 8 - Rolling Stone

<p>Looking back over the two years since Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans, the Army Corps of Engineers' continuing work has been closely scrutinized. But will they be able to prepare New Orleans for an even bigger storm?</p>

August 8 - Time

<p>Urban geographer Richard Morrill discusses the history of growth in Seattle, the influences that cause it, and which of the influences can be controlled.</p>

August 8 - Crosscut

<p>The city of Jeffersonville, Indiana, has approved the annexation of more than 7,800 acres of nearby land -- a move that will increase the population by more than a third. Many of the people to be annexed are calling the move a land and money grab.</p>

August 8 - The Courier-Journal

<p>With Hudson Riverfront developments finding success in lower Manhattan and Jersey City, the city of Yonkers, New York, is looking to redevelop its own waterfront. There are also plans to unearth a subterranean river and develop along its course.</p>

August 8 - Architectural Record

<p>With few paved roads, rail is often the best transport option in the Democratic Republic of Congo. But the system suffers derailments, crumbling tracks, and trains in disrepair -- and the government doesn't have the money to fix it.</p>

August 8 - The Washington Post

BLOG POST

<p> Valleywag, the uber-obnoxious Bay Area gossip blog has a great piece on the impact a rapidly-expanding Facebook.com has on downtown Palo Alto (The Institute is right across the street!) </p>

August 7 - Anthony Townsend

BLOG POST

<p>I first visited the African American suburb of Country Club Hills, south of Chicago, as an interviewer for a research project. It seemed as though only race had been reversed: The Maryland suburbs I had grown up in were 80 percent white, these were 80 Black, but otherwise they were so utterly familiar, right down to the floor plan of the split-level ranches, that I knew the layout of every home before I went in.</p> <p style="line-height: 150%" class="MsoNormal"> In research I’ve begun on other Black, middle-class suburbs, however, it turns out that more than color has been reversed. In fact, race reverses many of the things planners have come to see as inevitable.</p>

August 7 - Greg Smithsimon