The Daily Source of Urban Planning News

<p>Citing the threat posed by climate change, the State Attorney General of California Jerry Brown has filed suit against a community for failing to rein in sprawl.</p>

June 8 - USA Today

<p>Rural towns are making moves to provide their own high speed internet services. Many rural areas are underserved by big internet service providers, and public officials recognize the importance of internet access to the future of their communities.</p>

June 8 - The Christian Science Monitor

<p>The Houston City Council has approved a measure that would grant property tax exemption for owners of buildings assigned protected landmark status in the city. Officials hope the incentive will encourage historic preservation.</p>

June 8 - The Houston Chronicle

<p>Research by economists at Oregon State University shows that the state's land prices have not been impacted by its strong planning system and land-use regulations.</p>

June 8 - Portland Business Journal

<p>The idea of linking agriculture and smart growth is gaining ground in California's booming rural areas.</p>

June 8 - New America Foundation

BLOG POST

<p>WARSAW, Poland --I&#39;m on my fourth city in a two-month excursion, and so far I&#39;ve found all the quaintness, density, pedestrian life, and vernacular architecture that I was looking for as an antitode to my beloved, loathed Los Angeles. The cores of Riga and Vilnius come right out of proverbial fairy tales, and even Helsinki, though historically torn between Sweden and Russia, has plenty of the best trappings of Boston and San Francisco (as well as some of the worst of Atlanta or Dallas; more on that later). </p><p>Then there&#39;s Warsaw. </p>

June 8 - Josh Stephens

<p>A human rights group has accused the Chinese Government of forcing 1.5 million residents from their homes in preparation for the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing -- the latest in a continuing saga of displacement in former host cities.</p>

June 8 - The Washington Post

<p>Voters in Tennessee have denied a proposal to use city funding to finance the development of a big box retail development. Many in the city say they have missed an opportunity to spur economic development in the small town.</p>

June 8 - Knoxville News Sentinel

<p>The new plan would transform Sydney's White Bay into an environmentally-friendly community designed to mitigate the city's ecological impact and combat global warming.</p>

June 8 - ABC News

<p>Savvy real estate developers who can promote their projects as smart growth developments are attracting significant capital from public pension funds -- regardless of the actual merits of the project.</p>

June 7 - LA Weekly

<p>Forced to close schools due to shrinking enrollment, a Detroit suburb is selling its surplus schools to housing developers in hopes that children from new families will prop up remaining schools in the community.</p>

June 7 - Metro Times

<p>The Ukrainian capital has seen the number of cars increase over 600 percent in less than 30 years, taxing the city's infrastructure and presenting local planners with a major transportation challenge.</p>

June 7 - Ukraine Observer

<p>Voters in Monterey County, California, have rejected environmentalists' general plan initiative, and appear to have tossed aside a county-written plan as well. The June 5 election was the latest conflict in the seven-year general plan process.</p>

June 7 - California Planning & Development Report

<p>Steven Holl's new addition to the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City is reviewed by The New York Times Architecture Critic Nicolai Ouroussoff.</p>

June 7 - The New York Times

<p>A recent report by Joel Kotkin and the Greater Houston Partnership offers an alternative to Richard Florida's Creative Class model for the future of cities -- using the Sunbelt metropolis as a case study.</p>

June 7 - Greater Houston Partnership

<p>Assaults and property crimes are also up in 2006, according to recently released FBI data. City officials are hoping the increase is a one-time occurrence, and not a trend that could endanger its ongoing urban revitalization efforts.</p>

June 7 - The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

<p>The Lord Mayor of Sydney has used very blunt language to characterize the city's future, yet planning to counter anticipated problems is still in the early stages.</p>

June 7 - The Sydney Morning Herald

BLOG POST

<p>The solution to so-called &quot;automobile dependence&quot; within the contemporary planning community is almost alway more mass transit: more trains and buses. But is this realistic, particualarly given current strategies and approaches to providing mass transit? Most investments in mass transit are patently unsustainable, requiring huge investments in capital and dramatic reductions in mobility (measured by travel time) to achieve ridership goals. </p><p>Proof of mass transit&#39;s unsustainability is obvious to anyone willing to look at it objectively: </p>

June 7 - Samuel Staley

<p>A recent editorial argues that the successful model of regional planning in the Sacramento region known as the "Blueprint" provides an alternative to sprawl that needs to be applied statewide, and identifies current state legislation to do just that.</p>

June 7 - The Sacramento Bee

<p>In an effort to improve its world headquarters, Campbell Soup wants to expand its campus in Camden, New Jersey. The only problem is that the company's plans include knocking down a nationally registered historic building.</p>

June 7 - The New York Times