The Daily Source of Urban Planning News

A summary look at why the housing affordability crisis continues to exist in major metro areas of the country.

June 29 - USA Today

Author Jeff Goodell writes of the price paid for the extraction and burning of coal, from mining accidents and blacklung disease affecting miners, to air pollution downwind of power plants, and finally, the global warming affecting the planet.

June 29 - The New York Times

"Community rights" do not exist, and since legislators and much of the public have "gone squishy" over individual property rights, more action is needed to restrict eminent domain powers, according to this op-ed.

June 29 - Reason Foundation

Giant orbiting sunshades, floating plastic islands, and other "far-out" ideas for addressing global warming deserve a serious look, say some of the world's prominent scientists.

June 28 - The New York Times

Are community gardens the antidote to America's health and urban problems?

June 28 - Times Online

Mixed use developments are moving into the suburbs of Milwaukee as developers see the demand for combined uses spreading out from the city's core.

June 28 - Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Developers in Indianapolis want to bring retail to its downtown canal, an area already busy with visitors and concentrated with housing. They're looking at San Antonio's River Walk for inspiration and advice.

June 28 - The Indianapolis Star

Frustrated with slow progress, a Mississippi Gulf Coast city is considering importing hundreds or thousands of Chinese laborers and materials to rebuild after Hurricane Katrina

June 28 - The Los Angeles Times

Petro-dollars are fueling the tiny emirate's ambitions to become one of the world's top commercial and tourist destinations. Experts wonder if Dubai's blazing growth is sustainable.

June 28 - The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's quest for "elegant density" brings him to the annual convention of the American Institute of Architects, where he emphasizes his commitment to high-quality urban design.

June 28 - The Planning Report

FEATURE

June 28 - Jessica Roder

The case could be one of the most important environmental case heard by the court.

June 28 - The Los Angeles Times

BC has about half the obesity rate of the Northwest states, a one-third lower car-crash fatality rate, and its residents live an average of two years longer. Why?

June 28 - The Vancouver Sun

Even with high real estate prices, traffic congestion, wildfires, and the possibility of a major earthquake, people from around the world and across the nation, continue to relocate to California. Why?

June 27 - Abhijeet Chavan

Northern California's Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) is the subject of a wide variety of blogs, which chronicle the good, the bad, and the, well, ugly.

June 27 - The Contra Costa Times

The report looks at the largest cities in developing countries and measures their growth and development. Cities such as Cairo have been praised for improvements to utilities, but criticized for not addressing the root of poverty in its slums.

June 27 - Mail & Guardian

Once rife with crime, Stockton is taking baby steps towards reducing the crime rate and attracting development to one of the Central Valley's burgeoning population centers.

June 27 - The Los Angeles Times

Though more expensive than steel, a New England developer is finding more long term value in the use of concrete.

June 27 - The Boston Globe

Across the nation, middle class neighborhoods are shrinking as cities and suburbs become increasingly segregated by income.

June 27 - Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Victorian houses are for sale for $6,000 in Canton. Local real estate investors flip, rent, or renovate in "the city the boom passed by".

June 27 - The New York Times