The Daily Source of Urban Planning News

The government's plans to move Ground Zero forward are a big step back in time, writes Peter Slatin.

April 24 - The Slatin Report

Renowned L.A. Architects Brenda Levin and William Fain call on L.A.'s new team of public officials to envision a smarter, denser, more functional city -- and to implement the policies to make it happen.

April 24 - The Planning Report

The Latino Urban Forum embraces, and adapts, the ideals of New Urbanism to prescribe an updated urban vision -- of walkable streets, healthy neighborhoods, and vibrant informal street life -- for Los Angeles' new urban majority.

April 24 - The Planning Report

BLOG POST

Nice bit of writing on London's sewers starting up on <a href="http://www.slate.com/id/2139945/entry/0/">Slate</a> today.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <blockquote>Down in the Fleet, Rob shines his helmet lamp on a pipe. It's encrusted with something. "Liquid concrete!" he says with disgust. "This is a throwaway society. Out of sight, out of mind." People will chuck anything, he says. Flushers—wastewater operatives got their name because they used to flush river water into the system to help it flow—have found gold, jewelry, even motorbikes. But mostly they find cotton buds, condoms, and fat.</blockquote>

April 24 - Anonymous

Special issue of CYE seeks to increase children's freedom of movement. Topics include fostering environmentalism, school buses, gender differences in walking to school, and "reclaiming the street" for children [PDFs available].

April 24 - Children, Youth and Environments

New zoning ordinances would focus more on how buildings look and fit into their surroundings, and far less on what goes on inside of them.

April 24 - Michigan Land Use Institute

Fresh off a recent victory, proponents of maintaining Miami's urban growth boundary are cautiously optimistic about the future.

April 24 - The Miami Herald

FEATURE

Joel Kotkin, author of the November 2005 report "The New Suburbanism", introduces the new planning theory, clarifies what it means, and describes how it remains very much a work in progress.

April 24 - Joel Kotkin

California energy strategy is to create an economy that is less oil-dependent and one that will use technology to attract jobs to the state.

April 24 - The Los Angeles Times

Expressing concern over rising gas prices, President Bush warned that nation would face a "tough summer" but offered no short term solution.

April 24 - The Los Angeles Times

China is land poor. Only about one-third of its total land area can be utilized productively for agriculture. Several measures have been introduced with the aim of protecting farmland, especially farmland with the greatest production potential.

April 23 - Land Lines, Lincoln Institute Of Land Policy

Why did the percentage of immigrants living in Los Angeles decrease from 1980 to 2000, while numbers across the United States rose dramatically?

April 23 - The Los Angeles Times

The world's forests continue to disappear at an alarming rate, according to this op-ed. While this devastates our ecosystem and hurt the poor more than others, specific steps can be taken to improve the situation.

April 23 - The New York Times via International Herald Tribune

Marketing emotions about emissions, companies offer individual polluters the ability to pay for their exhaust.

April 23 - The New York Times

Editorial cartoonist Tom Toles comments on the way we live.

April 23 - The Washington Post

Large-scale urban redevelopment projects raise many questions about the impacts of subsequent development. They often use new fiscal or regulatory instruments, and affect land prices and infrastructure.

April 22 - Land Lines, Lincoln Institute Of Land Policy

The controversial highway redevelopment isn't as massive as Boston's Big Dig, but it represents equally weighty issues for the future of the city.

April 22 - Seattle Weekly

Andres Duany leads a rebuilding team that considers the town a microcosm of New Orleans.

April 22 - New Orleans Times-Picayune

Despite their undying love of cars, Chicago commuters are grudgingly hopping on the train to avoid congestion from the "Dan Ryan Dig," a $600 million project to improve the "busiest road in Illinois."

April 22 - The Wall Street Journal

The Ohio Department of Natural Resources owns some property on Cleveland's rocky Lake Erie coastline. Now a rare layover for migratory birds, polluted Dike 14 has the potential to become a model park for the city.

April 22 - Ohio Free Times