The Daily Source of Urban Planning News

Survival accounts from the Great Blackout of Los Angeles 2005 -- No electricity for 26 minutes. 'This is our Tsunami.'

September 23 - The Grass Apple

The already dense Westside of Los Angeles, from Westood to Santa Monica continues to densify at a dizzying rate. Residents prepare for a protracted battle to keep growth at bay. Has planning failed one of LA's most desirable communities?

September 23 - The Los Angeles Times

Winnipeg, home to the largest concentration of Aboriginal people in Canada, considers a controversial plan to turn a 20-acre plot of abandoned industrial land into an "urban reserve" for a First Nations band, which would allow the band to operate business

September 23 - The Globe and Mail

This article linking urban land use and obesity suggests that planning exercise-friendly communities might be a big waste of money because of how people choose where to live. [Updated]

September 23 - The Oregonian

BLOG POST

When recently working in a distressed community in Philadelphia, we were thinking of the best ways to communicate what we were planning for the area and guide residents toward local resources that exist but are rarely used. As a cost effective solution, we worked with the <a href="http://www.klip.tv">Klip Collective</a> to implement a video installation within a vacant storefront. The installation runs every evening. Besides providing some valuable information, we used the installation to instill some street activity along what was once an active commercial corridor.

September 23 - Scott Page

A City Councilman in Philadelphia proposes changes to the zoning code to protect the city's urban fabric in traditional rowhouse neighborhoods. Changes to requirements for provision of off-street parking are intended to encourage development.

September 23 - The Philadelphia Inquirer

To attack both the digital divide and the violence at one of the city's most dangerous public housing projects, police plan to place surveillance cameras inside the Jordan Downs complex ald also provide free wireless Internet access.

September 23 - The Los Angeles Times

Fiscal Conservatives and visionaries need to work together to rebuild New Orleans.

September 23 - The Washington Post

New Orleans can learn a lot from the flood rebuilding of Grand Forks in 1997.

September 23 - The New Republic

Steve Herbaly, a former planning director, talks about how politics gets in the way of planning.

September 23 - Bigfork Eagle

The Nation magazine outlines their leadership, architecture and planning 'dream team' for rebuilding New Orleans.

September 23 - The Nation

BLOG POST

<img src='http://www.planetizen.com/tech/files/20050922openoffice.png' alt='OpenOffice' align="right"/><br /> <br /> Open source is not just about lowering costs. It's about staying in control of your own data. For governments, it is important to specify open file formats for storing public data. Eric Kriss, Massachussets' secretary of administration and finance asks an important question about long-term archiving of public documents created with Microsoft Office. "Will those documents still be legible 10 years from now, or in 50?" The state of Massachusetts has given some thought to that question and is taking action.

September 22 - Abhijeet Chavan

Sandy Springs, GA, is undertaking a bold experiment to outsource city administration to the private sector.

September 22 - The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

BLOG POST

…here comes Joomla. There was a lot of uncertainty about the future of the Content Management System Mambo over the past months. Finally the Developers now left Mambo and started Joomla.<br /> <br /> As <a href="http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1895,1851367,00.asp">this article in eWeek</a> points out, "the original owners [Miro], wanted to regain control of the project. The developers, realizing that they were being cut out of executive management, decided to take the code and run…”<br /> <br /> The outcomes might describe the state of open source today.

September 22 - Ken Snyder

Industrial owners and brokers are scrambling to find space for tenants in post-Katrina New Orleans.

September 22 - The Slatin Report

Can big business maintain local values, even as national and international conglomerates swallow up hometown companies?

September 22 - Governing.com: 13th Floor

In his irreverent new book, journalist John Dicker reveals the super-high social costs of Wal-Mart's super-low prices.

September 22 - AlterNet

There are three basic needs that must be met in order for New Orleans to come back -- the city's infrastructure, reviving its economy and resettling its population.

September 22 - The Los Angeles Times

New Orleans was a deeply flawed city before Katrina, and now, evacuees are stating they won't move back unless changes are made.

September 22 - USA Today

Los Angeles is testing out new 'smart' parking meters that use credit or ATM cards as payment and remind you to pay via text messaging.

September 22 - The Los Angeles Times