The Daily Source of Urban Planning News

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After Adam's last two thoughtful posts, I thought I should weigh in here being the resident urban design on Tech Talk. In general, I sometimes share others concerns with marquee architecture but usually when its seen as a way of boosting economic development or the status of a city. I think in those cases, there are far better ways to boost the livability and physical appearance of a place. Thinking of what an "icon" for say, Fort Wayne, would be is an uninteresting question as that city faces other underlying issues that a marquee project simply can't address.

January 31 - Scott Page

One man owns a piece of Fort Totten, now a major New York City metro area park; he's just not sure where it is (or who's buried there), complicating matters for the Mayor.

January 31 - New York Press

TransLink, the Greater Vancouver Transportation Authority, plans to tax businesses per square meter of parking space in order to help pay for a $1.9 billion, three-year improvement plan.

January 31 - The Vancouver Sun

How vulnerable is the U.S. south to year after year of Katrinas? Should cities like New Orleans be abandoned to return to salt marshes or ocean?

January 31 - William D. Nordhaus, Yale

After nearly a decade, the voice of the Washington D.C. Metro is up for grabs.

January 31 - The Christian Science Monitor

From pawnshops to check cashers and rent-to-own stores, usurious companies are exploiting the nation's poor, creating a lucrative 'fringe economy' in the process.

January 31 - Houston Press

A small suburban community along the Gulf Coast is learning to embrace New Urbanism and create its first ever town center.

January 31 - The Clarion-Ledger

A re-awakening of interest in walkable urban environments in suburban locations? This trend mostly revolves around the pre-war downtowns of small Southern California cities that grew into suburban bedroom communities in the 1950s and 1960s.

January 31 - The Los Angeles Times

The Demographia International Housing Affordability Survey finds Vancouver housing to be 'severely unaffordable', and 15th worst worldwide.

January 31 - The Vancouver Sun

John Schindel lives in Stafford County, Virginia, a far-out exurb of Washington, D.C. Because of previous legal problems, he has no driving privileges. How does he get to and from his varied places of employment?

January 31 - The Washington Post

With the U.S. automobile industry falling into what appears to be permanent decline, Paul Harris muses on what it means for America's "love affair with the car" when its cars are built somewhere else.

January 31 - Observer (UK)

Despite early promises to support a swift recovery after Hurricane Katrina, slow Federal cleanup of debris and inadequate provision of suitable housing for evacuees are slowing rebuilding efforts.

January 30 - The Washington Post

Joel Kotkin and William Frey observe how the movement of high-skilled and professional jobs to rapidly growing inland California is changing the region where the "California Dream" is still possible.

January 30 - The Los Angeles Times

NASA's leading climate scientist claims that the Bush administration has tried to censor him from speaking out about global warming.

January 30 - The New York Times

BB&T, the country's ninth-largest bank, announces that it will not make commercial loans to developers who plan private projects on land seized via eminent domain.

January 30 - Winston-Salem Journal

Suburban growth has kept our cities livable while they expand, and attempts to limit suburban growth ignore important historical trends, writes Joel Kotkin.

January 30 - The San Francisco Chronicle

The Planning Institute of Australia (PIA) disagrees with Demographia's recent study on housing affordability.

January 30 - Australian Broadcasting Corporation

This brief describes a new information tool developed by the Urban Markets Initiative to quantify, for the first time, the impact of transportation costs on the affordability of housing choices.

January 30 - The Brookings Institution

How Chinese New Year in Vancouver symbolizes the emergence of a new, unique civic culture.

January 30 - Maisonneuve

Office space in the Portland metro area grew by a net 1.45 million square feet in 2005, but only 150,000 was added to Portland's commercial core in Multnomah county. The rest, almost 90 percent, was distributed across three suburban counties.

January 30 - The Oregonian