The Daily Source of Urban Planning News

One of Detroit’s most defining modern characteristics—and most pressing dilemmas—is its huge amount of neglected and vacant land.

March 13 - Mapping Detroit

While many California were protesting oil trains carrying the hazardous Bakken crude, a funny thing happened—they stopped coming. While protests may have delayed the construction of new oil terminals, economics is at the root of the slowdown.

March 13 - The Sacramento Bee

It's just one block, but a block disrupted by changes happening just a quarter-mile away. So these businesses came together to rebrand their street and bring customers back.

March 13 - Elevation DC

Places Journal has just launched Reading Lists: a new, interactive tool that enables readers to create and share topical lists of articles, books, and other media from diverse sources.

March 13 - Places Journal

Tom Rothmann explains how and why Los Angeles is updating antiquated language governing land use in the city.

March 13 - The Planning Report

A city councilmember in Sausalito in the North San Francisco Bay Area is ready to limit the number of tourists riding rental bikes into her city from across the Golden Gate Bridge.

March 13 - ABC7

The Atlanta Regional Commission is engaging Millennials in an ongoing planning effort that will determine the shape of the region through 2040.

March 13 - Atlanta Regional Commission

Clickhole, the Buzzfeed-style spinoff of The Onion, has produced a listicle of what the New York Subway line you're riding says about your personality. Prepare to learn nothing and laugh a little.

March 13 - Clickhole

In an interview, architect Renzo Piano says European suburbs are not desolate. He argues they shouldn't be treated as such in the quest for cohesive cities.

March 12 - WNYC

An urban renewal district established in 2011 in the city of Beaverton, Oregon has so far fallen short of its 150-million potential. But as the local economy improves, so too does the tax increment and bond financing potential of the district.

March 12 - The Oregonian

According to a Denver Post article, the Denver metropolitan area has 31,000 homes in the development pipeline. All but 2,600 of those homes would be built in suburban counties surrounding Denver.

March 12 - Denver Post

Ending the use of tax-exempt bonds to finance the construction of pro sports facilities has high level support from President Obama's 2016 draft budget, but it's too early to tell if the proposed ban on such financing mechanisms will be approved.

March 12 - The Wall Street Journal

Planners have undertaken the task of protecting market-rate affordable housing in Arlington County. The need for action was made clear in an Affordable Housing Study recently released to inform the preparation of a new Affordable Housing Master Plan.

March 12 - Arl Now

California's landmark climate legislation, AB 32, ends in five years; i.e., the target year for emissions reduction is 2020, after which there will be no comparable legislation targeting a future year. SB 32 sets emission reduction goals for 2050.

March 12 - Capitol Weekly

Aaron Paley, the man who brought Ciclovia to the United States, wants Los Angeles to be a model for the transition from auto-dependent to car-optional.

March 12 - The California Sunday Magazine

The Philadelphia City Council is tinkering with a novel land use created by its 2012 Zoning Code update to help guide mixed use development on former industrial sites.

March 12 - PlanPhilly

An op-ed makes the case for the benefits of mixed-use development in Virginia, namely the creation of 24/7 environments for living, working, and playing.

March 12 - Virginia Business

Robert Steuteville discusses the slow, phased emergence of the New Urbanism. We are only partway through a change that will take generations. We are now immersed in the revitalization of cities. More phases will come.

March 12 - Better Cities & Towns

A post on Vox collects a series of maps from the "Atlas of the Historical Geography of the United States" showing how travel times changed over the past 200 years of U.S. history.

March 11 - Vox

The state of Wyoming sees more potential than risk in financing coal industry infrastructure projects in the state of Washington.

March 11 - KUOW