The Daily Source of Urban Planning News

Authorities have ordered an acupuncture clinic owner and former government advisor to demolish the bizarre addition he's built on top of his 26th-story penthouse apartment. If the description sounds weird, just wait until you see the pictures.

August 16 - South China Morning Post

In bright reds and oranges, a map produced by Data Driven Detroit makes clear how much the city has suffered from decades of suburban flight. Nearly every block of downtown features substantial parking, including a stunning amount of surface lots.

August 16 - DC.Streetsblog

In a wide-ranging poll looking back at the 12-year tenure of Mayor Bloomberg, New Yorkers overwhelmingly approved of his bike/ped and public health programs, but found his attempts to reform the city's schools and ban sugary drinks objectionable.

August 16 - The New York Times

Amid political demagoguery, a bill to help spur infill redevelopment and the creation of affordable housing in California, following the dismantling the state's redevelopment agencies, is advancing through the California legislature.

August 16 - Frying Pan News

LA Times' technology blogger Jon Healy takes a look at Elon Musk's Hyperloop, and after careful analysis, decides he'd bet on a proven, high-speed technology - the same one that inspired Musk to do an all-nighter to draft plans for an alternative.

August 16 - Los Angeles Times - Opinion

What if the people who keep a city running -- including urban planners -- can't afford to live there? An updated database highlights the gap between incomes and housing costs in hundreds of U.S. cities.

August 16 - The Atlantic Cities

They sound too good to be true: houses that remain a comfortable temperature throughout the year without traditional climate control systems. Yet 30,000 such homes have been built in Europe. Why haven't passive houses caught on in the U.S.?

August 16 - The New York Times

Urbanists must adopt less bureaucratic approaches so that the next generation can build and grow the economy, Andres Duany says. Hence the proliferation of “lean” codes that emphasize only the essentials of shaping community.

August 16 - Better! Cities & Towns

"Nearly all the rich world’s industrial cities fell on hard times between 1950 and 1980," says The Economist. Why did some recover while others failed? A new paper argues that skilled workers and a diverse economy are key to overcoming adversity.

August 16 - The Economist

Forget all the statistics you've read about the rise in distracted driving, they'll never have the potency of this film by acclaimed director Werner Herzog on the impact of texting while driving on victims, their families, and the drivers themselves.

August 15 - Fast Company Co.Create

The latest 'digital gold rush' has been a boost for the Bay Area's high earners, but a blow to its diversity and affordability. Conspicuous transportation modes - fleets of private buses and black town cars - epitomize the area's growing divide.

August 15 - Los Angeles Times

An innovative event held recently in Jacksonville, Florida used a festival as a means to bring crowdfunding to the people; providing a platform for community building and branding in the process. Could this be the future of financing public projects?

August 15 - Urban Land

Just south of Chicago, the city of Gary is suffering from post-industrial blight, decaying infrastructure, and declining finances - an all too common trajectory in the Rust Belt. A program selling vacant homes for $1 hopes to stabilize neighborhoods.

August 15 - The New York Times

Often forgotten amid the Truman Show jokes and architectural disdain are the iconic New Urbanist community's contributions to planning history, and its many innovations. Two new works are helping to reframe how the Florida town is understood.

August 15 - NRDC Switchboard

San Jose's Garden to Table program is just one of several initiatives led by CommUniverCity that are collectively giving disadvantaged residents the tools to improve their personal health and the health of their communities.

August 15 - Los Angeles Times

Somewhere along the ramifying pathways of the possible, Raymond Welch became an energy consultant. In this Terrain.org guest editorial, he rants on a troubling future that he helped create.

August 15 - Terrain.org: A Journal of the Built + Natural Environments

Germany has been able to fend off the worst effects of the deep recession that's beset seemingly every European country. But it finds itself facing the same continent-wide demographic crisis afflicting its less-affluent neighbors.

August 15 - The New York Times

According to a new report from Climate Central, your EV is only as clean as the power plant used to generate the electricity it runs on. Furthermore, due to the huge carbon cost of batteries, a hybrid may be more climate-friendly than a plug-in.

August 15 - The Seattle Times

Last week the St. Louis Cardinals heralded the opening of a surface parking lot as a 'milestone' in the $650 million mixed-use development known as Ballpark Village. For Alderman Scott Ogilvie the lot represents the 'total failure' of the project.

August 15 - St. Louis Riverfront Times

Forget reducing congestion and improving the environment; a new paper makes perhaps the strongest argument yet for investing in public transit based on its ability to agglomerate, or cluster people together, raising wages and productivity.

August 14 - The Atlantic Cities