The Daily Source of Urban Planning News

Jessica Garrison reports on the ambitious $600 million "makeover" planned for the Jordan Downs housing project. The phased transformation, which allows any existing resident "in good standing" to stay, will be the largest such effort in the U.S.

February 11 - Los Angeles Times

Offering a list of policy innovations in several emerging mega-cities, URB.im managing editor Josephine d’Allant argues for empowerment over charity in the battle to improve conditions for the urban poor.

February 11 - Huffington Post

Because of an acute shortage in accommodations for the city's homeless, NYC's Department of Homeless Services (DHS) is willing to pay exorbitant sums to house the needy in privately owned buildings. The practice is not without its critics.

February 11 - The New York Times

San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee took drastic measures to initiate a turnaround of the city's troubled Housing Authority on Friday by replacing all but one member of the city's Housing Authority Commission.

February 10 - San Francisco Chronicle

Despite the best efforts of President Obama, the dream of a countrywide high-speed rail network is still just that. Can a speculative, and tantalizing, map change the debate on high-speed rail in the United States?

February 10 - The Guardian

A 2,000 year old household registration system in China ties temporary urban workers to rural life.

February 10 - The Washington Post

New Yorkers can expect to live eight years longer than they could just 20 years ago. Do Mayor Bloomberg's policies and initiatives deserve some credit? A mounting body of evidence ties urban form to human health.

February 10 - The Guardian

In rising to meet America's changing housing needs and demands, not every community is positioned to pull it off. What to do? Painful though it is, Ben Brown suggests triage.

February 10 - PlaceShakers

Julie Lasky speaks with Mikyoung Kim, an award winning landscape architect who's most recent projects find her designing gardens in unlikely settings - like the 11th floor of a hospital in Chicago.

February 9 - The New York Times

It's not how complicated or divisive New Urbanist-based land use regulations are that's driving the legal profession nuts. It's the opposite. There just aren't many New Urbanist rulings in the casebook, explains Jonathan Zasloff.

February 9 - Legal Planet

During the 1920s, the federal government passed a pair of laws that continue to this day to be hugely consequential to the modern practices of city planning and zoning. The two laws also planted the seeds of the planning profession.

February 9 - KCET.org Laws That Shaped LA

Deborah Hersman, chair of the National Transportation Safety Board, an independent federal agency that investigates crashes in all modes of transportation, particularly aviation, is leading the list of replacements for Transpo Secretary LaHood.

February 9 - The Wall Street Journal - U.S. News

Bridge and Tunnel Club has published the full 23-page typed, double-spaced letter that Robert Moses wrote in response to Robert Caro's biography.

February 9 - Bridge and Tunnel Club

BLOG POST

Making the most of being a student requires more than just completing the course credits necessary for a degree. See my suggestions for activities beyond the classroom that are key to getting a great education.

February 8 - Ann Forsyth

A new Tumblr site has been created to collect images of the most essential technique known to plan. In the three days since it's launched, "Planners Pointing" has gathered more than a dozen shots of planners in action.

February 8 - Planners Pointing

In an essay for Next City, Juan-Pablo Velez, member of the Chicago-based civic tech collective Open City, explains the rationale behind their latest project, which aims to make the city's zoning "digestible by humans."

February 8 - Next City

It will cost more than $50 billion to transform the "once sleepy" Black Sea resort of Sochi into the "sleek host" of the 2014 Winter Olympics, writes David M. Herszenhorn. The most expensive games ever is a pet project of President Vladimir V. Putin.

February 8 - The New York Times

“More Park, Less Way” is the title of a new plan to revitalize Philadelphia's Benjamin Franklin Parkway, which was fashioned after Paris's famous boulevard but falls short by almost any measure, including its unwelcoming pedestrian environment.

February 8 - The Architect's Newspaper

...38 million people are already here, explains USC Professor Dowell Myers in response to the question, "Is California's growth slow-down a problem?" Myers new research is on the implications of the state's baby bust.

February 8 - KQED News Fix

Roger Vincent shares the long-awaited design of the Wilshire Grand, a 73-story tower planned for downtown Los Angeles. When completed, it will surpass the nearby U.S. Bank Tower as the tallest building west of Chicago.

February 8 - Los Angeles Times