The Daily Source of Urban Planning News

A new report indicates that carbon dioxide emissions in the U.S. have fallen by 13% in the past five years. The last time carbon emissions were this low, Ace of Base was topping the charts and "Pulp Fiction" was reviving the career of John Travolta.

February 1 - The Guardian

The California High Speed Rail Authority settled its CEQA lawsuit with the City of Chowchilla, the first of three that need to be dealt with in the Merced to Fresno section in the Central Valley where construction of the project will initially begin

February 1 - The Fresno Bee

While the housing market showed signs of improvement last year, economists are now confident that a recovery is underway. Housing currently adds 13 percent to the nation's economic growth, but is this a good thing?

February 1 - Urban Land Institute

Former adversaries - developers along with labor and the construction industry - have formed "an unusual alliance" to push the Bloomberg administration to consider more expansive development rights for the area around Grand Central Terminal.

February 1 - The New York Times

Although leaders in the Twin Cities seem to agree on the need to improve the appeal of city streets for those on foot, turning those words into actions seems difficult. Bill Lindeke offers three easy solutions that don't involve touching the street.

February 1 - Streets MN

Our friends at Streetsblog are hunting for the worst intersection in America. Help them decide from among a host of qualified entries.

February 1 - DC.Streetsblog

An editorial in the Los Angeles Times praises the Cornfield Arroyo Seco Specific Plan as a model for how the city can break free of outdated zoning laws that force residents into obsolete living, working and commuting patterns.

January 31 - Los Angeles Times

Norman Chan uses a beta version of the new SimCity game to test the merits of three familiar types of suburban subdivision design - a rectangular grid, circular sprawl, and cul-de-sacs.

January 31 - Tested.com

A Detroit-based maker of "crowdfunding and social mapping systems," has developed an interactive map of the tax status of every property in Detroit. In bright yellows, oranges, and reds, the city's property tax "black hole" is brutally clear.

January 31 - The Atlantic Cities

Brendan Crain responds to recent criticism of placemaking as a counterproductive and superficial pursuit with a defense of the social and economic capital building elements that are the foundation, and outcome, of the process.

January 31 - PPS: Placemaking Blog

Los Angeles's landmark adaptive reuse ordinance has been credited with helping to spur downtown's dramatic growth over the past decade. However, developers now find it cheaper to build new than reuse the area's historic structures.

January 31 - Los Angeles Downtown News

Experts have disagreed about the net effect of America's increasing clustering of highly skilled and affluent citizens in a relatively small number of metro areas. Richard Florida examines who benefits and who loses from this process.

January 31 - The Atlantic Cities

With Ray LaHood stepping down as Transportation Secretary, is it Antonio Villaraigosa's time? The Los Angeles mayor is termed-out in June and Obama needs a Latino in the Cabinet. And can he move the sustainable communities ball forward for Obama?

January 31 - California Planning & Development Reort

Scores of low emission and hybrid vehicles will no longer be exempt from London's spectacularly successful congestion pricing scheme because their growing popularity has increased pollution and traffic in the capital, reports the Daily Mail.

January 31 - Daily Mail

Dollar stores were already a presence in rural communities, but recession has caused dollar chains to ramp up development to keep pace with the public's growing need to stretch their paychecks. Urban communities aren't immune from chain creep either.

January 31 - Rooflines

France's Environment Ministry has decreed that as of July, all shops and offices in the country will be required to shut off their lights at night in order to save energy and “reduce the print of artificial lighting on the nocturnal environment.”

January 31 - The New York Times

BLOG POST

Shopping for bulky items can be one of the challenges of living car free. Here are three of the best ways I've found for dealing with the problem.

January 30 - Michael Lewyn

Only five months after the city passed the long-overdue update to its 1962 zoning code, City Council members are once again tinkering with the ground rules. Two months after moving to revise parking requirements, they're now focused on outreach.

January 30 - philly.com

In the wake of yesterday's surprisingly unsurprising announcement that U.S. Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood is stepping down, several reporters who focus on transportation issues have taken stock of his tenure.

January 30 - Transportation Nation

Kaid Benfield spotlights an innovative federal program that is "not very well known but deserves to be." The "Greening America’s Capitals" program aims to make America's state capitals showpieces for green infrastructure and green building practices.

January 30 - NRDC Switchboard