The Daily Source of Urban Planning News

The FBI may get the new building it's been clamoring for, and developers may get a prime opportunity on D.C.'s most prestigious avenue, if a recent proposal by the GSA comes to pass. But what will happen to one of the city's last Brutalist buildings?

December 5 - The Washington Post

The first regional plan passed under landmark SB 375 requiring MPOs to reduce greenhouse gas emissions has failed a key test. Environmental plaintiffs sued because transit investments were in the future. They won, forcing SANDAG to redo their plan.

December 5 - LA. Streetsblog

Despite the progress downtown L.A. has made over the last decade in becoming a vibrant, day-night, mixed-use community, "block-killing blight" remains a stubborn presence in the area's landscape. Ryan Vaillancourt calls out the worst offenders.

December 5 - Los Angeles Downtown News

Amsterdam has earned a global reputation as an enlightened city with a high quality of life. Well what if the price for that quality of life was that your bothersome neighbors were forcibly relocated to "scum villages" on the outskirts of town?

December 5 - The Washington Post

According to Haya El Nasser, cities across America have succeeded in attracting young professionals for over a decade. “They came, they played, they stayed,” she writes. But, she asks, will these Millennials stick around as they age and have kids?

December 5 - USA Today

Landscape Architecture is a field in the ascendency, writes Alan G. Brake. Its rise can be traced to the inability of Architects and Planners to engage with some of the most important challenges of our time.

December 5 - The Architect's Newspaper

An agreement between Forest City Ratner and NYC's labor unions has cleared the way for the construction of Atlantic Yards's next phase. The 32-story prefabricated apartment building will be the tallest of its kind in the world, reports Matt Chaban.

December 5 - The New York Observer

Recently a destination for luxury development, New York's waterfront has historically been home to the city's poor. When Sandy inundated these vulnerable populations, it "looked like a perverse stroke of urban planning," writes Jonathan Mahler.

December 4 - The New York Times

Voters in downtown Los Angeles have overwhelmingly approved a special property tax to help fund a $125 million streetcar. The results of the special vote-by-mail election were reported last night.

December 4 - Los Angeles Downtown News

Today in New York City, developers and public officials broke ground on the $15 billion Hudson Yards redevelopment project. Jason Sheftell reports on the milestone day and includes some stunning renderings of the project's components.

December 4 - New York Daily News

Over the weekend, a 100-mile long traffic jam caused by snow, questionable decisions, and underinvestment on Soviet-era infrastructure, left 10,000 vehicles stranded on the M10 highway between Moscow and St. Petersburg.

December 4 - The New York Times

In his work developing plans for six new cities in China, Peter Calthorpe has a unique perspective on what the country must do to build sustainable cities to house its growing urban population. He shares his insights with Fortune's Brian Dumaine.

December 4 - CNN Money

Induction charging, the same technology that allows you to juice up your cell phone without the need for cables, could be coming to a transit system near you. Could eliminating the need for catenary wires transform city streets?

December 4 - Wired

Transportation officials in the greater San Francisco area have been debating a proposal to provide free public transit for low-income youth. They are now considering the possibility of basing fares on income, rather than age or disability.

December 4 - San Francisco Examiner

Saying "no" to Walmart does not remove the wants and needs they exist to serve. If you want a more locally-oriented community, you need a more local-friendly system, says Scott Doyon.

December 4 - PlaceShakers

The D.C. Water and Sewer Authority wants to revise a settlement reached eight years ago with environmental groups that would have seen the agency build three huge tunnels to manage storm water runoff. The Authority would like to build green systems.

December 4 - The Washington Post

The U.S. Department of the Interior has cleared the way for what could become the first offshore wind projects in the country. Next year, lease sales will be offered on 278,00 acres of land off the coasts of Rhode Island, Massachusetts and Virginia.

December 4 - The Guardian

A case over "who can be held responsible for polluted storm water that runs off city streets and into rivers and bays" is headed to the U.S. Supreme Court tomorrow. The court's ruling on the Los Angeles case could have far-reaching impacts.

December 3 - Los Angeles Times

James Nash reports that Gov. Jerry Brown is turning to the $6 trillion market in sovereign wealth funds, pensions, and endowments to help fill the $55 billion gap between the project's total cost and what state bonds and federal grants will cover.

December 3 - Bloomberg BusinessWeek

For those of you who've been anxiously waiting since Boyd Cohen published his list of Europe's smartest cities last month...wait no longer, North America's top 10 smartest cities have been revealed.

December 3 - Fast Company Co.Exist