The Daily Source of Urban Planning News

Ian Lovett looks at efforts to reform CEQA, California's landmark environmental law. Decried as easily abused, and an impediment to economic development, bipartisan attempts to reform the law are making enemies out of allies.

September 5 - The New York Times

Kaid Benfield returns to his popular blog at the NRDC's Switchboard site after a three-week hiatus, with thoughts on the purpose of his writings and how "overly familiar vocabulary can lead to overly familiar thinking."

September 5 - Switchboard

Stacey at <em>Gardenista</em> has collected images and descriptions of four sublime "canopy walks" that "make it easy to walk from tree to tree at an altitude typically reserved for birds."

September 5 - Gardenista

As the real estate market comes back to life, walkable urbanism is poised to become the dominant mode of development across America. Emily Badger explains why Washington D.C.'s land use evolution portends the future of cities everywhere.

September 5 - The Atlantic Cities

It's not just the Sun Cities of America that are planning for how to meet the needs of the country's coming bulge in its over-65 population. Ryan Holeywell highlights how some cities are adapting their built environments for an aging population.

September 5 - Governing

What expectations for privacy should individuals have in public places? That is the question being posed by a new video surveillance system in D.C. being operated by a neighborhood association, reports Peter Hermann.

September 5 - The Washington Post

Impatient with the rate at which previously approved sales tax increases are able to fund the vast expansion planned for the region's transit system, and lacking in federal support, local leaders are asking LA's voters to extend a 1/2 cent sales tax.

September 5 - the transport politic

The Project for Public Spaces (PPS), who have been working with UN-HABITAT on sustainable urbanization, describe why establishing public spaces can be even more important to improving the world's slums than providing power or clean water.

September 5 - Project For Public Spaces

The <em>New York Times</em> published four letters in response to an earlier op-ed from the self-described, “bitterly nostalgic” blogger, Jeremiah Moss, who blasted the popularity of the High Line, including one letter from the High Line founders.

September 5 - The New York Times - Letters

DC Planning Director Harriet Tregoning discusses plans to create a pedestrian-oriented space out of the 11th Street Bridge as part of a larger goal of uniting DC around the Anacostia River, making it an amenity and not a barrier.

September 5 - The Planning Report

FEATURE

Mobile applications (apps) are gaining in popularity as tools for increasing participation in local governance and planning, and are opening up new possibilities for planners to tap into the wisdom of the crowd.

September 4 - Jennifer Evans-Cowley

Chris Fusco and Tina Sfondeles look at the growing rate of bike crashes reported in Chicago over the past decade. As Mayor Rahm Emanuel seeks to make it "the bike friendliest city in the country," can Chicago protect the riders it hopes to attract?

September 4 - Chicago Sun-Times

Creative placemaking, or investing in arts and culture as a way to improve quality of place and stimulate vibrancy, is getting a new boost as ArtPlace announces another round of funding.

September 4 - ArtPlace

Richey Piiparinen discusses the "Frankenstein effects" of place-making, in which, he argues, the diversity of people and place that attracts the creative class is eventually forced out by those in search of the "highest and best use."

September 4 - New Geography

Architect Michael Graves pens an opinion piece for <em>The New York Times</em> that explores the effect that computers are having on the architectural creative process. Does the decline in hand drawing result in a diminished ability for speculation?

September 4 - The New York Times

Terry Macalister reports on the £4.5bn plan to construct 339 turbines covering 300 square kilometres off Scotland's northern coast, which could potentially power 40% of the country's homes.

September 4 - The Guardian

A new study documents exactly how deprived of access to open space the 13 million residents of Mumbai are. The numbers are grim, especially when compared to other cities around the world, and even in India, reports Neha Thirani.

September 4 - The New York Times

Herb Caudill explains why the need to plan for a range of transportation modes and uses of space in urban environs is common sense - not part of a concerted assault on cars.

September 4 - Greater Greater Washington

As real estate prices reach stratospheric levels, real estate professionals are banking on the artistic value of the world's trophy properties to explain the surge, reports James B. Stewart.

September 4 - The New York Times

Urban gardening is sprouting to life across America, but urban locales in the developing world "have incorporated horticulture into their urban planning" for decades. In Africa, urbanization is threatening these essential parts of the food system.

September 4 - NPR