The Daily Source of Urban Planning News

A new report documents the dramatic growth in the average length of environmental reviews for major infrastructure projects. While some have called for easing environmental protections as the solution, the report authors have different suggestions.

July 3 - The Atlantic Cities

Last week's census figures were widely used to point to a swelling of urban populations. Chris Briem says that the jury's still out.

July 3 - Nullspace

In response to widespread attention from one short video, MTA repair crews rushed to repair a faulty step at a subway station staircase in "perhaps the fastest response to a customer complaint in agency history," Matt Flegenheimer reports.

July 3 - The New York Times City Room Blog

Energy shortages in coal, natural gas, and diesel fuel are constraining India's growth. At the heart of the shortages are government subsidies that keep prices low, state-run monopolies that are unable to increase production, and costly imports.

July 3 - The Wall Street Journal

Richard Close, a member of the Oversight Board supervising the dissolution of the Los Angeles Community Redevelopment Agency, discusses the challenges of defining 'enforceable obligations' and the legal battles he anticipates in the coming year.

July 3 - The Planning Report

A movie location scout fell in love with a turn-of-the-century Victorian in Queens, but ended up not using it for the TV show they were scouting. Years later, they returned and found that something horrible had happened.

July 3 - Scouting New York

Stephen Smith points to new economic research highlighting the dramatic effect of rent control on the value of nearby properties. Hint: it keeps prices down <em>everywhere</em>.

July 3 - Market Urbanism

In order to save Coney Island from dwindling unemployment rates and high poverty levels, developers rezone the 46-year-old amusement park, but the plans may never actually leave the paper.

July 3 - The Brooklyn Bureau

IBM put some of their expert engineers on loan for three weeks to the city of Boston to analyze current traffic data feeds (yes, this includes Twitter), resulting in new tools to help curb congestion.

July 3 - Gigaom

Will Doig considers the growing pressure cities face to build a marketable identity, and why that's a particular challenge for generally livable cities.

July 2 - Salon

In McAllen, Texas, WalMart Stores Inc. abandoned one of their big box stores. Rather than let it collect dust, the city transformed it into the U.S.'s largest public library.

July 2 - Grist

Editorial draws attention to the impact of global warming on our cities and advocates planning for climate change.

July 2 - Los Angeles Times

A new report by Oakland, CA nonprofit Urban Strategies Council reveals that a massive surge has occurred in investor-speculator ownership in the city's low-income neighborhoods in the wake of the foreclosure crisis.

July 2 - InfoAlamedaCounty.org

The alternative plan directs a sizable percentage of the initial $6 billion allocation to the Bay and LA regions to upgrade existing commuter lines at the expense of greater investment in the Central Valley. Funding plan may be determined by July 6.

July 2 - California Watch

Shane Snow says that New Jersey is home to "a lively, tight-knit community of tech workers," and while it will never rival other tech corridors, it is "hip, young and hungry."

July 2 - Fast Company

A decade after Mayor Williams helped inspire a revitalization strategy for Washington, DC's H Street, the formerly downtrodden neighborhood is bustling and ready for the crowning touch - a $13m streetcar system.

July 2 - Financial Times

A device invented to cool factories changed where and how our cities formed.

July 2 - The Atlantic

Jessica Reeder examines new methods of "coliving" cropping up in the Internet age, including the repurposing of McMansions into shared living for singles.

July 2 - Shareable

Should Los Angeles be investing more in bus-rapid transit?

July 2 - Los Angeles Times

The City of Pittsburgh, PA has announced an "urban forest master plan" to add more foliage to the 2.5 million trees already covering the city.

July 1 - The Pittsburg Post-Gazette