The Daily Source of Urban Planning News

San Diego Cries Foul Over High Water Prices

Allegations of conspiracy and bullying haunt access to water in the arid, Mediterranean climate of San Diego, Adam Nagourney and Felicity Barringer report.

April 25 - The New York Times

Surprising Support for More Mass Transit in Houston

A survey tracking Houstonian opinions for three decades has found that the most striking change in the car-centric city is an embrace of an urban lifestyle led by support for more mass transit options and less reliance on cars, reports Jeannie Kever.

April 25 - Chron

Can Times Square's Makeover Win Back the Heart of New Yorkers?

Justin Davidson examines the latest "reinvention" of Times Square, sealing the deal on a move toward pedestrianization that began three years ago.

April 25 - New York Magazine

Trading Trash For Tomatoes in Mexico City

Michael J. Coren reports on a new program in Mexico City that lets residents trade their recyclable trash for credits with nearby farms.

April 25 - Fast Company Co.Exist

Ambitious Complete Street Project for LA Back On Track

James Brasuell celebrates the perseverance of one of LA's "most important urban projects," the remaking of Figueroa Boulevard, one of the city's major spines, linking downtown to the campus of the University of Southern California.

April 25 - The Architect's Newspaper


Green Infrastructure Worth Its Weight in Gold

Nate Berg looks at a new study analyzing the cost benefits of large-scale green infrastructure projects, which demonstrates that governments are wasting billions of dollars a year by not going green.

April 25 - The Atlantic Cities

Did Kansas City Place A Losing Bet on its Downtown?

Eliot Brown explores how lower than expected tax revenues from the Power & Light District redevelopment project are forcing Kansas City to cut core services.

April 25 - The Wall Street Journal


Identifying the Key Steps to Building Baltimore's Economy

Baltimore has ridden out the recession better than most metropolitan areas. However, in advance of a study to be released this week, Jennifer S. Vey outlines the ways in which it can better align workers' skills with economic opportunities.

April 24 - The Baltimore Sun

Turning a Traffic Nightmare Into a Transit Dream

In an opinion piece for the Los Angeles Times, parking guru Donald Shoup sees the proposed construction of a new football stadium in downtown LA as an opportunity to boost mass transit ridership in the city.

April 24 - Los Angeles Times

Eclipsing Smart Growth

After a decade in ascendance, smart growth is showing its age. As its agenda becomes "formulaic and even clinical," Kaid Benfield argues for the need to reinvigorate, or move beyond, smart growth with more attention paid to the quality of a place.

April 24 - Switchboard

What Value Does An Infrastructure Bank Provide?

As the concept of infrastructure banks gets increasingly bandied about (see Emanuel, Rahm and Obama, Barack), Aaron M. Renn examines what exactly they do for us that we can’t already do.

April 24 - Urbanophile

City Deficits "Driven" by Suburban Patterns

As San Diego is paralyzed by the cost to maintain its infrastructure, Howard Blackson revels in a eureka moment, provided by Chuck Marohn, in recognizing the city's explicitly suburban pattern of development is a well-documented financial blunder.

April 24 - PlaceShakers

BLOG POST

USA Today: A Rude Wake-Up Call For Cities

<p style="margin: 0px; color: #000000; font-family: arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; font-size: small" class="MsoNormal"> LOGAN AIRPORT, Boston – I’m on my way home from the <a href="http://www.lincolninst.edu/">Lincoln Institute of Land Policy’s </a>Journalists Forum , an annual event, co-sponsored by the Harvard Graduate School of Design and the Neiman Foundation, in which journalists from around the country convene to discuss, jointly, the fate of our industry and the fate of American cities. </p>

April 24 - Josh Stephens

Design Competition Rethinks the Role of the Hospital

James Brasuell reports on the results of a competition sponsored by healthcare giant Kaiser Permanente aiming to transform healthcare design in California by breaking from traditionally sterile and isolating hospital environments.

April 24 - The Architect's Newspaper

Who Can Solve London's Great Challenges?

Against the backdrop of a made-for-tv mayoral election, Richard Florida looks at the litany of issues afflicting London as the city struggles with the deepest challenges it has faced since the Great Depression and post-war years.

April 24 - The Atlantic Cities

The Biggest NYC Infrastructure Project You Haven't Heard of...

NYC's long-declining waterfront industry is expected to experience a new boom time, as the expansion of the Panama Canal will allow double the cargo and much larger ships to call at New York's harbor by 2024.

April 24 - MetroFocus

Exposing How Publicly Subsidized Housing in Texas Encourages Segregation

Texas has come under scrutiny for a pattern of developing low-income housing projects in areas already suffering from poverty and blight. Karisa King describes how the NIMBY mentality is reinforced by the subsidization system.

April 24 - Texas Tribune

Germany, Japan Increase Coal Burning Post Fukushima

Japan was not the only nation to shutter its nuclear power plants after the March 11, 2011 Fukushima earthquake and tsunami. Germany followed suit. Consequently, both nations have seen a dramatic increase in coal burning, thus increasing emissions.

April 24 - Los Angeles Times

Is Newark a City?

It is not, according to Wendell Cox, as posited in a recent article he's written for the website <em>New Geography</em>. Tim Evans looks at Cox's "creative use of Census geography" in his attempts to refute evidence of the growing urban comeback.

April 23 - New Jersey Future

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Senior Manager Operations, Urban Planning

New York City School Construction Authority

Building Inspector

Village of Glen Ellyn

Manager of Model Development

Central Transportation Planning Staff/Boston Region MPO

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