The Daily Source of Urban Planning News

Chuck Wolfe outlines the importance of soundscapes to cities past, present and future, and describes efforts to both document urban sounds and use sound as a planning tool.

March 7 - The Atlantic Cities

Kirsten Dirksen reports on one housing developer's 160-square-foot vision for San Francisco singles.

March 7 - *faircompanies

Perhaps it's appropriate that Starbucks has chosen a city known for self-exploration and experimentation to unveil a new concept store that offers a glimpse of the cafe of the future.

March 7 - Fast Company Co.Design

Kia Gregory reports on a mural program implemented in the West Philadelphia neighborhood of Mantua over the last year, that has transformed the area into a work of art.

March 7 - philly.com

A much anticipated cloture vote on the Senate's proposed two-year transportation bill once again failed to win enough votes on Tuesday. Better news may be on the horizon however, reports Ed O'Keefe.

March 7 - The Washington Post

Seven years after a celebrated public-private partnership, NoMa proves a smart growth success, write Rachel MacCleery and Jonathan Tarr.

March 7 - Urban Land

Nate Berg reports on the opening of L.A.'s first effort at a street-to-plaza conversion project in the city's Silver Lake neighborhood, which was inspired by similar street plazas created in New York City and San Francisco.

March 6 - The Atlantic Cities

Zipcar has released the results of their first Future Metropolis Index, which the company commissioned to recognize cities that demonstrate smart urban planning and policymaking, reports Ariel Schwartz.

March 6 - Fast Company Co.Exist

The inconsistent signage, representing 26 different public transportation systems in the Bay Area, leaves many riders feeling lost. Julie Caine describes the confusion and improvements underway.

March 6 - Transportation Nation

Having just returned from a United Nations-led tour of disaster-ravaged areas of Japan, Warren Karlenzig reports on efforts across the region to rebuild along smart growth and green economic development models.

March 6 - Common Current

Mark Bergen, with the help of David Schleicher, argues that zoning policies are to blame for slowing development and escalating rental costs in cities across the country.

March 6 - Forbes

A unique new iPad applicaion, called PlanGrid, provides for accessing, viewing and updating construction blueprints at a job site, and demonstrates the larger trend of specialization in iOS software development, reports Ingrid Lunden.

March 6 - Tech Crunch

Several posts over the last couple of weeks build on the growing body of work illuminating the economic, physical, and social damage caused by urban highways.

March 6 - Better Cities & Towns

Mark Hinshaw calls an end to the use of the term "suburb" to describe the communities ringing Seattle, and the inferior connotations attached to it. It's a term that he thinks has outlived its usefulness.

March 6 - Crosscut

Diane Bailey reports on a new study's findings linking diesel exhaust to lung cancer. The findings have sparked concern for people who live in large cities with high levels of diesel pollution.

March 6 - Switchboard

Richard Florida explores differing measures of inequality, considering both wage inequality and income inequality in American metropolitan cities.

March 6 - The Atlantic Cities

FEATURE

New technologies are providing participatory platforms that allow individuals to share their ideas, interact with other's ideas, and work towards collaborative solutions to resolve problems or take advantage of opportunities. Kevin C. Desouza, PhD offers five guidelines to ensure that the use of such emerging technologies are maximized by practitioners.

March 5 - Kevin C. Desouza

Lee Epstein and Kaid Benfield pen a post on the importance of working rural landscapes to the sustainability agenda, which seems to be increasingly overlooked by smart growth advocates.

March 5 - Switchboard

Despite decades of "steady improvement", Chicago is still home to some of the dirtiest waterways in the country. Now after years of obfuscation, the city's Metropolitan Water Reclamation District is finally moving forward with cleanup plans.

March 5 - Chicago Tribune

It may not be sexy and it may not be fast, but the time has come to acknowledge the key role that the much maligned form of public transit will have in solving cities’ mobility woes, writes Will Doig.

March 5 - Salon.com