The Daily Source of Urban Planning News

LEGO bricks can be just as much an architectural medium than a toy, according to this profile of one "LEGO-certified professional" hired to recreate buildings for the company's architecture series.

January 8 - Chicago Tribune

Mapmaker David Imus spent 2 years creating the best 3x4-foot paper wall map you'll ever see.

January 8 - Slate

An innovative tenants-rights organization in Boston combines community activism and financial backing to force banks to sell foreclosed homes back to the previous owners.

January 8 - Shelterforce

Richard Florida examines the "Geography of Health" in American and why some cities are healthier than others.

January 8 - The Atlantic Cities

New York University's 20-year expansion plan could become a dangerous precedent for overbuilding by bypassing the city's open space zoning rules, argues Andrew Berman, executive director of the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation.

January 8 - The Villager

Put you feet up on an an subway seat, and risk going to to jail. Bad behavior, sure. But criminal? In an effort to make the subway safer, NYPD is viewing even minor code violations seriously.

January 7 - The New York Times

A new study looks at how home values in neighborhoods in Columbus, Ohio responded differently to the presence of gay populations.

January 7 - The Atlantic Cities

San Francisco's Coit Tower is one of the city's historic and iconic buildings, and it's also home to a collection of historic fresco paintings of Depression-era California. But the building and its paintings are falling apart.

January 7 - Los Angeles Times

With perhaps as many as 2 billion parking spaces in the US, planners and architects should "take seriously" the parking lot as an actual, useful public space.

January 7 - The New York Times

Affordable housing advocates find that green building techniques result in higher-quality construction -- and often with costs comparable to traditional building techniques.

January 7 - Shelterforce

The results are in keeping with a federal goal to eliminate veteran homelessness by 2015 through grants and other measures to ensure permanent housing. Steve Vogel reports.

January 7 - The Washington Post

A lecture series explores the relation between city planning and urban violence. And who is to blame? The architect.

January 6 - Delft University of Technology

Delicious offers an engaging collection of transportation-related infographics, from the history of transportation to why freeway traffic occurs.

January 6 - Delicious

The safest cities. The best cities. The happiest cities. We see the rankings all the time. But do they matter. Yes, says Samuel Arbesman, who surveyed 310 US residents by using Amazon's Mechanical Turk service.

January 6 - Atlantic Cities

India's Bajaj Auto company introduces an ultracheap small car focused on the country's rickshaw industry. Meanwhile, an unrelated study finds that the unorganized auto-rickshaw sector presents a huge business opportunity.

January 6 - The New York Times

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo proposes closing the Javits Center and opening a bigger, convention center to spur economic development. Other proposals included new power transmission lines and Las Vegas-style casinos.

January 6 - Streetsblog

Apartment rents rise as housing sales remain rocky, foreclosure rates increase, and mortgage requirements increase.

January 6 - Crains New York Business

A 'peer review' committee advises that the legislature should refuse to authorize funding for the first phase of California's high speed rail project, citing a "immense financial risk" for the state.

January 6 - Los Angeles Times

The 80s-era convention center on the far west side of Manhattan would be turned into a mixed-use development and a Malaysian gambling company would instead redevelop the Aqueduct Racetrack in Ozone Park, Queens.

January 6 - Bloomberg

Youngstown, OH has experienced 11 quakes, including one rated 4.0, which may be tied to deep disposal wells for the water used in the hydraulic fracking process of natural gas drilling.

January 6 - NPR- Science