The Daily Source of Urban Planning News

The megaretailer is part of a trend to rethink and shrink stores, as big boxes around the country have seen their sales plummet.

September 15 - Streetsblog Capitol Hill

Arguing against a regional transportation tax, the Georgia Tea Party says that we shouldn't build any more light rail because terrorists might see it as an attractive target.

September 15 - Treehugger

U.S. Sen. Tom Coburn, R-OK, came through with his promise to stop the clean extension of the transportation bill - and extension of the fed. gas tax, over the inclusion of what are known as 'enhancements' including bike/ped/livability programs.

September 15 - Steetsblog Capitol Hill

Lee County, Florida saw a 30% increase in its homeless population. A new shelter system that addresses mental health and addiction problems is helping keep homeless out of jail and on the right track.

September 15 - Governing Magazine

FEATURE

September 15 - Tim Halbur

BLOG POST

<p> &nbsp; </p> <p style="line-height: 17px; margin: 0px" class="ecxMsoNormal"> It is conventional wisdom in some circles that “comprehensive planning” and sprawl are polar opposites- that planning is the enemy of sprawl. </p> <p style="line-height: 17px; margin: 0px" class="ecxMsoNormal"> But in fact, a comprehensive plan is almost as likely as a zoning code to be pro-sprawl.<span style="line-height: 17px">  </span>Many of the land use policies that make suburbs automobile-dependent (such as wide roads, long blocks, low density, single-use zoning, etc.) can just as easily be found in a comprehensive plan.  </p>

September 15 - Michael Lewyn

Travel+Leisure polls its readers for the best cities for foodies, with New Orleans taking the top spot.

September 15 - Travel+Leisure

Single occupant electric vehicles retained access to carpool lanes in California, while hybrid owners lost it on July 1st.

September 15 - Los Angeles Times: Environment

In four New York City Council districts, residents will soon be able to propose and vote on capital projects to be funded by councilmember's budgets.

September 15 - New York Times

Phil Taylor of the New York Times writes about an ensuing battle between a Montana wind power transmission project, backed by eminent domain rights, and Montana landowners, fighting for cultural conservation of their land.

September 15 - The New York Times

In the '00s, housing built around golf courses was all the rage. Stephanie Simon reports that today's consumer wants to live next to an organic farm, vineyard or other micro-rural setting.

September 14 - The Wall St. Journal

A recent study found that a city could completely live off food grown from urban agriculture. Sharanbir Grewal, the study's author, discovered in his analysis of Cleveland that the city could produce up to 48 percent of the city's fresh produce.

September 14 - Smart Planet

Montecillo, a 293-acre 'urban village', is the first development to take advantage of El Paso's new Smart Code. The project launched in May, and the developer is already preparing to get Phase 2 off the ground.

September 14 - El Paso Inc.

San Francisco has made steps to avert cars from Market Street, but the next steps to alleviate congestion are vague. A gradual rollout of trial experiments to gauge a method's success seems the most likely answer, reports Rachel Gordon.

September 14 - San Francisco Chronicle

Michèle Champagne of Open City Projects Inc. examines Amsterdam's Mercator Square and how it functions as an open space. The community around Mercator Square is ethnically diverse, has good urbanism details, yet violence still is a problem.

September 14 - Open City Projects

In Berlin and The Netherlands, crazy ideas of building mountains for recreational purposes are actually being entertained.

September 14 - Pruned

Yesterday, the Brooklyn's Landmark Preservation Commission unanimously approved the creation of an historic district in the downtown.

September 14 - WYNC

After a mere 45 minutes of debate on the House floor, Obama's requested transportation bill extension was approved by voice vote - unanimously. The extension will be for six months (not four as Senate committee had approved) and extends the gas tax.

September 14 - DC.Streetsblog

William Frey with the Brookings Institution explains that 1/3rd of the largest cities in the U.S. have seen significant losses of kids under 15, while babies are booming in the Southwest, Utah and Idaho.

September 14 - Urban Land

Kigali, Rwanda's capital city, is beginning to embrace an urban transect-based plan as a solution for its recent population growth and rapidly evolving economy.

September 14 - World Architecture News