The Daily Source of Urban Planning News

The BMW Guggenheim Lab is a traveling exhibition that will visit nine cities in the next six years, providing a public space to explore the challenges of today's cities.

August 3 - The Architect's Newspaper

PhillyTreeMap makes counting trees interactive with it’s users being able to add trees to its web-based digital map of Philadelphia, reports Gregory Thomas for the Philadelphia Inquirer.

August 3 - Philadelphia Inquirer

Want to speed up your transit? Follow San Francisco's lead and let your passengers enter any door they please, says Yonah Freemark. A pilot program on the J-Church line is testing out the idea.

August 3 - the transport politic

Jenny Sullivan of Builder Magazine spots a trend for slightly increased densities in suburban towns, creating urban-lite communities that are attracting city dwellers who would never have dreamed of living in the burbs.

August 3 - Builder Magazine

Researchers in China have reportedly created an insulation material that can "retain and release heat according to specific temperature requirements."

August 3 - Buildings

After 10 years in operation, the Neighborhood Council system in L.A. represents a great deal of unfulfilled potential, say City Councilmember Paul Krekorian. With that, and the city's dire financial straits in mind, Krekorian is proposing reforms.

August 3 - The Planning Report

The Yerba Buena District Street Life Plan starts off its 10-year life to improve public space by placing six mobile gardens in parts of the district that have more concrete and asphalt than vegetation, reports John King for San Francisco Chronicle.

August 3 - San Francisco Chronicle

Despite wildlife declines caused by factors such as Britain's urban sprawl, researchers suspect that cities are better habitats for pollinating insects because they have a greater number and diversity of flowers, reports Rebecca Morelle for BBC.

August 2 - BBC

A new study shows how even as minorities move up the social ladder, they tend to live in poorer neighborhoods, reports Joanna Lin for California Watch.

August 2 - California Watch

Toronto's Mayor Rob Ford keeps insisting that the city has plenty of "gravy" -- in the form of municipal services -- that can be cut from the budget; however, according to Jack Diamond "there is no gravy train."

August 2 - Globe and Mail

Arturas Zuokas, mayor of the Lithuanian capital, has taken enforcement of cars parked illegally in cycle lanes into his own hands. In a YouTube video, Zuokas is shown riding on top of a tank as it crushes a car parked illegally in a cycle lane.

August 2 - Guardian

Former HUD Secretary Henry Cisneors, now the executive chairman of CityView, makes the case for urban markets as the driving force of the real estate market (including investment from foreign investors) in the near future.

August 2 - The Planning Report

Last week, Detroit Mayor Dave Bing released the much anticipated Detroit Works Project for "shrinking" the city. Reporter Nancy Kaffer says it isn't quite what everyone was expecting.

August 2 - Crain's Detroit Business

Attorney Evan McKenzie explores the world of homeowners' associations and common interest developments, which he says are creating an unfortunate layer of private government over unsuspecting homeowners.

August 2 - New Urban Network

Fox News Latino reports on a Public Policy Institute of California poll that shows both clean air and climate change rank higher as a concern for Latinos and blacks than fowhites and Asians.

August 2 - Fox News Latino

Designing the U.S. embassy abroad is any architect's dream. But a crash between safety imperatives and beautiful design often results in "a dull series of near-identical, boxy bunkers," says The Economist.

August 2 - The Economist

At a two-acre site located 80 miles west of Ann Arbor, an engineering major at the Univ. of Michigan installed the state's largest solar farm with movable trackers that increase the amount of energy captured by almost 10%.

August 2 - Ars Technica

While other NYC development is stalled out, colleges and universities are "on a building spree", writes Mitchell Moss, and they are revitalizing old buildings and infrastructure.

August 1 - The Architect's Newspaper

Architect Magazine tours Phase 2 of the much-discussed High Line Park, a former elevated train track that has become a popular public space. NYC Planning Director Amanda Burden makes an appearance.

August 1 - Architect Magazine

London's preparations for next summer's Olympic Games have been widespread, but the event's economic returns are harder to see.

August 1 - The Economist