The Daily Source of Urban Planning News

Cities like Portland and Austin have been magnets for young professionals. Amid the recession, these cities have few jobs to offer. But the hipsters keep coming.

May 18 - The Wall Street Journal

Phoenix is undergoing another housing boom, with buyers clamoring to buy up properties with significantly discounted prices.

May 18 - Los Angeles Times

This piece from <em>Color Lines</em> looks at how the economic downturn is affecting low-income populations, and how social services are having trouble keeping up with an increasing demand for help.

May 18 - Color Lines

A bill that would allow exurban development before adequate transportation infrastructure is in place has caused a stir in Florida, where environmental groups are lobbying the governor for a veto.

May 18 - The Bradenton Herald

Votes in the Charlotte area are considering another raise to their sales tax to fund transit projects. New documents show the tax increase may not bring the improvements quickly. But without the raise, some projects may never get built.

May 18 - Charlotte Observer

Neal Peirce looks at a broad citizen outreach program in Montgomery County, Maryland, engages its growing immigrant population by actually interacting with them face-to-face.

May 18 - Citiwire

This week's episode of <em>Smart City</em> explores what makes a city successful and tracks the future of the green job market.

May 18 - Smart City

BLOG POST

<p> By any measure, the HUD that is now emerging from the shadows of eight years of amateur hour, is focused on the right things: markets, coherent roles for public and private sector alike, and energy efficiency. Indeed the emphasis on &quot;urbanism&quot; and &quot;regionalism&quot; illustrates that this administration &quot;gets it&quot;. </p>

May 18 - Charles Buki

The Democrats of the U.S. House of Representatives have passed a bill that would create a green school building program in the U.S., investing more than $6 billion in its first year to build more environmentally friendly schools.

May 18 - NPR

BLOG POST

<p> Last week marked the end of my first year of planning school. It’s been by turns enlightening, angst-ridden, sleep-deprived, soul-baringly revelatory, stimulating and intellectually crushing. </p> <p> The bulk of the second semester is occupied by a first-year workshop—kind of a studio with training wheels—in which groups are assigned a client for whom they do a site analysis, come up with alternative solutions and then suggest a final plan and way to implement that plan. You know, kind of like in the real world. </p> <p> And, like in the real world, sometimes folks don’t always get along as well as they should. </p>

May 17 - Jeffrey Barg

Rick Harrison argues that smart growth looks good on paper, but in application the density creates a whole host of problems.

May 17 - New Geography

Las Vegas and Southern Nevada are chock-full of planned communities. The region is also struggling with some of the harshest declines in property values in the nation. Though planned communities are seeing some sales, they are mainly in trouble.

May 17 - Las Vegas Sun

A new study warns that climate change could bring widespread harmful health threats to millions, and that plans for adapting human settlements to climate change need to address social inequities.

May 17 - CBC

Freakonomics argues that eliminating one New York airport would allow the others to operate more effectively.

May 17 - Freakonomics - NY Times Blog

In Bedford-Stuyvesant, the changes that gentrification have brought to the neighborhood are fundamental, not just cosmetic. One planner talks about how neighborhood character could be retained.

May 17 - The Brooklyn Rail (via Feministing)

San Francisco, Houston, and Indianapolis are featuring public art installations that mimic and highlight nature in urban areas.

May 16 - Next American City

In an age of rapid technological improvements in almost every aspect of life, it's difficult to understand how a technology like trains could actually be less advanced now than it was in the 1940s, writes Tom Vanderbilt.

May 16 - Slate

Beth Noveck, deputy director for Open Government in the Obama Administration, talks about dealing with the noise of online collaboration and how to make social networks functional for civic participation.

May 16 - Government Techonlogy

Fuled by casino cash, the Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community is buying up sections of Scott County, Minnesota at a rate that has local planners spinning.

May 16 - Minneapolis/St. Paul Star Tribune

Water shortages and environmentally-based restrictions are leaving Central California's agricultural lands dry. As a result, farmers are increasingly tapping into groundwater sources. Many are calling on the state to monitor the use of its aquifers.

May 16 - The New York Times