The Daily Source of Urban Planning News

<p>A human rights group has accused the Chinese Government of forcing 1.5 million residents from their homes in preparation for the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing -- the latest in a continuing saga of displacement in former host cities.</p>

June 8 - The Washington Post

<p>Voters in Tennessee have denied a proposal to use city funding to finance the development of a big box retail development. Many in the city say they have missed an opportunity to spur economic development in the small town.</p>

June 8 - Knoxville News Sentinel

<p>The new plan would transform Sydney's White Bay into an environmentally-friendly community designed to mitigate the city's ecological impact and combat global warming.</p>

June 8 - ABC News

<p>Savvy real estate developers who can promote their projects as smart growth developments are attracting significant capital from public pension funds -- regardless of the actual merits of the project.</p>

June 7 - LA Weekly

<p>Forced to close schools due to shrinking enrollment, a Detroit suburb is selling its surplus schools to housing developers in hopes that children from new families will prop up remaining schools in the community.</p>

June 7 - Metro Times

<p>The Ukrainian capital has seen the number of cars increase over 600 percent in less than 30 years, taxing the city's infrastructure and presenting local planners with a major transportation challenge.</p>

June 7 - Ukraine Observer

<p>Voters in Monterey County, California, have rejected environmentalists' general plan initiative, and appear to have tossed aside a county-written plan as well. The June 5 election was the latest conflict in the seven-year general plan process.</p>

June 7 - California Planning & Development Report

<p>Steven Holl's new addition to the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City is reviewed by The New York Times Architecture Critic Nicolai Ouroussoff.</p>

June 7 - The New York Times

<p>A recent report by Joel Kotkin and the Greater Houston Partnership offers an alternative to Richard Florida's Creative Class model for the future of cities -- using the Sunbelt metropolis as a case study.</p>

June 7 - Greater Houston Partnership

<p>Assaults and property crimes are also up in 2006, according to recently released FBI data. City officials are hoping the increase is a one-time occurrence, and not a trend that could endanger its ongoing urban revitalization efforts.</p>

June 7 - The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

<p>The Lord Mayor of Sydney has used very blunt language to characterize the city's future, yet planning to counter anticipated problems is still in the early stages.</p>

June 7 - The Sydney Morning Herald

BLOG POST

<p>The solution to so-called &quot;automobile dependence&quot; within the contemporary planning community is almost alway more mass transit: more trains and buses. But is this realistic, particualarly given current strategies and approaches to providing mass transit? Most investments in mass transit are patently unsustainable, requiring huge investments in capital and dramatic reductions in mobility (measured by travel time) to achieve ridership goals. </p><p>Proof of mass transit&#39;s unsustainability is obvious to anyone willing to look at it objectively: </p>

June 7 - Samuel Staley

<p>A recent editorial argues that the successful model of regional planning in the Sacramento region known as the "Blueprint" provides an alternative to sprawl that needs to be applied statewide, and identifies current state legislation to do just that.</p>

June 7 - The Sacramento Bee

<p>In an effort to improve its world headquarters, Campbell Soup wants to expand its campus in Camden, New Jersey. The only problem is that the company's plans include knocking down a nationally registered historic building.</p>

June 7 - The New York Times

<p>Fewer and fewer parents are allowing their children to leave the house unattended. Citing safety concerns, nearly half of parents prefer to keep their kids home.</p>

June 7 - BBC

BLOG POST

<p><img src="/files/u10403/accessj.jpg" alt="" width="225" height="155" align="right" />Do yourself a favor: Go check out the latest issue of IEEE Spectrum, either online or in hard copy. Spectrum is the trade magazine for the international engineers&#39; society—it&#39;s really quite good—and this issue features an extensive package on megacities.</p><p>This is the engineer&#39;s take on many of the issues we all grapple with on Interchange. So it&#39;s not about making public meetings go more smoothly or trying to understand how to use GIS for placemaking. It&#39;s about building stuff and making sure it&#39;ll keep working.</p>

June 6 - Anonymous

<p>Space for the dead is an increasingly tight commodity in England, so the government has pushed plans to increase the density of its graveyards. Under the new plans, older gravesites could be altered to accommodate up to six additional coffins.</p>

June 6 - BBC

<p>In both the US and the UK, local governments are looking to offer wireless internet access in public spaces as a way to get more people out on the streets and near businesses. But they are carefully considering the idea's sustainability.</p>

June 6 - The Seattle Times, BBC

<p>Mukesh Ambani, India's richest man, has plans to build a 570-foot, 27-story skyscraper in Mumbai as a home for his six-person family, a stark contrast to the city's many crowded slums. Some planners predict similar skyscraper projects will follow.</p>

June 6 - The Guardian

<p>Transportation expert Reid Ewing appeared in Napa to tout higher densities and mixed-use development. The county is updating it transportation plan and considering a second attempt to pass a transportation sales tax measure.</p>

June 6 - Napa Valley Register