The Daily Source of Urban Planning News

<p>The Slow Food movement has lessons for giving cities a humane density.</p>

May 23 - The San Francisco Chronicle

<p>Are billboard companies exploiting public roadways?</p>

May 22 - The Washington Post Writers Group

BLOG POST

<p>Think big.<br /><br />That’s what the people of Ontario and the Toronto region set out to do more than 5 years ago when they began a visionary planning process for the area known as the Greater Golden Horseshoe in southern Ontario, Canada. (The Greater Golden Horseshoe is the area around Lake Ontario that stretches from roughly Peterborough to the east, west through metropolitan Toronto, and around the west tip of the lake to the southern side and Niagara Falls — hence the horseshoe shape.) </p>

May 22 - Anonymous

<p>New publication VerdeXchange offers an interview with Google's Director of Corporate Environmental Programs about the company's efforts to transform its campus into a greener workplace and the future model of corporate environmentalism.</p>

May 22 - VerdeXchange News

BLOG POST

<p>“We underwrite fun,” says Naomi McCleary, Manager of arts for the Waitakere City Council, one of the municipalities that make up the Auckland (New Zealand) metropolitan region. She is referring to the practice of involving artists in the thinking and creation of public places, buildings, streets, bridges; they take an equal seat at the table from conception to completion. According to Ms. McCleary, the results are remarkable. Fun is a partner of beauty and happiness, it is a means toward the creation of objects and places that are beautifully usable. Around the world it is possible to find municipalities that are underwriting this kind of fun, but for every found opportunity, we have several more that are lost. </p>

May 22 - Barbara Knecht

<p>A string of accidents at a military gunnery range - including numerous missed-target bombings, resulting forest fires, and shots mistakenly fired at an elementary school - have strained relations between the range and neighboring communities.</p>

May 22 - Associated Press via Knoxville News Sentinel

<p>New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg recently announced plans to convert the city's entire taxicab fleet to hybrid vehicles within 5 years.</p>

May 22 - The New York Times

Photos, videos, and characteristics of truly cyclist-friendly cities.

May 22 - Grist

<p>Unlike European countries, the U.S. has no government standards for green building. Sustainable design is now commonplace in Europe, while American architects may comply with voluntary "green" standards.</p>

May 22 - The New York Times

<p>The idea of turning over public housing to residents to own or sell is gaining support among some scholars and officials.</p>

May 22 - The New York Sun

<p>This column argues that aimless wandering is essential to exploring the character of a city, and offers advice to travelers and city dwellers on letting the urbanism of cities guide their experience.</p>

May 22 - International Herald Tribune

<p>A new report from a metropolitan planning organization in Boston has outlined the severe land shortages that will face the growing area between now and 2030, and proposes a smart growth plan to preserve open space by growing densely.</p>

May 22 - The Boston Globe

<p>Developers are reacting to the market's demand for environmentally-friendly development and locally-grown food by creating housing developments that include farmable land.</p>

May 22 - The Wall Street Journal

<p>Bike lanes are the wrong approach that end up marginalizing cyclists argues Will Campbell.</p>

May 21 - The Los Angeles Times

<p>This report was prepared for the New Jersey Legislature to document the current state of Personal Rapid Transit (PRT) development and implementation and to explore the potential viability of implementing PRT in New Jersey.</p>

May 21 - Alan M. Voorhees Transportation Center, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey

<p>Local municipalities are drafting laws to crack down on McMansions by imposing strict building restrictions, a move that has sparked controversy between officials and homebuilders.</p>

May 21 - The New York Times

<p>Birth rates have been steadily declining in many Asian countries -- a trend some are attributing partly to rapid industrialization and urbanization.</p>

May 21 - International Herald Tribune

<p>In an effort to help Boston bikers ride safely, an online "wiki" has been unveiled that uses mapping software to identify the safest and most dangerous routes in the city.</p>

May 21 - The Boston Globe

BLOG POST

<p><span style="font-size: 9pt; font-family: Verdana">I would like to think that the overwhelming response to the question posed in the title would be a resounding, &quot;No!&quot;  I never gave the issue much thought before last week because frankly, I didn&#39;t really need to.  Working in a city like Philadelphia where the overwhelming percentage of proposed projects requires a zoning variance, we&#39;ve trained ourselves to work within an imperfect system and make the best of what&#39;s at hand.  (It should be noted that Philadelphia is about to embark upon a process to re-vamp the zoning code, but that is for another post in the future).  More importantly, the issues faced by some neighborhoods go a lot deeper than zoning.  So why this post?</span></p>

May 21 - Scott Page

<p>The government agency may halt plans for several new high-rise complexes in Arlington, Virginia, due to concerns about the danger posed to planes headed to Reagan Airport.</p>

May 21 - The Washington Post