The Daily Source of Urban Planning News

<p>Billions of dollars in federal grants and loans intended for the development of rural areas have been given to areas <em>The Washington Post</em> has found to be far more urban than rural, including beach resorts and suburbs.</p>

April 9 - The Washington Post

FEATURE

April 9 - Nate Berg

<p>In accordance with state laws, the transit agency in Houston will have to pay property taxes on land it purchased for transit-oriented developments. Because the land will be developed privately, the law says it is not a public use and is not exempt.</p>

April 9 - The Houston Chronicle

<p>To help keep its airport a major revenue generator, the city of Scottsdale, Arizona, is considering a variety of plans to improve accessibility. Most of the plans on the table revolve around building roads, but bus rapid transit is also proposed.</p>

April 9 - The Arizona Republic

<p>The Florida State Department of Environmental Protection is moving forward with plans to reclassify many of its waters based on their potential harm to humans. Some say the reclassifications open the door for corporate and agricultural polluters.</p>

April 9 - The Miami Herald

<p>The population in Houston has passed that of Miami, making it the sixth-largest city in the United States. Between 2000 and 2006, the city saw a 17.5% growth rate.</p>

April 8 - The Houston Chronicle

<p>As the subprime mortgage crisis worsens, civil rights organizations and Democratic presidential contenders alike are calling for a moratorium on foreclosures, but the mortgage industry is resisting.</p>

April 8 - The Independent (UK)

<p>Using sophisticated climate models, scientists are predicting a 15 percent loss of surface moisture by 2050. They suspect, but cannot conclude, that global warming is to blame.</p>

April 8 - Los Angeles Times

<p>This column from <em>The San Francisco Examiner</em> describes how "urban planning can save the world", and identifies transit-oriented development as a major solution to global warming.</p>

April 8 - San Francisco Examiner

<p>The British Columbia village of Saanich has passed a measure that will make it easier for developers building energy-efficient projects to get approval. Green builders will also receive building permit fee rebates.</p>

April 8 - Victoria Times Colonist

BLOG POST

<p>In the last few years, a set of interactive, web-based technologies has reinvented the web. Myspace, Meetup, Wikipedia, Youtube have become household words, and millions of people worldwide are surfing social networking websites, writing blogs, and collaborating online in new ways. These so-called &quot;Web 2.0&quot; technologies were the inspiration for TIME&#39;s person of the year: You. What the true impact of these technologies will be, we must conceded it is, as <a href="http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1569514,00.html">TIME says</a>, &quot;a massive social experiment.&quot; </p>

April 7 - Robert Goodspeed

BLOG POST

<p>The corner café on North Second Street in the Northern Liberties neighborhood of Philadelphia aspires to Euro-style café culture though it lines a little-trafficked street of row houses showing every year of their century and a half of existence, and faces a vast empty, chain-linked block where a brewery once stood. <br /><img src="/files/u10275/DSC_0054.jpg" alt="" width="320" height="212" />

April 7 - James S. Russell

<p>Randall Crane offers a blog post about his research of an exception to the gender gap: the trip linking work and home, which is consistently and persistently shorter for women than men.</p>

April 7 - Urban Planning Research / Randall Crane's Blog

<p>An 11-year drought in the Southwest U.S. has a growing small town in Nevada looking to pump water from nearby Beaver Dam, Arizona. Many in the Arizona town are upset over the proposed water-snatch, which they say limits their own ability to develop.</p>

April 7 - NPR

<p>At yesterday's L.A. City Council meeting, landlords and tenants sparred over affordable housing, money, and incentives for the middle class. After the dust settled, councilmembers voted: landlords may have to pay higher fees to relocate tenants.</p>

April 7 - The Los Angeles Times

<p>Residents in Cleveland, Ohio, may be putting their tax dollars towards relocating a strip club. The relocation is part of an effort to acquire the club's current location for reuse as a homeless shelter.</p>

April 7 - The Cleveland Plain Dealer

<p>As suburban sprawl spreads in upstate New York, more deer are finding their way into the five boroughs of New York City. Some have called for signs to alert drivers, but others say the movement patterns of the deer aren't consistent enough for signs.</p>

April 7 - Nate Berg

BLOG POST

<!--StartFragment -->If you are a student planning travel to next week&#39;s national APA conference, you may be thinking about how to get the most out of the experience. Here are some ideas that have worked for others...

April 6 - Bruce Stiftel

<p>This article from <em>Weekly World News</em> looks at efforts in New York to retrofit ambulances with bulldozer blades, helping drivers save more lives by smashing through the city's crowded streets.</p>

April 6 - Weekly World News

<p>Utilizing citizen surveys to gauge public concerns and support for projects is an increasing trend in municipalities across the country. Some say this method is much more effective -- and more inclusive -- than traditional public hearings.</p>

April 6 - Governing Magazine