The Daily Source of Urban Planning News

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<p><img src="/files/u10403/T3logo.gif" alt="" width="369" height="72" align="top" /></p><p>The family and I took a recreational ride on the newest light rail line in San Francisco today, the Muni train known as the T. It runs along the city&#39;s east-west spine, Market St., and then cuts south along the water of the bay, then inland and way, way south down Third Street—from the city&#39;s hottest under-construction neighborhood through the worst ghetto.</p><p>As such, it&#39;s an interesting new ride in San Francisco. Some photos and observations after the jump.</p>

March 10 - Anonymous

<p>A plant company owner in San Diego, California, is hoping his new vegetated roof will help the concept catch on with others in the region.</p>

March 10 - The San Diego Union-Tribune

<p>With a federal takeover of the city's housing authority underway, the fallout from the investigation into the agency's misdealings is expected to call for dramatic changes in government policy towards low-income housing.</p>

March 10 - The Christian Science Monitor

<p>British planners have green-lighted a dizzying array of new high-rise projects, though some question the benefits of building tall.</p>

March 10 - BBC News

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<p>Greetings from Victoria, British Columbia!</p>

March 10 - Todd Litman

<p>Plans for the construction of several mega-highway and rail corridors across Texas are facing growing opposition.</p>

March 10 - Fort Worth Weekly

<p>Tourists who pay $74.95 will soon be able to enjoy a walk 'over' the Grand Canyon, with the money providing needed income for the Hualapai Indian Tribe.</p>

March 10 - The Arizona Republic

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At the <a href="http://www.planetizen.com/www.communitymatters.org" target="_blank" title="CommunityMatters07">PlaceMatters06</a> fall conference, participants were treated to the first sneak preview of <a href="http://outside.in" target="_blank" title="Outside.in">outside.in</a>, a spatially enabled hub for blogs and forums that adds location-based information to online discussions. Steven Berlin Johnson, author of several books including Emergence, and The Ghost Map, and the leading inspiration behind outside.in’s conception, demonstrated the beta site during his keynote session. It created a buzz with conference participants quick to recognize its potential as a tool for encouraging community dialogue and place making. <br />

March 9 - Ken Snyder

What happens when Edinburgh's implements a pedestrian congestion fee along The Royal Mile?

March 9 - YouTube

<p>Officials in Louisville, Kentucky, are considering joining the 22 other cities across the country that have adopted a 'complete' streets policy to ensure roads aren't built solely for cars.</p>

March 9 - Louisville Courier-Journal

<p>Despite their larger sizes, recent bungalows built in three of Atlanta's most historic neighborhoods nevertheless are sensitive to the look and scale of their surroundings.</p>

March 9 - The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

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<p>Are politicians becoming obsolete in the age of the Internet? Are they simply the &#39;middle-men&#39; that will be replaced by votes cast directly by citizens? This was the issue before a veritable <a href="http://www.usc.edu/schools/sppd/bedrosian/events/dacollpanelists.html">rock-star cast</a> of poliltical insiders from California and around the country. <strong>So what is the G-Word?</strong> </p><p><img src="/files/u4/header2sm.jpg" alt="panelists" title="panelists" hspace="4" vspace="4" width="490" height="55" align="left" /> </p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>

March 9 - Chris Steins

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<p>Across the U.S., dozens of colleges and universities are planning or building major campus expansions. However, unlike the 1990s which saw gleaming bioscience research facilities appear on campuses, the new construction is calculated to help attract and retain faculty and students with amenities for living and shopping. Almost without exception, these projects are in a strictly neotraditional design mold. </p>

March 9 - Robert Goodspeed

<p>A new law facing the National People's Congress of China looks to put in place massive land reform in the country that would essentially establish the right to private property. This legislation has been pushed forward by the central government.</p>

March 9 - Al Jazeera

<p>Wal-Mart has dropped plans to build a "supercenter" store in the East Bay city of Livermore, which has joined many other Northern California cities that have used local powers to prevent the retailer from moving in.</p>

March 9 - The Contra Costa Times

<p>The prospect of X-rated businesses opening up near homes has residents of the Southern Massachusetts town of Berkley up in arms. With no zoning laws, the location of any new businesses depends on approval by a local governing board.</p>

March 9 - The Boston Globe

As part of a federal plan to accelerate the planning of new multistate highway corridors, Indiana is rallying support for a 63-mile, privately-funded tollway to connect the state to neighboring Illinois.

March 9 - Northwest Indiana Times

<p>Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper has campaigned a new program that puts old parking meters to use raising money for homeless services.</p>

March 9 - KEYE-TV 42

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<p>How useful is planning scholarship to planners in practice? Thirty years ago, the author of a British study of information use by planners found, &quot;The journal is not a source of major importance to the planner in practice, though this statement must be taken to reflect inadequate privision and inadequate timeing for reading&quot; (White, 1974). Perspectives differ, but at least some of the problem has been the difficulty of finding relevant scholarship at the moment it is needed. I believe that these difficulties have greatly reduced in the past few years, and that we are on the verge of an unprecedently increase in the use of scholarship in practice fueled by online bibliographic searching and retrieval. From both the scholar&#39;s and the practitioner&#39;s perspectives, this change will have substantial effects.<br /> </p>

March 9 - Bruce Stiftel

<p>The National Trust for Historic Preservation has published its annual list of twelve unique communities with a commitment to preservation.</p>

March 9 - National Trust For Historic Preservation