The Daily Source of Urban Planning News

<p>This four-part blog from <em>Wired</em> gives a nuts-and-bolts look at bus rapid transit, using examples of planned systems, successful systems, and troubled systems.</p>

September 25 - Wired

BLOG POST

<p style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><font face="Times New Roman" size="3">What if the utility company asked you how much you made when you called to start service in a new home?<span>  </span>What if they wanted this information to tie your bill to your salary and not to how much gas, electricity or water you used? <span> </span>Would that seem fair?<span>  </span>That’s how some communities are treating developers when determining how much stormwater they should be required to manage. <span> </span>But regulations that link stormwater standards to the developer’s ability to pay are neither fair nor efficient. <span> </span>Environmental regulations and their costs should be directly linked to the impact on the environment, not to profit margins.</font></p>

September 25 - Anonymous

<p>Following up on a Cato report blasting planning in Portland, the Congress for the New Urbanism offers a fact-check in which Michael Lewyn contends Randal O'Toole's findings are inaccurate and flawed.</p>

September 25 - The Congress for the New Urbanism

<p>The Purdue University researcher who revealed that there is more than three times more parking than drivers in one county in Indiana is looking to expand his count to the entire nation.</p>

September 25 - The Christian Science Monitor

<p>For residents and public officials in the "spiritual home" of Scientology, the presence of the church and its followers is hard to ignore. But it is also easy for the city to enjoy the economic benefit the church brings.</p>

September 25 - Associated Press via The York Dispatch

<p>Plans are under consideration for a massive port redevelopment in Jamaica that could create one of the most active shipping ports in the Caribbean.</p>

September 25 - Jamaica Gleaner

<p>Bilbao, Spain, has undergone a noticeable rejuvenation in the 10 years since Frank Gehry's iconic Guggenheim Museum opened its doors.</p>

September 25 - The New York Times

<p>Government research form British Columbia has shown that it costs cities more than $12,000 per homeless person per year. Some are saying it would be cheaper for the city to give them housing than to keep them on the streets.</p>

September 25 - Times Colonist

<p>This report from <em>National Public Radio</em> looks at Maryland's Resident Curatorship program -- a method of historic preservation that allows people to live rent-free in historic homes in exchange for performing preservation work.</p>

September 25 - NPR

<p>With the downturn in the housing market, a planned luxury condo tower in Downtown San Diego has been reworked into an affordable housing development.</p>

September 24 - The San Diego Union-Tribune

<p>Over the last two decades, immigration has "feminized" -- there are now more female immigrants than male immigrants. This change should impact housing and educational policies for immigrants, writes professor Ali Modarres in an academic paper.</p>

September 24 - Edmund G. "Pat" Brown Institute of Public Affairs

BLOG POST

<p class="MsoNormal"> Many students choose planning over business school because they want to serve the public and change the world. However, saving the world is a complicated task. What kind of school will prepare you? As in many parts of life there isn’t a simple answer but a few key points can help frame your search. And remember, you don’t need to answer all these questions before you apply—get a good enough list and then investigate them some more once you have real offers. </p>

September 24 - Ann Forsyth

<p>The Kenyan capital of Nairobi is struggling with crippling car congestion -- a problems some say is so bad the country should consider transferring its capital to another city.</p>

September 24 - Mail & Guardian

<p>The city of Los Angeles has announced a plan to plant 1 million trees in the next few years, and though the city has been successful in giving many trees away to people with the intention of planting them, no one is sure how many of them are planted.</p>

September 24 - The Los Angeles Times

A bill originally introduced in 1987 that would create a trust fund to support the creation of affordable housing may be on its way to congressional approval this fall.

September 24 - U.S. News And World Report

FEATURE

Nathan Glazer's <em>From a Cause to a Style: Modernist Architecture's Encounter with the American City</em> reveals how this influential social movement's good intentions shaped the look of the 20th century.

September 24 - Josh Stephens

<p>In Mexico City, controversial plans to develop what would be the tallest skyscraper in Latin America have opponents calling the project illegal. But the developers have a big-name architect and high-powered politicians behind them.</p>

September 24 - The New York Times

<p>County officials in Georgia have once again extended their moratorium on residential rezonings as they weigh whether changes will encourage sprawl. The latest extension will stretch the original 90-day moratorium to nearly a year.</p>

September 24 - The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

<p>Widely-criticized plans to build a $398 million bridge between a remote Alaskan airport and a neighboring island have been formally dropped by the state.</p>

September 24 - The Houston Chronicle

<p>In one of the most congested cities in the world, one entrepreneur is hoping to etch away at the problem with his fledgling bicycle rental business. Currently there are 500 bikes in the system, but the owner has plans for more than 50,000 by 2009.</p>

September 24 - The Christian Science Monitor