The Daily Source of Urban Planning News

An upcoming Los Angeles symposium will focus on greening the city's rooftops and overcoming the high implementation costs that have kept gardens off the roofs of skyscrapers.

June 5 - Los Angeles Downtown News

In New York City, big landlords are driving out thousands of low income residents. Juan Gonzales believes this may be a national trend and local governments are actively assisting in gentrification.

June 5 - Democracy Now

In a 6,000-page report, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers accepted responsibility for design defects in the levee system that failed during Hurricane Katrina and led to the catastrophic flooding of New Orleans.

June 5 - The Los Angeles Times

Jane Jacobs and her impact on amateur urbanists and urban observers, in a piece entitled "How Jane Jacobs Changed My Life".

June 5 - Maisonneuve

FEATURE

June 5 - Leonardo Vazquez, AICP/PP

New research by the Brookings Institution ties New Jersey's troubling economic position to multiple forces, including rising housing costs, persistent race, class and place disparities, and unbalanced development patterns.

June 5 - NJBIZ Journal

Philadelphia's Navy Yard provides a suburban office park environment, and historic fabric, at the edge of the city, with opportunities from dog walking for office employees to a future 2016 Olympic site.

June 5 - The New York Times

Once hailed the transit-pay mechanism of the future, the cards have become one of Bay Area transit's biggest flops. Yet the money keeps flowing while the costs keep rising.

June 4 - The Contra Costa Times

Strategic Hotels & Resorts has proposed a plan to build a 20-acre national jazz center and park in the center of New Orleans, to be designed by Pritzker Prize winner, Thom Mayne.

June 4 - New Orleans Times-Picayune

Extracting oil from Canada's tarry sand has lead to large incomes and huge environmental tolls for the holder of the world's second-largest oil reserves.

June 4 - The Washington Post

Indiana's governor explains how he solved his state's transportation budget gap using private capital rather than public funds -- by leasing the 157-mile Indiana Toll Road for $3.8 billion to a foreign consortium.

June 4 - The New York Times

Displaced residents tell the City Council that they will return to their 7th Ward housing complex this weekend and will tear down any fences in their way, refusing to wait any longer for official action on permission to return.

June 4 - The Times-Picayune

Phoenix and Tucson are building up, not out, but is it enough to slow desert development?

June 3 - The Christian Science Monitor

The popularity of mixed-use suburban town centers is threatening the viability of older, traditional downtowns. While many tout their urban-style amenities, the suburban centers often lack transit and -- sometimes -- even sidewalks.

June 3 - The Wall Street Journal

The federal government has granted permission for construction of Maryland's Intercounty Connector (ICC) outside the nation's capitol.

June 3 - The Baltimore Sun

Alfred Runte, author of "Allies of the Earth: Railroads and the Soul of Preservation", calls on the United States to revive its passenger rail service in order to conserve energy and preserve the natural landscape.

June 3 - The Seattle Times

Formed with the help of Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and legions of African Americans discriminated against during the Civil Rights era, the agency that helped pass the federal Fair Housing Act will close.

June 3 - Chicago Sun Times

Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels has produced a spoof political ad to mock the preservation of the city's controversial Alaskan Way Viaduct, although he may run into ethics violations for using a City Hall production crew.

June 2 - Seattle Weekly

Water privatization brings a flood of problems in U.S. cities. Is this a preview of a global issue?

June 2 - The Los Angeles Times

Interesting mapping applications are emerging from museums and other organizations dedicated to education and conservation.

June 2 - The Christian Science Monitor