The Daily Source of Urban Planning News

In need of an underground overhaul, the Capital Beltway exemplifies the deteriorating conditions of 1/3 of the nation's roadways.

April 3 - The Washington Post

New details from a landmark study on the leading causes of death worldwide presents a gloomy picture of the effect of air pollution on the health of China's residents. The toll is 25 million healthy years of life snatched from the population.

April 3 - The New York Times

BLOG POST

Instead of always fighting to make sprawl development harder, let's focus our energy on making great infill development easier.

April 3 - Norman Wright

The city of Santa Clara is piggybacking on the installation of connected, smart utility meters to blanket the city in a publicly accessible, free, wireless network.

April 3 - Gigaom

The U.K. village of Poynton recently removed the traffic lights, signs, lanes, and even curbs from its center. The result? Rather than chaos, a film claims the project has helped revitalize the town's traditional center.

April 3 - The Atlantic Cities

Realizing that overly controlled environments rarely breed the kind of innovation and culture that make cities great, Scott Doyon gets down with the funky and unpredictable.

April 3 - PlaceShakers

For architecture critic Inga Saffron, a $900 million project to improve a South Jersey interchange illustrates the madness of transportation funding priorities.

April 3 - philly.com

BLOG POST

It’s an understatement to say that the “D-Word” is a controversial subject in cities across North America. It needn’t be so though, and shouldn't be, as when it’s done well, density is immensely important to the success of cities and regions.

April 2 - Brent Toderian

With 279 submissions received, the pubic voting period has begun for determining who will receive the $1,000,000 in grants being awarded to improve the quality of life in Los Angeles along eight key indicators.

April 2 - Good

Ethan Kent, Enrique Penalosa, and Jonathan Crush offer contrasting perspectives on the effect of informal street vending on public spaces.

April 2 - Next City

The American Society of Landscape Architects and its local chapters are organizing a series of events during April to celebrate National Landscape Architecture Month. The theme of this year's events is "Healthy Living Through Design."

April 2 - ASLA.org

As a property buying binge by the global super-rich makes parts of London "more international, more expensive and more empty," the government is looking to ease the conversion of offices to residences. Can this ease the city's housing shortage?

April 2 - The Wall Street Journal

When it comes to New York's two rail stations, there's the iconic Grand Central Terminal that just celebrated its centennial, and then there's Penn Station - which all mourn because the original was razed in 1963 - except the NY Post's Bob McManus.

April 2 - New York Post

Despite falling ridership numbers on the region's public transit system (bucking the nationwide trend), the Georgia Department of Transportation is studying options for building a multi-modal transit hub in downtown Atlanta.

April 2 - The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Traversing Los Angeles without a car can be a pain compared to cities like New York or Boston. But avowed "foot soldier" Alissa Walker offers 6 simple ways to live a healthier, happier, and wealthier life in Los Angeles simply by ditching the car.

April 2 - Los Angeles Magazine

An ambitious vision for transforming a six-block segment of the Chicago River into six themed recreation areas looks almost certain to become a reality now that Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood has promised the project a $100 million federal loan.

April 2 - Chi.Streetsblog

According to Michael Pettis, who teaches finance at the University of Beijing and is a senior associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, China "is awash in cash and credit," stoking fears of an out of control housing bubble.

April 2 - The New York Times

During Michael Bloomberg's time in office, New York City has protected more historic sites than under any of his predecessors. The 41 new or expanded historic districts have developers fuming over what they see as planning overreach.

April 2 - The Wall Street Journal

Bus rapid transit projects, separated bike lanes and a collection of streetcar systems are being unexpectedly funded by outgoing Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, who's relishing his final days in office with an unprecedented spending spree.

April 1 - Planetizen April 1st Edition

The tech giant discovered an illegally obtained version of its smart city application running in the beleaguered Ohio city, optimizing traffic signals. IBM's Enforcement Division responded immediately.

April 1 - Planetizen April 1st Edition