The Daily Source of Urban Planning News

Real estate speculators are being fined big bucks in Cleveland for letting properties sit vacant, but the jury's still out on whether this is the key to stabilizing neighborhoods.

January 22 - Shelterforce

A pedestrian safety study from the University of Maryland overstates the perils of walking while using headphones, while ignoring a fundamental reason for auto-pedestrian accidents--dangerous streets lacking adequate infrastructure for pedestrians.

January 22 - Transportation for America: campaign blog

A new report highlights the threat posed to a wide range of species by the extraction of fossil fuels in the United States.

January 22 - CommonDreams

Christopher Hawthorne reviews an exhibition at the Center for Land Use Interpretation in Los Angeles on the subject of nine places in the United States that claim to occupy the center of the country.

January 21 - Los Angeles Times

In announcing a new initiative led by ULI and the Greenprint Foundation, Ed McMahon looks at the disconnect between politicians and the marketplace in the debate around climate change and U.S. energy policy.

January 21 - Urban Land

What is more likely to constitute a successful transit system -- one that runs dirty old vehicles at shorter headways or one that runs beautiful comfortable vehicles less frequently? Tom Vanderbilt wades into the public conversation in <em>Slate</em>

January 21 - Slate

Richard Florida takes a look at new information out from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that identifies binge drinking rates by state.

January 21 - The Atlantic Cities

With much fanfare, Kansas City was selected in 2011 as the launching site for Google's experimental fast fiber-optic network. Now, a dispute about how and where to run fiber optic lines on poles in the city is causing significant delays.

January 21 - The Kansas City Star

The Daily News does its best to, ahem, "cover" this year's version of the annual New York City "No Pants Subway Ride." Beware, potentially NSFW.

January 20 - New York Daily News

At least that's what some are accusing Microsoft of patenting in its "Pedestrian Route Production" app, whose aim is to help pedestrians avoid unsafe neighborhoods "by taking information from maps, weather reports, crime statistics and demographics."

January 20 - NPR

Facing strong headwinds from citizens, legislators, and analysts, Governor Jerry Brown threw his unequivocal support behind the state's proposed high speed rail project in his annual State of the State address.

January 20 - The New York Times

If you never knew, or thought you knew, the reason why there are no skyscrapers in the middle of the Big Apple, Matt Chaban reports on the true cause, debunking a popular myth.

January 20 - The New York Observer

Branden Klayko reports on the pioneering project planned by innovative Philadelphia design-build developers Onion Flats.

January 20 - The Architect's Newspaper

Ron Nyren examines the various types of projects that will be negatively impacted by California's decision to abandon redevelopment.

January 20 - Urban Land

The commonwealth's nonprofit affordable housing developers are outgreening their market-rate peers, bringing green building up to scale statewide.

January 20 - Shelterforce

Melinda Burns uses two California cities through which to investigate the reasons why the foreclosure crisis has impacted communities in dramatically different ways.

January 20 - Miller-McCune

Dave Gardetta highlights the work of Donald Shoup and others whose mission is to eradicate the parking minimum in Los Angeles.

January 20 - Los Angeles Magazine

However one's feelings on zoning, New York City's Resolution has changed over the years to positively reinforce good social initiatives over the outright banishment of negative uses, Julie V. Iovine reports.

January 20 - The Wall Street Journal

Steven Pearlstein reads the tea leaves to predict the future development patterns in Washington, D.C. and finds that all signs point inwards to the city center and its closer-in suburbs.

January 19 - The Washington Post

St. Louis is moving towards protecting its mid-century architectural treasures. Some see the buildings as impediments to economic development.

January 19 - St. Louis Post-Dispatch