The Daily Source of Urban Planning News

Photographer Colin Rich created this mesmerizing video of the endless urban fabric of Los Angeles at night.

August 4 - Vimeo

The population of children in Germany continues to fall, and those that exist are increasingly in poverty.

August 4 - Der Spiegel

Andres Sevstuk, lecturer at MIT and head of the City Form Research Group describes how the new Urban Network Analysis Toolbox is, "taking a much more rigorous approach to look at the work of urban design."

August 4 - The Boston Globe

Cities across the U.S. are increasingly looking to technology to improve the public participation process and increase the ways citizens can engage with the government. Chief technical officers are becoming more common.

August 4 - Design Mind

New TRAX light rail lines in Salt Lake City opened a year early and 20% under budget.

August 4 - The Salt Lake Tribune

Metropolitan poverty spreads from cities to the suburbs. This post from <em>Metro Trends</em> explains.

August 4 - Metro Trends

Philadelphia is opening its first "parklet" -- a small public park space built on street parking spaces.

August 4 - The Philadelphia Inquirer

This post from <em>The Infrastructurist</em> looks at recent arguments for and against high speed rail projects in the U.S. through the lens of spending.

August 4 - Infrastructurist

A new analysis of real estate search data shows where people from other countries tend to move when immigrating to America.

August 4 - Fast Company Design

Frank Gruber asks, "why, not how." Many of the explanations for decline are clear; why it was allowed to happen, less so. Gruber highlights "suspects" of what might have led to cities' destruction.

August 3 - The Huffington Post

The post-carbon city will require dramatically different planning. Why not plan them with children in mind, writes Jason McLennan?

August 3 - Yes! Magazine

A post at ASLA's <em>The Dirt</em> predicts that the next "crisis" to be debated in Congress will be that of the need for a comprehensive transportation bill to repair this country's "vulnerable infrastructure."

August 3 - THE DIRT

The BMW Guggenheim Lab is a traveling exhibition that will visit nine cities in the next six years, providing a public space to explore the challenges of today's cities.

August 3 - The Architect's Newspaper

PhillyTreeMap makes counting trees interactive with it’s users being able to add trees to its web-based digital map of Philadelphia, reports Gregory Thomas for the Philadelphia Inquirer.

August 3 - Philadelphia Inquirer

Want to speed up your transit? Follow San Francisco's lead and let your passengers enter any door they please, says Yonah Freemark. A pilot program on the J-Church line is testing out the idea.

August 3 - the transport politic

Jenny Sullivan of Builder Magazine spots a trend for slightly increased densities in suburban towns, creating urban-lite communities that are attracting city dwellers who would never have dreamed of living in the burbs.

August 3 - Builder Magazine

Researchers in China have reportedly created an insulation material that can "retain and release heat according to specific temperature requirements."

August 3 - Buildings

After 10 years in operation, the Neighborhood Council system in L.A. represents a great deal of unfulfilled potential, say City Councilmember Paul Krekorian. With that, and the city's dire financial straits in mind, Krekorian is proposing reforms.

August 3 - The Planning Report

The Yerba Buena District Street Life Plan starts off its 10-year life to improve public space by placing six mobile gardens in parts of the district that have more concrete and asphalt than vegetation, reports John King for San Francisco Chronicle.

August 3 - San Francisco Chronicle

Despite wildlife declines caused by factors such as Britain's urban sprawl, researchers suspect that cities are better habitats for pollinating insects because they have a greater number and diversity of flowers, reports Rebecca Morelle for BBC.

August 2 - BBC