The Daily Source of Urban Planning News

Find yourself wondering what those federal dollars dedicated to high-speed rail are actually funding? The Illinois Dept. of Transportation sent cameras out to capture a high-speed rail upgrade in progress near the Twin Cities.

May 20 - WJBC

Jarrett Walker looks at a recent "Top Cities for Transit" list that ranks Honolulu #1, and says the criteria that the Brookings Institution used are "especially perverse".

May 20 - Human Transit

A new report takes a unique look at quality-of-life issues in the Golden State, measuring social well-being using health, education and income factors. The study concludes that the state is divided into 5 areas with different ecologies.

May 20 - Ventura County Star

As the city of Detroit struggles with population loss and dwindling industrial jobs, farms and community gardens offer the city a positive nudge.

May 20 - The New York Times

Geomapping data is helping police in cities address problem areas, improve unsafe intersections and improve overall efficiency.

May 20 - Governing

At the center of ongoing protests and uproar in the Middle East, iconic and historical public spaces hold political clout.

May 20 - Time Magazine

Developers in Mumbai will be allowed to build street furniture and sell advertising space on it as part of their projects, in accordance with a new law in the city.

May 20 - NDTV

Maggie Koerth-Baker digs into the history of monorails, and finds examples in the United States as early as 1876.

May 19 - Boing Boing

Just as Witold Rybczynski declares New York's High Line un-copyable, St. Louis announces plans for a linear park on top of an old railroad trestle

May 19 - St. Louis Post Dispatch

This interactive map from the <em>BBC</em> tracks growth and urbanization in global cities from 1955 up through 2015.

May 19 - BBC

Detroit should look to a neighbor in the north for advice on rebounding from industrial decline, according to this piece from <em>New Geography</em>, which argues that Winnipeg has already paved the way.

May 19 - New Geography

Seattle is growing more dense, which is underlining the importance of the city's public spaces. But as this piece from <em>Crosscut</em> argues, the city's public spaces are mostly bleak and underused.

May 19 - Crosscut

The dividing lines in the cities of today are not so much about neighborhoods, but rather the relative health of those neighborhoods, according to this piece from <em>The Globe and Mail</em>.

May 19 - The Globe and Mail

Transportation is increasingly seen as a major concern as London prepares to host the 2012 Summer Olympics. As crowds fill the city, many wonder whether it will be able to handle the load and keep everyone moving.

May 19 - The Guardian

The <em>Urban Guide for Alternate Use</em> points to a campaign by a group called Varsity of Maneuvers that reuses street poles for pole dancing.

May 19 - Urban Guide for Alternate Use

Construction of a multi-use event arena in Rio Rancho, New Mexico, was supposed to be a boon for the city. But when events dried up, costs mounted and a big building became a big mistake.

May 19 - The New York Times

While cities throughout California and the rest of the nation struggle to afford even their most basic services, L.A. County's moving ahead with more than $4 billion in transportation projects.

May 19 - Los Angeles Times

The U.S. is falling behind other nations in keeping up its transportation systems and infrastructure, according to a new report from the Urban Land Institute.

May 18 - The Washington Post

Robert Campbell keeps hoping that the Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Greenway (the park built over the Big Dig site) will attract visitors. But even as it gets more beautiful, it still fails in terms of usage.

May 18 - The Boston Globe

Mattel chose to premiere its "Architect Barbie" at the AIA Convention in New Orleans, and reporter Doug MacCash foregoes the plastic icon to talk to another sort of icon—Andres Duany.

May 18 - The Times-Picayune