The Daily Source of Urban Planning News

This TIME video is titled, "What Makes Cities Smart?" But the mayors interviewed - Villariagosa, Daley, Nutter - are mostly obsessed with building public transit and high-speed rail.

January 24 - Time

A new report from BP projects world energy use for the next 20 years: decreased oil growth but more OPEC-dependent; increased coal, natural gas, and renewable usage; and a major growth in carbon emissions.

January 24 - USA Today

Streetfilms looks back at Professor Donald Appleyard's pioneering work observing the social life of streets, which proved that streets with less traffic fostered more social interactions than those with heavy traffic.

January 23 - Streetfilms

Toronto is growing up, up, up, with a very hot downtown condominium market, including a number of very small (500 sq. ft.) apartments for young professionals.

January 23 - The National Post

The need to replace the Bayonne Bridge has inspired a discussion on Staten Island over including transit, and possibly light rail, over the new span. Yonah Freemark looks at the numbers, and isn't so sure.

January 23 - the transport politic

Can you talk to a fellow passenger, quietly, in the New Jersey Transit quiet car? On Jan. 3, NJ Transit designated the first and last cars on many peak hour trains 'quiet' - no cell phones and other restrictions, but arguments have erupted.

January 23 - The New York Times - N.Y. / Region

Joel Kotkin said today that cities no longer need outside help. The day before, Bill Fulton talked about growth without population growth. This story focuses on strategies for cities to use land plans as business plans.

January 23 - PlaceShakers

Dickson Despommier says that the goal of cities today should be to be a "closed loop" ecosystem, where everything that is needed to support the city - energy, food, etc. - is contained within its borders.

January 22 - McKinsey & Company

Demand for multi-generational housing is on the rise in Canada. Municipalities and builders should take note.

January 22 - The Globe and Mail

Urban Fabric, a landscape architecture and urban design firm in Israel, uses recycled tiles, benches and more in their park designs.

January 22 - Ha'aretz

Officials in Jordan are moving closer to creating an ambitious project aimed at producing food, fresh water and energy in the Sahara Desert.

January 22 - Gizmag

Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa recently visited Washington D.C. to discuss his plans for expedited transit projects in L.A., but the new congressional leadership is not as supportive as the old.

January 22 - Los Angeles Times

Planner Robert Voigt created this XtraNorml video to poke fun at the incomprehensibility of planner speak, and how it sabotages community engagement.

January 21 - Civic Blogger

Reconnecting America issues a guide to state, regional, and local programs that provide money for development connected to transit.

January 21 - New Urban Network

The Governor's Highway Safety Association released a report citing an uptick in pedestrian fatalities in the first half of 2010 and speculates on all sorts of reasons for this except poor road design.

January 21 - Greater Greater Washington

Joel Kotkin argues that most U.S. cities that were struggling in the '60s and '70s have forged a comeback and should no longer need the sort of redevelopment and federal attention they've been given.

January 21 - New Geography

Nick Aster takes a ride on the world's first fully operational trackless "Personal Rapid Transit" system.

January 21 - Earth & Industry

In the 1960s and 70s, Chinatowns were threatened by highway development in Toronto, Calgary and Vancouver. None of the proposed highways was built, thanks to concerted efforts by the Chinese communities.

January 21 - Price Tags

Banned for its combination of caffeine and alcohol, the makers of Four Loko were faced with a problem: what to do with their leftover stocks. A Virginia company is recycling the controversial hootch into ethanol for cars.

January 21 - Popular Science

According to this article in Area Development Online, developing a brownfield is a no-brainer: infrastructure is in place, governments have redevelopment funds to support it, and "the PR flip is huge."

January 21 - Area Development Online