The Daily Source of Urban Planning News

Dan Rodricks has been reading a lot of "good news" about new residential building permits being taken out around Baltimore, and questions whether new development is always a good sign.

July 12 - The Baltimore Sun

This 4-page summary report (PDF) is a summary of a technical paper attempting to show differences in the reduction in road crashes that result from road diets.

July 12 - The Highway Safety Information System (U.S. DOT-FHWA)

Carl Nolte, the San Francisco Chronicle's historian, writes on the 150-year anniversary of the Market St. Railway that began operation as a 2-car steam train on July 4, 1860, and the evolution of rail on/under Market St including BART & Muni Metro.

July 12 - The San Francisco Chronicle

What's not known is how many of the homes are investments, or primary or secondary residences, but it's clear that the foreclosure rate for mortgages exceeding $1million is higher than for lower priced homes, according to the New York Times analysis.

July 11 - The New York Times - Economy

"For all of Eli Broad's consistent prominence on the public stage in recent years, the buildings he has helped develop make up a disparate, even contradictory group," writes Christopher Hawthorne as he describes the patron's philanthropic endeavors.

July 11 - Los Angeles Times

Conrad deFiebre sums up the benefits of living in a walkable neighborhood, from improved health to improved wealth, both via higher property values and less of hard-earned dollars paid out to oil and car companies.

July 11 - Twin Cities Daily Planet

They litter almost every subway entrance - the ubiquitous, value-exhausted plastic MetroCards. Yet, MetroCards are refillable. Now MTA has devised a simple, revenue-producing measure that would reduce the litter by adding a $1 fee to new cards.

July 11 - New York Post

Light rail is expanding to Los Angeles' Westside, and with it is coming a wave of transit-oriented developments.

July 11 - The New York Times

The Obama administration is trying to rein in suburban sprawl. But is it any match for 70 years of unsustainable development?

July 10 - The American Prospect

USA Today does some interesting analysis of the 18.4 cent federal gas tax and comes to some startling conclusions about how historically low it is when considered with vehicle miles driven and per capita income.

July 10 - USA Today

Designer Nick Talbot, who worked on Virgin Galactic projects, is proposing a floating hotel he's calling "Aircruise" which would take a leisurely 37 hour journey between London and New York.

July 10 - The Brisbane Times

Bamboo homes survive earthquakes and typhoons, it grows like a weed, and has twice the compression strength of concrete. Elisabeth Best reports on the wonder material and the image problem bamboo must overcome to be used more widely.

July 10 - Miller-McCune

The nation's first electric highway could be coming to the Pacific Northwest.

July 10 - Seattle Post-Intelligencer

A total of 1.6 million people experienced homelessness last year alone. President Obama has decided to attempt to remedy this sobering fact with the new Interagency Council on Homelessness' (USICH) "Opening Doors" plan.

July 9 - The Daily Caller

Melissa Lafsky asks if citizen initiative facilities like '311' and 'fixmystreet' should be expanded into an "operating system" for cities.

July 9 - The Infrastructurist

The Project for Public Spaces has begun to publicize improvements it has made to main streets across the country with a new web feature, reports Kaid Benfield.

July 9 - Sustainable Cities Collective

Fast Company reports on a branding company that is working to get biking out of the "hipster ghetto" and into the mainstream.

July 9 - Fast Company

The relationship between agriculture and cities is becoming increasingly important. Daniel Nairn suggests building "garden blocks" within cities to meet community food needs.

July 9 - Grist

New York City is updating their Uniform Land Use Review Process. Tom Agnotti says there is a lot that is broken and needs fixing.

July 9 - The Gotham Gazette

In a move to cement its importance as an urban waterway, the EPA declared the Los Angeles River a 'traditionally navigable waterway.'

July 9 - The Los Angeles Times