The Daily Source of Urban Planning News
'The Loop' is Back
<p>Chicago's Loop is becoming a hot neighborhood.</p>
BLOG POST
My Favorite American Neighborhood
<div class="mp_drop"> Last year Project on Public Spaces and I published the <strong><em><a href="http://www.pps.org/info/products/Books_Videos/great_neighborhood_book">Great Neighborhood Book,</a></em></strong> which offers hundreds of ideas from around the world about making community improvements on issues ranging from crime prevention to environmental restoration. Since then almost everyone I meet asks: What's your favorite neighborhood? </div> <p> I should have an answer ready. But each time the question arises, my mind starts wandering through the great places I've explored through the years. Is it the Plateau neighborhood in Montreal, where I became infatuated with cities years ago as a college student? Maybe
Plans for High Line 'Banal', Says NY Times
<p>Plans were recently revealed for the much-ballyhooed High Line Park in New York, converting an abandoned elevated railway into a recreation area. But the NY Times says, 'I’d been hoping for a utopia. Instead, I got sumac.'</p>
BLOG POST
Please Tax My Carbon
<p style="margin: 0pt" class="MsoNormal"> <span style="font-size: small; font-family: Times New Roman">North American (United States and Canada) policy generally favors low energy prices, with low taxes, production subsidies and other types of energy industry support. As a result, North Americans are energy rich: an average worker can purchase more fuel per hour of labor than almost any other time or place. In response North Americans have developed energy intensive lifestyles and industrial practices, have failed to implement many energy conservation practices common in other parts of the world, and consume more energy per capita than most other times and places.</span> </p>
Chickens Aren't Just For Countrysides Anymore
<p>Residents of Austin, TX are risking violation of city ordinances forbidding loud animals to raise chickens in their central city neighborhood backyards. It's partly a way to cut out-of-pocket expenses.</p>
Local Governments 'Heroes' of the Climate Crisis
<p>If buildings are responsible for almost half of the energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions in the United States, then our energy and building codes are incredibly important tools attaining energy and climate sanity.</p>
Where Do Child Care Centers Belong?
<p>A Houston bedroom community decides against allowing childcare centers to mix with other businesses in strip centers.</p>
Water Needs Limit Growth
<p>Formerly small towns near Boston have experienced high growth rates in recent years. But despite their potential to keep growing, water supplies and aging infrastructure will likely be a limiting factor.</p>
Real Estate Broker Takes Heat in Changing Harlem
<p>Harlem is undergoing a rapid change in terms of demographics and income levels. One real estate broker is at the front of driving this change, and many in the neighborhood are not happy about it. But is this change avoidable?</p>
Influence of Landscape Architects Rises With Urbanization
<p>Landscape architects aren't typically well known, but their work is a major part of many peoples' lives. As urbanization increases, their influence on city dwellers will become more noticeable, according to this article.</p>
Save Water, Face Fine
<p>When California declared a statewide drought, a couple decided to let their front lawn die.</p>
Something Good To Say About California's Prop 13 In A Housing Slump
<p>Long considered the source of California's fiscal and land use woes, Proposition 13, passed by voters in 1978, limits increases in property tax. However, it may prove to be an 'economic stabilizer' during the current housing slump.</p>
Infrastructure: Has America 'Had its Day'?
<p>For the New Statesman's Andrew Stephen, last month's power failure in Washington D.C. exemplified the deterioration of America's infrastructure, which he likens to conditions he found in the dying days of the Soviet Union.</p>
High-Speed Rail Ready to Go- Just Add Money
<p>After significant debate, the Pacheco pass route has been approved for the high-speed train between Los Angeles and the Bay Area. Next step: pass a $10 billion proposition on the November ballot.</p>
Lost In Leisureville
<p>The number of retirement communities is growing rapidly. Author Andrew D. Blechman warns about the social cost of age-segregation.</p>
A Community Built Around Food
<p>Vancouver's South East False Creek community is making the production of food one of the major aspects of its preparation for the 2010 Winter Olympics. Its emphasis on local food production is a model other cities may look to follow.</p>
Paris Considers Ditching Building Height Limits
<p>Paris Mayor Bertrand Delanoë has proposed abandoning the city's long-held building height restriction of 37 meters, citing the city's need to grow.</p>
The Metropolitanization of America
<p>In this column from <em>Governing</em>, Peter Harkness looks at the increasing influence and power of metropolitan areas.</p>
Congestion Pricing May Face Cut in London
<p>London's new mayor is considering a plan to tone down the city's congestion charge system, reducing fees during certain hours.</p>
Caltrans
City of Fort Worth
New Jersey Institute of Technology
Mpact (founded as Rail~Volution)
City of Camden Redevelopment Agency
City of Portland
City of Laramie
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