The Daily Source of Urban Planning News

Harvard Square in Cambridge is facing another round of developments, and residents are worries the changes could come at the expense of the character of the famous location.

January 2 - The Boston Globe

Michigan has joined a small but growing list of states that have passed laws prohibiting municipalities from banning single-use plastic bags or charging for bags, as is done in California. Critics assail it as an 'attack on local control.'

January 2 - MLive

It's been 500 years since Thomas More penned his classic Utopia. With the benefit of hindsight, Los Angeles area planner, Jodie Sackett, reviews some of the key ingredients More believed necessary for a utopian society.

January 2 - UrbDeZine

Seattle's incentive zoning program is paying dividends and funding projects. Look for 110 affordable units to be built in the Capitol Hill neighborhood by 2019.

January 1 - The Urbanist

The California Apartment Association released a report on what it will take to solve the state's chronic housing shortage. Cities that are loath to permit new residential developments, both affordable and market rate, will not be pleased.

January 1 - Los Angeles Times

All good transit wonks have an opinion on proof of payment.

January 1 - Wired

There's a trend here.

January 1 - The Atlantic

The National Trust for Historic Preservation's new Atlas for ReUrbanization relies on a metric called "character" to explore the relationship between historic preservation and affordability.

January 1 - CityLab

For a few tantalizing months it seemed like the state of Pennsylvania might have the funding to spare an expansion of the Keystone Opportunity Zones program.

December 31 - Philadelphia

The Washington Post takes stock of the Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP) in its final days, finding a program hampered by bad faith from large banks and bad oversight by the Treasury Department.

December 31 - The Washington Post

The state of Wisconsin, following in the footsteps of Florida, is pretending that the climate change doesn't exist.

December 31 - Urban Milwaukee

A dive into the reach of the Cincinnati Bell Connector's influence on a revitalizing urban neighborhood.

December 31 - Cincinnati Business Courier

The U.S. Department of Transportation proposed a new rule on Dec. 13 for automakers to require vehicle-to-vehicle technology to save lives, but critics charge the radio-based technology will be obsolete when the rule takes effect in about seven years

December 31 - AutoWeek

A day to look forward to every year: Streetsblog's Best Urban Street Transformation award. Congratulations to all nominated.

December 30 - Streetsblog USA

The city of Cleveland knew that the Federal Transit Administration expected buses to run through Public Square. Now that there will be no buses, the FTA says there will be no grant money.

December 30 - WKYC

Many in the urbanism community were shocked to see the scale of the recently completed "Spaghetti Junction" in Louisville, but the tolling system that will fund the project is just as critical to consider.

December 30 - City Observatory

The carrot at the end of a possible re-organization of the state of Georgia's regional transportation agencies would come in the shape of state funding for transit.

December 30 - Atlanta Journal-Constitution

In November, the city of Poway, California rejected a veterans' housing project. The story is informative for the way communities rally to obstruct the addition of low-income housing.

December 30 - Voice of San Diego

The city of 108,000 is preparing for major growth in the next 20 years.

December 30 - The Urbanist

San Francisco's red, transit-only lanes are a demonstration project. The lanes first appeared in 2013 and were supposed to last two years, with state and federal regulators to determine whether they would continue. The state evaluation began Dec. 6.

December 30 - San Francisco Chronicle