The Daily Source of Urban Planning News

Unless an agreement between two BART unions and management can be reached, the Bay Area may experience traffic gridlock on Monday if the heavy rail network shuts down, leaving riders in S.F, the East Bay, and Peninsula with considerably fewer options

July 1 - San Francisco Chronicle

Come September, for tens of millions of dollars, you can be the owner of the latest in healthy living - a "WELL-certified condominium" - which promises to deliver improved air, water, light, sleep, energy and nutrition.

July 1 - The New York Times

Two very different grades are assigned, one from David Hawkins, Director of Climate Programs at NRDC; the other from a college senior working on a fossil fuel divestment campaign. Michael Brune of the Sierra Club differs with Hawkins on natural gas.

July 1 - Living on Earth

The results of a survey conducted last year of the forests of Cambodia, but just published this month, has found a complex landscape of "low-density urban sprawl" connected to Angkor Wat, upending our understanding of pre-industrial urbanism.

July 1 - The Guardian

Dr. Clement Lau, a Los Angeles County Planner, describes what the threatened USC Doctor of Policy, Planning, and Development (DPPD) program meant to him and why he thinks it's worth saving.

June 30 - UrbDeZine.com

The 12-county downstate commuter tax is vilified by many living outside New York City - forced to pay a payroll tax to support transit that they may not use. They sued the MTA and won last August, but MTA had the ruling reversed on appeal on June 26.

June 30 - Second Ave. Sagas

Can we combine our love affair with cars and single-family homes with sustainable growth? Mark Delucchi and Kenneth S. Kurani think so.

June 30 - The Atlantic Cities

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa has certainly fallen short with some of his ambitious agenda items (including his attempt to take over the city's school district). But when it comes to transportation, the mayor has had a dramatic, and lasting, effect.

June 30 - Governing

In a forceful op-ed, professor John D. Echeverria argues the Supreme Court's recent "blockbuster" land use decision will "result in long-lasting harm to America’s communities." Not so fast, says Rick Hills, the decision offers an "exit strategy".

June 30 - The New York Times

A map and website developed by PhD student Ethan Welty and friend Caleb Philip catalogs the cornucopia of edible trees found in the "urban orchards" of two-dozen cities around the world.

June 29 - The Atlantic Cities

A cheap, solar-powered hut designed by Ikea, in partnership with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, promises to revolutionize emergency housing for displaced persons.

June 29 - Fast Company Co.Exist

In a challenge to the wishes of the state DOT, a group of citizens has successfully campaigned for the addition of an alternative to restore the downtown street grid in place of a high-speed boulevard in Oklahoma City.

June 29 - DC Streetsblog

Attention has recently focused on efforts to pave the way for a renovation of NYC's Penn Station. But a study announced Thursday will investigate how to upgrade, or replace, the hulking Port Authority Bus Terminal, the world's busiest bus facility.

June 29 - The New York Times

Japan's Mt. Fuji, Italy's Medici Villas and Gardens, and a historical port town in Fiji are among the 19 new additions to UNESCO's vaunted World Heritage List; bringing to 981 the number of cultural, natural, and mixed sites comprising the list.

June 29 - Los Angeles Times

Seen across the Internet this week: a picture of a crazy (brilliant?) idea for stabilizing one's self on a subway car without touching any germ-filled surfaces. It may not be the wildest thing you'll see on a Tokyo subway, but it's probably close.

June 28 - Rocket News 24

Why can't California make it easier for its millions of visitors, and residents, to travel from airports to urban centers via direct rail routes? The state is investing billions in its rail and air infrastructure, but can't seem to connect the two.

June 28 - Zocalo Public Square

With 150 tons of golf-course bunker sand, the Downtown Detroit Partnership has turned a traffic island at the southern end of the Campus Martius into an urban beach, part of a larger effort to revitalize they city's downtown.

June 28 - Detroit Free Press

With of support of leaders in Beijing, Chinese investors are making their presence known in U.S. commercial and residential real estate markets. The levels of foreign investment are reminiscent of the Japanese buying binge of the 1980s.

June 28 - The New York Times

Over the next decade, $1 billion will be spent to repair the state's deteriorating roads. Like many states unwilling to raise gas taxes, most will come from transfers from the general fund, though $41.4 million per year will be from car sales taxes.

June 28 - South Carolina's $1 billion Road Bill Signed By Gov. Haley

A new research study out of Switzerland quantifies the disproportionate contribution to greenhouse gas emissions made by large homes and relatively long commutes. In one Swiss town, twenty-one percent of households create 50 percent of the emissions.

June 28 - The Atlantic Cities