The Daily Source of Urban Planning News

What do you think of when you think of the word "route" in relation to transit? What about the word "line"? Jarrett Walker argues that the language used to describe transit can influence how people think about it.

February 7 - Human Transit

The Architect's Newspaper explores the "fertile new approaches to building" springing from the growing use of landscaping in contemporary architecture.

February 7 - The Architect's Newspaper

Service will be cut 44%, half the stations to close, elimination of mid-day and weekend service - that is the scenario laid for Caltrain, the West's oldest commuter rail, unless $30 million can be found - unlikely.

February 7 - San Jose Mercury News

King Farm, a 440-acre development in the D.C. suburbs, was designed to be the perfect transit-oriented development, with a light rail to be built later. Now, residents have decided they don't want the transit to ever be built.

February 6 - NRDC Blog

David Gouverneur, urban designer and Associate Professor of Landscape Architecture at PennDesign, says mending the urban fabric of his city is a bit like acupressure: you put the pressure in certain key places to mend the whole.

February 6 - Next American City

A team of Italian architects have proposed a honeycomb-like design for a viaduct that would include built-in wind turbines.

February 6 - Popular Science

In a video interview, author James Howard Kunstler talks about peak oil, the effect of Mexican drug gangs on America's oil supply, and the diminishing returns of new oil-extracting technologies.

February 6 - MaxKeiser.com

Neither technology nor infrastructure shows any limit for how big or how fast cities can grow and more megacities are on the horizon, according to this piece from Richard Dobbs and Jaana Remes.

February 6 - What Matters

Waste-to-energy power plant, and ski slope? Architecture firm Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG) proposed the unusual idea for a competition to replace a power plant in Copenhagen -- and won.

February 5 - Metropolis Magazine

With GPS technology ubiquitous, the lighthouse perched high on a cliff may soon become a relic.

February 5 - CNN

The Vauban District in southern Germany is a small community built around a green transportation scheme, but it has become much more: a model of cooperative decision-making, sustainability and eco-planning.

February 5 - The Cereplast Blog

The decade-long plan for a proposed bus-only lane on Wilshire Blvd. faces yet another political battle as politicians relent to public complaints.

February 5 - The Los Angeles Times

New Songdo City in South Korea is the model for new cities, according to Greg Lindsay and John D. Kasarda, who argue that its airport is its most important element.

February 5 - What Matters

Apparently in the horror first-person shooter videogame F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin for XBox, you can win a special "City Planner" achievement by -- blowing stuff up.

February 4 - YouTube

Haya El Nasser at USA Today suggests that "smart growth" is showing its age, and will go the way of the dustbin along with "urban renewal." Meanwhile, "intelligent cities" is the new hot jargon word.

February 4 - USA Today

An environmental watchdog group reveals that funds from New York's Brownfield Cleanup Program are not going to clean up the lower-income communities they were intended to help.

February 4 - readMedia

We've got more commercial strip development than we can handle, says Edward T. MacMahon of ULI, and the economy is restructuring the retail landscape away from the strip.

February 4 - Citiwire.net

Developers are planning a push into the Great White North with an (until now) distinctly American product - the outlet center.

February 4 - Retail Traffic Magazine

Bus rapid transit is growing in popularity throughout the world, though implementation is lacking in the U.S.

February 4 - THE DIRT

The famous district in Manhattan may finally get the special status needed to provide more services to its residents and businesses.

February 4 - The Wall Street Journal