The Daily Source of Urban Planning News

Sound recordist and architect Nick Sowers offers an audio experience of the annual festival Burning Man.

January 15 - Places

Streetcars -- a relatively old transportation technology -- have more traction than high tech solutions like monorails in the modern age of mobility. Want proof? Just look at Disneyland, says Tom Vanderbilt.

January 15 - Slate

The Polis Blog presents a huge list of "urban favorites" -- songs, movies, initiatives and places that explain or highlight the best of the world's urban areas.

January 15 - The Polis Blog

For ninety days, Ben Brown lived out of a 308-square-foot cottage designed by Marianne Cusato. He discovered that you really needed to be connected to your community when living in tight quarters.

January 14 - PlaceShakers

Aleppo, one of the oldest continually inhabited cities in the world, is undergoing a conservation project that includes the restoration of hundreds of houses, a new park, and rebuilding city streets and services.

January 14 - The New York Times

For many immigrants in Los Angeles, bicycling is the only viable way to get around. A group of activists is trying to make that transportation reality safer and more reliable.

January 14 - Good

Photographer Andreas Gefeller has taken a series of photographs of clumps of overhead wires in Japan. The photos highlighting the chaos of the clusters by isolating them in space.

January 14 - andreasgefeller.com

Surveys show that those born between 1980 and the early 2000s want to live in an urban setting -- and not in a humongous house.

January 14 - The Wall Street Journal

Prince Charles is planning to build a 15,000-person shanty town in India, modeled after Dharavi, the Mumbai settlement featured in the movie "Slumdog Millionaire".

January 14 - Daily Mail

Devastating floods have inundated Brisbane, Australia. Some say the city's sprawling development pattern fueled the destruction.

January 14 - Grist

Despite laws meant to protect open space and limit sprawl development, developers in Washington have found a legal way to get major housing projects approved in Washington.

January 14 - Crosscut

Motorists driving into San Francisco during the morning rush hour are getting onto the Bay Bridge four minutes faster since July, largely due to congestion pricing.

January 14 - AltTransport

Urbanization is taking up a rapid pace in China. Though much of the planning going on is of the cookie-cutter variety, some say the Chinese need to pay more attention to growing their cities vertically.

January 14 - What Matters

Washington Governor Chris Gregoire is part of a growing national trend of empowering local government with areas that have been run by states, such as education. Reporter David Brewster says this is a movement the right and left can agree on.

January 13 - Crosscut

A new musical has been written about Robert Moses and his impact on New York City. Robert A. Caro, Moses' Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer, attends a rehearsal.

January 13 - The New York Times

The Commercial District Advisor and LISC have selected five businesses as "The Best Chains on Main", recognizing their commitment to economic revitalization and dedication to improving their communities.

January 13 - The Commercial District Advisor

Funding shortage, collapse of I35-W Bridge, prompt community to prioritize maintenance over construction.

January 13 - Streetsblog Capitol Hill

FEATURE

January 13 - Tim Halbur

Jarrett Murphy reviews The Battle for Gotham: New York in the Shadow of Robert Moses and Jane Jacobs" by Roberta Brandes Gratz, and concludes that it is a nuanced interpretation of the classic showdown.

January 13 - City Limits

Jeff Prant of Carbusters pays a visit to New York's Times Square, and marvels at its transformation into a true public square.

January 13 - Carbusters Online