The Daily Source of Urban Planning News

London's 10-week old bike sharing program appears to be on its way to turning a profit, a rarity in the public transit world.

October 16 - Guardian

A ruling this week by the California Coastal Commission will allow a dozen new picnic areas and up to five new trailheads, in addition to camping areas for 280 people and new access to the Coastal Slope Trail. The camping will be the first in Malibu.

October 15 - The Planning Report

With suburban markets saturated, discount food chains are moving into urban food deserts. While this may be convenient for residents, some are concerned that such stores will do little for local economies.

October 15 - Huffington Post

The city Yokohama could be Japan's next exportable good. officials there want it to be a low-emissions "smart" city -- a model they hope to be able to convince other cities to replicate.

October 15 - San Francisco Chronicle

Trails and walking paths are commonly built in suburban areas. But their mere presence doesn't automatically mean they'll be used, according to a new study.

October 15 - Miller-McCune

A town built in the Namibian desert has been abandoned for decades. The sand has taken over.

October 15 - Environmental Graffiti

The New York Times editors are wondering if high speed rail is a practical consideration for the U.S considering recent political developments where it has become popular to reject federal rail funds, so they asked six experts to present their views.

October 15 - The New York Times - Opinion

Blair Kamin looks at "Go to 2040", a new regional plan for the Chicago area that he says has few goals to get excited about and "reflects an era of scarce resources."

October 15 - The Chicago Tribune

English architect Ben Hamilton-Baillie sees possibility in a section of Harvard Square that has all the qualities of a "woonerf"; mainly, that cars, bikes and pedestrians all share the street equally.

October 15 - Lincoln Institute of Land Policy blog

Canadian architect Stephen Boulton implores his fellow architects to stop hiding behind the excuse that their field is client-driven and lead the way to more urban and sustainable development.

October 15 - Daily Commercial News and Construction Record

In this podcast, <em>Next American City</em> talks with Robert Puentes of the Brookings Institution about the future of transportation in America.

October 15 - Next American City

Jeff Speck, co-author of "Suburban Nation" (along with Andres Duany and Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk), offers the "10 worst things about sprawl" in a slideshow on Huffington Post.

October 14 - Huffington Post

The factors that make homes attractive to buyers have changed considerably since the market crash, says Builder Magazine, which features three homes that exemplify the new realities of the market.

October 14 - Builder Magazine

In an interview with the New York Times, President Obama admits that, quote, "there’s no such thing as shovel-ready projects."

October 14 - Transportation Nation

A controversial $2.5 B wind farm planned off the shores of Cape Cod is touted by supporters as a way to jumpstart the state's green economy. Beth Daley argues the project was rushed to the drawing board despite not making economic sense.

October 14 - The Boston Globe

FEATURE

The objectives of urban redevelopment and meeting the needs of underserved communities are not mutually exclusive goals, says Carlton Eley.

October 14 - Carlton Eley

Rio de Janeiro is building a 3.4 km urban gondola in the Complexo do Alemao favelas. The system is on track to be operational by the end of the year.

October 14 - The Gondola Project

BLOG POST

<p> <span style="line-height: 115%; font-size: 12pt"><span style="font-family: Calibri">I’ve worked on designing, planning and preparing the way for Transit-Oriented Development (TOD) projects around the world. For some reason this particular proposed TOD caught my attention. Maybe because I thought I was an expert and in this case I was caught off guard. Or maybe because TOD advocates have made so much progress collectively and yet there is still so far to go. Probably a bit of both. </span></span> </p>

October 14 - G.B. Arrington

BLOG POST

With the passing in February 2010 of Canada&#39;s last surviving Great War veteran, we no longer have a living link to that conflict. Its infamous miseries, desolate battlefields, poison-gas attacks and industrial-scale slaughter are known to us now only through history. <p> While the veterans themselves are silent, Manitoba historian Jim Blanchard reminds us in his new book <a href="http://www.amazon.ca/Winnipegs-Great-War-City-Comes/dp/088755721X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1287069475&amp;sr=1-1"><em>Winnipeg&#39;s Great War</em></a> that the city of Winnipeg has its own story to tell about the First World War.

October 14 - Michael Dudley

A zoning proposal in DuPage County would ban construction of 'meeting places,' including religious institutions, in unincorporated residential areas. The County says it's a question of infrastructure. Muslim leaders wonder if it's Islamophobia.

October 14 - WBEZ 91.5