The Daily Source of Urban Planning News

The Shweeb is a person-powered monorail that currently only exists as an amusement park attraction in New Zealand. But with a $1 million Google grant, the creator may yet see his dream of a commuter Shweeb system.

September 28 - Popular Science

Despite the quality of temporary public spaces being created in San Francisco, their use of funding sources and lack of permanence could hurt efforts to build permanent public spaces, according to this piece from the <em>San Francisco Chronicle</em>.

September 28 - San Francisco Chronicle

Recent figures from the U.S. Census Bureau show that poverty is at a high point in America. Hit especially hard is the Sun Belt.

September 28 - Next American City

Seattle is panning to tear down an aging viaduct that runs along its waterfront and replace it with a tunnel beneath downtown. When the viaduct falls, the city is looking to increase public space on a new waterfront.

September 28 - The Seattle Post-Intelligencer

Aaron Betsky, director of the Cincinnati Art Museum, says, "Americans can't even do tacky anymore," saying that the gaudy architecture and design of Las Vegas and Atlantic City have been sanitized and replaced by generic City Center-style banality.

September 28 - Architect Magazine

Eric Felton writes that buyers of splashy, starchitect-designed buildings are finding all too often that innovation in form leads to unforeseen structural problems.

September 28 - The Wall St. Journal

One-way streets are a relatively new phemenon and encourage drivers to drive faster, says John Calimente. He argues it's time to convert Vancouver's one-ways back to their two-way pasts.

September 28 - re:place Magazine

The farmers market trend has gotten so popular that West Coast chain Safeway tried setting up some stands of fruits and veggies outside their store with a sign saying "Farmers Market". Locals called them on it.

September 28 - Grist

WebUrbanist looks at 15 sculptures that use the architectural form of stairways to express a deeper meaning.

September 28 - WebUrbanist

Manufacturing jobs have increased 1.6% since the beginning of the year, twice as fast as other job types. Could manufacturing return to U.S. cities?

September 28 - CNN

In his new book, Arrival City, Doug Saunder explores how cities can ease the planet's "final migration" by creating "arrival" neighborhoods that allow newcomers to make connections with each other, their home villages and especially their new cities.

September 27 - The Globe and Mail

It depends on your criteria, says Aaron M. Renn. A golden age of accessibility and consumption? Yes. But is it better to be in an era of plenty, or an era of creation and discovery?

September 27 - The Urbanophile

To draw attention to unused buildings lying fallow in cities like New Orleans, writer Rob Walker has created the "Hypothetical Development Organization" to render possible future uses and designs.

September 27 - GOOD Magazine

In Portland, a group called "Potholes for Poverty" promises, for a charitable donation, to come by your beat-up street and fill in the offending rut. The City of Portland is not pleased.

September 27 - The Portland Tribune

FEATURE

Yesterday's infrastructure can become tomorrow's agriculture, says Ed Harwood, by converting underused industrial warehouses and factories to hydroponic and aeroponic growing.

September 27 - Ed Harwood

Nicolai Oursoussoff says Masdar, the eco-city being developed near Abu Dhabi, is "something more daring and more noxious" than we think.

September 27 - The New York Times

Arlington County's litigation of construction of three High Occupancy Toll lanes based on civil rights violation (because of exposure to air pollution of those living near I-95/395) has prompted the bi-partisan wrath of 2 of VA's top state senators.

September 27 - The Washington Post

In classic hill towns, people showed innovation and dynamic placemaking--lessons learned for urbanism in the new century, says Chuck Wolfe.

September 27 - myurbanist

Habitat fragmentation linked with urban sprawl and development has been shown to negatively impact biological diversity in animals, according to new research.

September 27 - San Diego Union Tribune

Egypt runs on the Nile's water. But with a growing population, Egypt's Ministry of Irrigation expects that the Nile will barely be able to meet the country's water needs by 2017. Its neighbors are increasingly angry about its overuse.

September 27 - The New York Times