The Daily Source of Urban Planning News

Asia's energy consumption increased 70% in the ten years leading to 2008. With China continuing to build and urbanize, the Economist argues that the country's sustainable strategies won't make a significant dent in the problem.

July 12 - The Economist

Michael Jackson fans in Prague want to build a statue commemorating the musician in the same park that once housed the world's biggest bust of Joseph Stalin. Some locals aren't happy about the plan.

July 12 - Der Spiegel

Arid Australia is investing big-time in a water desalination project that will attempt to ease some of the country's water woes.

July 12 - The New York Times

Officials in South Africa say the country's successful hosting of the 2010 World Cup positions it to be a viable host for the Olympics.

July 12 - Guardian

BLOG POST

<p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt" class="MsoNormal"> <span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small">Spanish football fans are celebrating in the streets, while in The Netherlands they are drowning their sorrows, but the real winners of the 2010 World Cup are the people of South Africa. Long after the last vuvuzela is sounded, residents and visitors will enjoy the legacy of new </span><a href="http://www.arrivealive.co.za/pages.aspx?i=2874"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small">Bus Rapid Transit (BRT)</span></a><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small"> systems build in South Africa’s four major cities.</span> </p> <p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt" class="MsoNormal"> &#160; </p>

July 12 - Todd Litman

The "Build a Better Burb" contest from Long Island Index has chosen 23 finalists with a variety of interesting ideas for redesigning the suburbs for the next century - in this case, Long Island.

July 12 - A Daily Dose Of Architecture

A new report says that roads embedded with titanium dioxide can help purify the air by absorbing 25 to 45 percent of nitrogen oxides emitted by cars.

July 12 - AutoBlogGreen

Dan Rodricks has been reading a lot of "good news" about new residential building permits being taken out around Baltimore, and questions whether new development is always a good sign.

July 12 - The Baltimore Sun

This 4-page summary report (PDF) is a summary of a technical paper attempting to show differences in the reduction in road crashes that result from road diets.

July 12 - The Highway Safety Information System (U.S. DOT-FHWA)

Carl Nolte, the San Francisco Chronicle's historian, writes on the 150-year anniversary of the Market St. Railway that began operation as a 2-car steam train on July 4, 1860, and the evolution of rail on/under Market St including BART & Muni Metro.

July 12 - The San Francisco Chronicle

What's not known is how many of the homes are investments, or primary or secondary residences, but it's clear that the foreclosure rate for mortgages exceeding $1million is higher than for lower priced homes, according to the New York Times analysis.

July 11 - The New York Times - Economy

"For all of Eli Broad's consistent prominence on the public stage in recent years, the buildings he has helped develop make up a disparate, even contradictory group," writes Christopher Hawthorne as he describes the patron's philanthropic endeavors.

July 11 - Los Angeles Times

Conrad deFiebre sums up the benefits of living in a walkable neighborhood, from improved health to improved wealth, both via higher property values and less of hard-earned dollars paid out to oil and car companies.

July 11 - Twin Cities Daily Planet

They litter almost every subway entrance - the ubiquitous, value-exhausted plastic MetroCards. Yet, MetroCards are refillable. Now MTA has devised a simple, revenue-producing measure that would reduce the litter by adding a $1 fee to new cards.

July 11 - New York Post

Light rail is expanding to Los Angeles' Westside, and with it is coming a wave of transit-oriented developments.

July 11 - The New York Times

The Obama administration is trying to rein in suburban sprawl. But is it any match for 70 years of unsustainable development?

July 10 - The American Prospect

USA Today does some interesting analysis of the 18.4 cent federal gas tax and comes to some startling conclusions about how historically low it is when considered with vehicle miles driven and per capita income.

July 10 - USA Today

Designer Nick Talbot, who worked on Virgin Galactic projects, is proposing a floating hotel he's calling "Aircruise" which would take a leisurely 37 hour journey between London and New York.

July 10 - The Brisbane Times

Bamboo homes survive earthquakes and typhoons, it grows like a weed, and has twice the compression strength of concrete. Elisabeth Best reports on the wonder material and the image problem bamboo must overcome to be used more widely.

July 10 - Miller-McCune

The nation's first electric highway could be coming to the Pacific Northwest.

July 10 - Seattle Post-Intelligencer