The Daily Source of Urban Planning News

For decades, Indian political leaders turned their attention towards the rural population. Today, a new focus on urbanization is attracting Japanese partners to develop "eco-towns" along a rail line.

May 19 - Forbes.com

Blair Kamin, architecture critic for the Chicago Tribune, says that historic preservationists need to rethink their "preservation at all costs" strategies in light of global warming.

May 19 - Preservation Magazine

Deputy Mayor Naomi Tsur of Jerusalem is proposing that the city must 'emerge from its [many] walls', and connect and enhance its vibrant public spaces.

May 19 - myurbanist

Howard Ahmanson poses the idea that Los Angeles might be the least gentrified city in the U.S., with a history of white flight south and immigrants improving their own neighborhoods and holding on to them.

May 19 - New Geography

A Fresno, CA architect has designed and built a number of tiny buildings made out of recycled materials as homes for the homeless, but has yet to find a site that will take them.

May 19 - The Fresno Bee

A recent proposal by Britain's Conservative Party to create a system of conservation credits to protect biodiversity should be expanded to a global scale, according to this piece from <em>The Guardian</em>.

May 19 - The Guardian

A gubernatorial candidate in California wants to take one of the Channel Islands (a national park) and make it a place to dump pedophiles, with their own separate society.

May 18 - Curbed

Kenneth Small of UC Irvine shows that higher prices do reduce driving, as do recessions when workers lose their jobs, which is one of the main factors in the recent drop in VMT.

May 18 - The New York Times - Business Day

A historic Navy yard in Brooklyn has been crumbling for decades. Now a deal has been struck to redevelop part of the area. But even with preservation efforts, many of the area's historic homes may be too damaged to save.

May 18 - The New York Times

Yonah Freemark argues that encouraging developers to build their own transit (as Christopher Leinberger recently argued) could be highly problematic.

May 18 - Next American City

The new "Sex and the City" movie was set -- but not shot -- in Abu Dhabi. Now officials there are trying to decide whether or not to release the film to local audiences, as the city tries to control its brand and image.

May 18 - Associated Press

Ryan Bradley takes a walk across Los Angeles to reflect on the city's transportation history.

May 18 - GOOD Magazine

The site of an ex-steel factory, the 369-acre South Works site is being rebuilt as an urban nieghborhood.

May 18 - The Architect's Newspaper

A major grocer in Ohio is trying to keep some of its smaller stores open in areas that would otherwise be food deserts. But profits are hard to come by, and stores continue to move out of town.

May 18 - The Cincinnati Enquirer

Advanced laser imaging technology known as lidar has proven to be an effective and fast way to map ancient Mayan villages.

May 18 - The New York Times

These 10 American cities top the nation as being home to the most layoffs. California is a hotbed.

May 18 - ABC

The City of Walnut, California says it is shelling out $300,000 a year to light streets and maintain public parks and plazas. The property tax assessment that is supposed to pay for maintainance hasn't been increased since the 1990s.

May 17 - The San Gabriel Valley Tribune

It seems inconceivable - building new homes next to new, vacant homes, but with depressed prices for land and labor a new market for home-buyers who missed out on foreclosure sales has developed in states hit worst by the housing crisis.

May 17 - The New York Times - Business Day

What can you do with an old crane factory? Turn it into a fish farm, and a hydroponic produce operation.

May 17 - Wall Street Journal

The line may only be 12 miles, but the train speeds at 312 mph. The Secretary of Transportation was in Japan as part of the effort to bring high speed rail to the U.S. though it's not clear whether he is in fact considering the maglev technology.

May 17 - The New York Times - Global Business