The Daily Source of Urban Planning News

Facing resistance when siting green energy projects like wind turbines, energy companies are considering brownfields like the Leviathan Mine in California's Alpine County.

March 5 - Next100 (PG&E blog)

WebUrbanist collects pictures of city miniatures built by planning departments, for tourist attractions, or by obsessives who go into painstaking detail to recreate Chicago, Moscow, or Tokyo.

March 5 - WebUrbanist

Cincinnati's Tract 16 is the neighborhood deemed hardest to count in Ohio by census takers. As the Enquirer puts it, "high numbers of abandoned buildings, low literacy rates and urban poverty make it a people-counting quagmire."

March 5 - Cincinnati Enquirer

The Swedish, apparently, long for community. Kjellgren Kaminsky Architecture has proposed a redesign for an abandoned sanitarium, turning it into a green, multi-family community.

March 5 - Fast Company

The City of Manor, Texas uses its website to poll its 6500 residents on local issues, and rewards participation with more influence on what gets decided.

March 4 - Next American City

Foot traffic is up 3.5%, and even sales are up a little at Minnesota's megamall. Retail Traffic Magazine gleans some lessons from the Mall's success.

March 4 - Retail Traffic Magazine

At a recent transportation conference, Dr. Leo Kroon of the Netherlands Railway says their strategy is not to force people to use the train but to 'seduce' them with the latest innovations.

March 4 - IBM's Smarter Cities blog

A judge has banned Brookyln architect Robert M. Scarano Jr from submitting building plans to the city after many of his buildings allegedly were built taller or larger than the plans portrayed.

March 4 - The New York Times

Civic advocates in Buffalo, bolstered by upcoming NYSDOT study and a Mayor intent on change, consider ways to remove a blighted highway that cuts through the heart of the city and an Olmsted-designed park.

March 4 - Artvoice (Buffalo)

Mumbai has instituted two citywide bike sharing programs. <em>The City Fix</em> takes an inside look.

March 4 - The City Fix

The federal government is rewriting the way it defines poverty. As a result, city poverty levels are expected to see major shifts.

March 4 - NPR

This piece from <em>Shareable</em> looks at the urban work of Enrique Penalosa and how it emphasizes the importance of happiness in cities.

March 4 - Shareable

Warren Karlenzig delves into the unique challenges of reducing carbon in cities, where efforts may be misplaced. Should your city focus on green building, traffic emissions or water treatment?

March 4 - Common Current

While the basis of last week's ruling is a 7-acre property, the decision temporarily opens the door for all agriculturally zoned properties in the county to be subdivided into 1-acre parcels.

March 4 - Richmond Times-Dispatch

FEATURE

March 4 - Alison Bates

Bill Fulton takes a rational approach to determining whether California's strict environmental regulations are a burdensome expense to business or if they drive them to innovate and succeed.

March 3 - Governing Magazine

An art group called Fallen Fruit promotes the idea of public fruit trees for general consumption by all. But on a trip to Madrid to plant trees, the government refused their intervention, saying that trees were architecture for the city, not food.

March 3 - GOOD Magazine

The temple of Luxor is a must-see on the Egyptian tourism route, and city officials are clearing homes of locals out of the way to uncover an ancient parade route. Locals say the government is creating an excuse to clear low-income residents.

March 3 - Inter Press Service News Agency (IPS)

In Orange, California, city codes require that front yards be 40% landscaping. After considerately adding drought-resistant plants and bark to save water, the city sued an Orange couple.

March 3 - www.latimes.com

St. Louis Post-Dispatch editorial board formally endorses the removal of elevated and depressed lanes of current I-70 ROW to reconnect city and arch grounds.

March 3 - St. Louis Post Dispatch