The Daily Source of Urban Planning News

The increasing ubiquity of screens in our daily lives and architecture changes the way we experience the built environment, argues Christopher Hawthorne.

January 27 - Los Angeles Times

Bob Bengford discusses the feasibility of updating land use/design codes using a form-based approach for planners in the Northwest.

January 27 - MRSC Planning Advisor

This post from <em>Treehugger</em> looks at 6 cities that could potentially go car-lite or car-free.

January 27 - Treehugger

Designers in Portland, Oregon are preparing to unveil a vertical garden on a federal building that would climb 250 feet up the side of the building.

January 27 - MSNBC

With a rapidly growing urban core and a slew of skyscrapers, Shanghai today is what New York was to the world in the 1930s, according to this piece.

January 27 - The Wall Street Journal

BLOG POST

<span>It is well-known in planning circles that Smart Growth has come under attack by (mostly libertarian) think tanks and pundits hostile to any form of urban planning that doesn’t leave land use decisions up to the “magic” of the free market. While their reports may get a lot of press, a close reading of most of their rhetoric reveals that it is largely based on a selective use of data, fallacious argumentation and hyperbole.

January 27 - Michael Dudley

A human rights group in Vancouver is hoping to distribute free tents to the city's homeless in an attempt to temporarily shelter the homeless and bring attention to the city's homelessness when it plays host to the Winter Olympics.

January 27 - The Tyee

A new plan being pursued by the City of San Francisco would allow developers with projects stalled by the economic recession hold on to their development rights as long as they make some beneficial use of the vacant land until construction starts.

January 27 - San Francisco Chronicle

BLOG POST

<p style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"> <span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small">In an earlier post, </span><a href="/node/42367"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; color: #800080; font-size: small">I discussed the difference between mobility, accessibility, and transportation technology</span></a><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small">. In today’s post, I want to discuss what I think is the next step in this taxonomy in terms of the implications for the built environment and urban planning. More specifically, we need to move beyond the idea that certain transportation technologies—whether it is a car, a bus, a train, or our feet—are substitutes.

January 27 - Samuel Staley

A new 8-acre park has opened on the waterfront of downtown Tampa, Florida, the first of three downtown projects opening downtown this year.

January 27 - St. Petersburg Times

Every day since the earthquake that shattered Haiti earlier this month, a group of 50 planners, architects and developers have met to brainstorm and strategize the rebuilding of their country.

January 27 - Los Angeles Times

In the midst of a dangerous and crime-prone area, one small section of L.A.'s South central neighborhood has retained a lower-than-average homicide rate and higher-than-average property values.

January 27 - Los Angeles Times

Dubbed "micro-lofts", these tiny units are going up in an historic building in Vancouver, B.C.

January 26 - The Vancouver Sun

In a region where public participation is often excluded from the planning process, urban planners are hosting a charrette in Abu Dhabi.

January 26 - Al Bawaba

A new study for Pittsburgh says that the city could save $1 million a year in energy costs and $700,000 in maintenance if they make the switch to LEDs.

January 26 - Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

In the U.K., new carbon emission standards may mean that great numbers of buildings from the 1960s and 70s will need to be demolished.

January 26 - The Times Online

The streets of Mumbai are packed with pedestrians. With few sidewalks and little room for the growing masses of walkers, city officials are looking to beat the pedestrian congestion by building overhead "skywalks" to bring people above the street.

January 26 - The Wall Street Journal

A group of investors bought New York City's Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village in 2006 at the height of the market for $5.4 billion. The speculative deal is now underwater and the investors have decided to walk away from their loans.

January 26 - The Wall St. Journal

BART's people-mover connection to the Oakland Airport is jeopardized by an FTA ruling that the agency failed to reach out to minorities, potentially denying the agency of $70 million in stimulus funds. Might the funds go to other transit needs?

January 26 - SF Gate - Oakland Blog

A university in British Columbia is opening a "biological pest control laboratory" to develop strategies for small and urban farms to control pests through microbe- and insect-based systems.

January 26 - The Vancouver Sun