The Daily Source of Urban Planning News

The Subway Mayor (Sort Of)

<p>Though New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg has earned kudos by taking public transit to work, reporters for the New York Times note his commute -- which involves a 22 block ride in a chauffeured Chevy Suburban -- isn't your average subway ride.</p>

August 2 - The New York Times

A Black City Planned By Whites?

<p>African-Americans are the majority of residents in Richmond, Virginia, but a new master planning effort has been criticized for attracting little participation from non-whites.</p>

August 2 - Style Weekly

Salt Lake Sky Bridge Becomes Political Hot Button

<p>The controversy over the proposed sky bridge in downtown Salt Lake City has worked its way into the race for mayor.</p>

August 2 - Salt Lake City Weekly

Creating A Sense Of Place With Modern Day Main Streets

<p>In Missouri, towns are embracing New Urbanism and reviving main street districts or even creating new downtowns where they didn't exist.</p>

August 2 - St. Louis Post-Dispatch

The New Public Spaces And Why They Are Important

<p>Parks are no just about connecting with nature. The evolving public spaces of today revitalize abandoned industrial land and engage citizens.</p>

August 1 - The Toronto Star


Predicting Where The Traffic Will Flow

<p>IBM announced the development of a new traffic prediction tool that could help cities maximize their existing infrastructure investments.</p>

August 1 - CNN Money

Why Gentrification Is Good

<p>Opponents to gentrification often have a romanticized view of neighborhoods that prevents them from seeing how development is beneficial to everyone in a community -- rich and poor.</p>

August 1 - American Thinker


What To Consider When Planning Commuter Rail

<p>Cities contemplating commuter rail systems should first look at the characteristics of other successful systems.</p>

August 1 - Intermodality

Downsizing The American Dream

<p>Are Americans ready to shed their preference for oversized homes? With new regulations in the pipeline, and sustainability all the rage, opponents of McMansions certainly hope so.</p>

August 1 - The Guardian

Congestion Pricing For Los Angeles: An Open Letter To Mayor Villaraigosa

<p>Robert W. Poole of the Reason Foundation argues for HOT Lanes on Los Angeles freeways.</p>

August 1 - The Planning Report

Concerns Surface Over Plans For Urban Riverfront Park

<p>Some residents of Columbia, South Carolina's Granby neighborhood, near the banks of the Congaree River, are concerned about how plans to redevelop the land along the river into a new riverfront park might alter the land's natural features.</p>

August 1 - The State

Two Examples Of Green Building: Fancy And Frugal

<p>While pricey eco-chic homes garner lots of attention, living green doesn't have to mean expensive materials and complicated retrofits.</p>

August 1 - The Los Angeles Times

Learning Architecture And Planning In The Land Of Suburbia

<p>Ellen Dunham-Jones, director of the architecture program at Georgia Tech, thinks architects and planners need to understand suburbia better before they can begin the work of retrofitting our sprawling development patterns towards smart growth.</p>

August 1 - The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Making Mexico City More Livable

<p>The city's new mayor is hoping to follow the footsteps of Bogotá's Enrique Peñalosa and transform the Mexican capital of 20 million inhabitants into a people- and environmentally-friendly metropolis.</p>

August 1 - AP via Michigan Live

BLOG POST

Tender is the Strip Mall

Every summer I make a pilgrimage to Scott and Zelda&#39;s graves, in Rockville, Maryland. Sure, I could pay homage by going to Cap d&#39;Antibes, where they whooped it up every summer, but the Euro is so high. And Rockville is so ... scenic.<div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div>F. Scott Fitzgerald and his rather nutty wife are buried under a huge live oak next to St. Mary&#39;s Church, where their daughter moved them in the 70s. She probably wouldn&#39;t have done it if she had known what would happen to Rockville: the Rockville Pike, an endless strip mall that crescendos with Bloomingdale&#39;s and eventually fizzles out with Marlo Furniture. </div><div><br /></div><div>

July 31 - Margaret Foster

Americans: Don't Stop Me From Driving (Or Parking) My Car

<p>Whether is a proposal for congestion pricing in 2007 or the advent of parking meters in the 1930s, Americans have a way of being hostile towards plans that interfere with their 'constitutional right' to free driving and parking.</p>

July 31 - Streetsblog

When People Run Away From Their Home

<p>Municipal officials, real estate professionals, and neighborhood residents are struggling with the new suburban phenomenon of home abandonment.</p>

July 31 - The Arizona Republic

Working Together For Great Neighborhoods

<p>In Kalamazoo, Michigan, citizens of all ages are engaging each other to create and maintain safe and active neighborhoods.</p>

July 31 - Kalamazoo Gazette

The Rise Of The Surburban Slum?

<p>William Fulton observes that while high-income households are flocking to the inner-city and gobbling up pricey condos, poor families are having to double and triple up just to afford a home in the suburbs.</p>

July 31 - The Los Angeles Times

A 'Giant Step Forward' For Downtown Los Angeles

<p>City officials are considering ordinances that will allow builders to construct more housing units downtown.</p>

July 31 - The Los Angeles Times

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