The Daily Source of Urban Planning News

<p>Oil money has fueled an urban development boom in the Sudanese capital of Khartoum, prompting some to call it the "African Dubai". But with the continuing and deadly conflict in Darfur, many countries are hesitant to invest in Sudan.</p>

April 25 - BBC

<p>The American Institute of Architects has released its list of the Top 10 Green Buildings in the U.S.</p>

April 25 - Environmental News Network

<p>The Government Accountability Office has revealed major fraud and abuse of transit subsidies for federal employees -- many of whom are selling their transit vouchers on eBay, pocketing the money, and then driving to work.</p>

April 25 - The Washington Post

<p>Children are integral to the urban environment, yet we have shrunk the places where they can play, grow and thrive. Creating natural environments where children are free to imagine and play without instruction and structure is critical to our future.</p>

April 25 - The Financial Times, London

<p>As suburbanites who moved to the City of Atlanta to avoid crushing traffic congestion are ironically realizing, over-stressed in-town roads are buckling under the pressure of exponentially increasing usage. But help may not be on the way.</p>

April 25 - The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

<p>Like many of their American counterparts, Canadian municipalities aren't waiting for their federal government to act on environmental issues, and are taking some bold initiatives of their own to reduce resource consumption and pollution.</p>

April 25 - The Vancouver Sun

BLOG POST

<p>The new <a href="http://www.pritzkerprize.com/164/pritzker2005/sanfranciscofederalbuilding.htm">San Francisco Federal Building</a>, designed by <a href="http://www.morphosis.net/">Morphosis</a> starchitect <a href="http://www.greatbuildings.com/architects/Thom_Mayne_-_Morphosis.html">Thom Mayne</a>, opened earlier this year. It&#39;s visible from the windows of our kitchen at work, so I see it at least five times a day, every time I make myself a decaf double americano. And I <em>knew</em> it looked familiar. Today I finally figured it out. </p><p>The building:</p><p><img src="/files/u10403/14mayn_CA1_650.jpg" alt="" width="500" height="375" /> </p><p>And what must have been the inspiration: </p><p><img src="/files/u10403/crawler_copy1.jpg" alt="" width="475" height="219" /> </p><p>(Oh, come on. It&#39;s the Sandcrawler from <em>Star Wars</em>. The nerds got it.) </p>

April 24 - Anonymous

<p>Munitions, toxic chemicals, and even radioactive wasts at current and former military sites in California pose a serious environmental risk. The extent and scale is unknown as sites predate environmental standards.</p>

April 24 - The Sacramento Bee

BLOG POST

<p>I&#39;ve been spending a lot of time over the past couple of years examining the planning literature on sustainable development. Sustainable development, as a concept, remains vague. For those interested, take a look at my recent article in the journal <a href="http://www.emeraldinsight.com/Insight/viewContentItem.do?contentType=Article&amp;contentId=1562561">Property Management</a>.</p>

April 24 - Samuel Staley

<p>Reason publishes three short "Frequently Asked Questions" documents on road-building financing tools like public-private partnerships, leasing toll roads, and high-occupancy toll (HOT) lanes.</p>

April 24 - Reason

<p>A group of suburban mayors in the Cleveland area have proposed combining many of their cities' services to create a regional government structure they say will improve the area's economy and community planning.</p>

April 24 - The Plain Dealer

<p>Cities across California are taking extra steps to encourage people to use their bikes, offering such services as full-service bike stations equipped with showers, and even valet bike parking.</p>

April 24 - The Los Angeles Times

<p>Legislators in Texas are proposing the creation of a commuter rail line running throughout the fast-growing border region near the Rio Grande River. Though the proposal was voted out of the state senate in early April, proponents are pushing forward.</p>

April 24 - AP via Express News

BLOG POST

<p>This week, a few stories circulated around our office that generated some discussion. One was a piece in <em>The New Yorker</em> by Nick Paumgarten on commuting in America entitled <a href="http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2007/04/16/070416fa_fact_paumgarten" target="_blank">&quot;There and Back Again&quot;</a>. The tease at the beginning sums up the entire piece: <em>&quot;People may endure miserable commutes out of an inability to weigh their general well-being against quantifiable material gains.&quot;</em><br /><br />In this story, the writer accompanies commuters in Manhattan and Atlanta while attempting to understand the life of an &quot;extreme commuter.&quot;

April 24 - Anonymous

<p>Many have criticized city subsidies to lure corporate employers as a wasteful use of taxpayer money, but new evidence has also correlated the subsidies to urban sprawl. Neal Peirce discusses the evidence.</p>

April 24 - The Washington Post Writer's Group

Australian farmers may soon lose access to irrigation if drought conditions don't improve -- which may prove to be the first climate-change related disaster to hit a developed nation.

April 24 - The Independent (UK)

<p>A peninsular area of land in Greenland has become an island off its coast due to rising sea levels, which scientists attribute to global warming.</p>

April 24 - The Independent

BLOG POST

It&#39;s increasingly clear that the future of the car in Asia, and possibly Africa and the Middle East as well, is going to be shaped as much by what happens in the Shanghai region as Western cities were by Detroit in the 20th century.<br /><br /><blockquote>Last week General Motors (GM) unveiled a hydrogen-fuel-cell-powered version of its Chevrolet Volt concept, a family of electric cars that get a portion of their energy from being plugged into the electrical grid. The first version, announced in January, married plug-in electric drive to a gasoline or ethanol generator that can recharge the battery.<br />

April 24 - Anthony Townsend

<p>With mounting evidence that the lifestyle promoted by car-oriented suburbia can lead to increased risk of obesity, the idea of people consciously moving to a healthy-oriented, walkable neighborhood isn't so far-fetched.</p>

April 24 - The San Francisco Chronicle

<p>Professor Robert Fishman, author of "The Fifth Migration", argues that Americans' rediscovery of inner cities will give even troubled cities like Detroit a major boost.</p>

April 24 - The Detroit Free Press