The Daily Source of Urban Planning News

Senator Dodd's Livable Communities Act passed a milestone on August 3 by passing the Banking Committee on a party line vote: 12-10. Known as a "smart growth planning" bill, it would integrate transportation with housing and economic planning.

August 9 - Mobilizing the Region

A 4-year legal battle over whether SF's bike plan was in compliance with the state's environmental law has been settled - the city has the go-ahead to resume planning and implementing new bike facilities designed to increase bike riding.

August 9 - San Francisco Chronicle

The U.S. Dept. of Agriculture says that there has been a dramatic increase in the number of farmers markets in the United States, with a 214% increase since 2000.

August 9 - Grist

Tom Madigan asks: "is it still possible to promote new bicycling and walking options in harmony with vehicular traffic? Or as city space gets more limited, will planners have to take sides?"

August 8 - National Journal Transportation

BrightSource Energy wants to build three solar thermal plants in San Bernardino County, California which would produce 392 megawatts of electricity. A state energy commissioner released a 576-page report that approves of the plan.

August 8 - The San Jose Mercury News

The word "squaw" is considered a racial slur by Native Americans. In 2001, women from the Warm Springs Tribe convinced Oregon lawmakers to take the word out of state place names, but little has happened so far.

August 8 - The Oregonian

This year China will add 17 million people to its urban population. To house them, places like Guangzhou and Shanghai are constructing 'instant cities.' Christoph Gielen traveled through these developments, documenting the expansion.

August 8 - New York Times

Mark Gold, president of Heal the Bay, says that the Los Angeles Regional Water Control Board is the least environmentally friendly board in decades.

August 8 - The Planning Report

One of the problems with investing in large infrastructure, and transportation in particular, is that it's difficult to predict the needs of future cities, says Mathias Crawford. If we're all telecommuting, will we need buses?

August 7 - GOOD Magazine

Joel Kotkin has said there is a war on suburbia. But as Michael Scott writes on New Geography (Kotkin's home base), where does suburbia start and the city end? Where do inner-ring suburbs fit in this model?

August 7 - New Geography

The current norm of commuting, which happens all at once and too often by car, is placing too much stress on our infrastructure, our resources and even our emotional health. Melissa Lafsky reports how the structure of our workdays could be changed.

August 7 - Infrastructurist

Alison Arieff asks, "At what point did the house become more about the future tenant than the current resident?"

August 7 - The New York Times

Michael LoGrande, recently approved as the next Planning Director for the city of L.A., is a city hall insider with a reputation as an expeditor. Former interim Planning Director Mark Winogrond questions the process by which LoGrande was selected.

August 7 - The Planning Report

BLOG POST

Can planners effectively use on-line meeting technology to host public participation workshops? The City of Los Angeles&#39; Department of City Planning recently decided to find out for itself by experimenting with a &quot;webinar&quot; format for two kickoff workshops highlighting the City&#39;s 2010 draft citywide Bicycle Plan. <p> A webinar is a web conference, where participants can access a virtual meeting using a computer and Internet connection. Participants access a website to see the presente&#39;s computer screen and also listen to the presenter through the computer&#39;s speakers or using a telephone. </p>

August 6 - Ken Bernstein

A family elder tells tales of the old ways when the family was "not enticed by the frappucinos at the Starbucks that just opened," and there were park-and-rides as far as the eye could see.

August 6 - The Onion

Backed by funds from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, Michigan has invested heavily in setting up factories to make batteries for electric vehicles like the Chevy Volt.

August 6 - The New York Times

An all-star panel of architects, developers and journalists convened to offer advice to L.A.'s new planning director.

August 6 - California Planning & Development Report

Within 6 to 8 months, Texas-based S2C Global Systems will begin exporting pure Alaskan mountain water all the way to India. The water will then be distributed via tanker to markets in south and west Asia and the Middle East.

August 6 - Circle of Blue

The City of Oakland, California has produced a series of videos to help explain what zoning is and what the city's zoning update will do. The city's zoning code hasn't been comprehensively updated since 1965.

August 6 - City of Oakland

With the exception of Charles Bronson’s architect-turned-vigilante in Death Wish, "to be an architect in a Hollywood film is to inform the audience of certain characteristics: sensitivity, vulnerability and an innate romanticism."

August 6 - Buildng Design