The Daily Source of Urban Planning News

FEATURE

The oldest city in the Americas bans cars from its colonial streets and outlines a plan to make San Juan more livable. David Soto gives us a look at this ambitious plan.

July 26 - David Soto

Two age groups are rapidly growing in the U.S.: baby boomers and minors under 18. The difference is that one group is primarily white, while the other is overwhelmingly not.

July 26 - National Journal

A small town in Nebraska is reviving the Homestead Act, offering plots of land to people in order to cash in on property taxes down the line. Other places are following suit.

July 26 - The New York Times

Homebuilders in recession-struck Bakersfield, California, have turned into landlords, renting their units while they wait for the housing market to rebound.

July 26 - The Wall Street Journal

BLOG POST

<p> <span style="word-spacing: 0px; font: medium 'Times New Roman'; text-transform: none; color: #000000; text-indent: 0px; white-space: normal; letter-spacing: normal; border-collapse: separate; orphans: 2; widows: 2; webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px" class="Apple-style-span"><span style="font-size: 10px; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" class="Apple-style-span">I frequently drive to an uncle’s house near the beach via the Garden State Parkway in New Jersey.  For years, that drive required a very late Friday evening departure and a similarly late Sunday evening return trip to avoid the wicked stop-and-go that always mires t

July 26 - Ian Sacs

A new exhibit in Germany looks at a variety of unrealized and unbuilt plans for Berlin created by 100 different architects and planners.

July 26 - Der Spiegel

The world of business is underestimating the catastrophic consequences of declining oil, says a new report from Lloyd's of London/Chatham House.

July 26 - Guardian UK

Can planners and architects build a better model of suburbia? Long Island Index thinks so, and has designed a contest to retrofit parts of asphalt laden suburban Long Island. Ideas are discussed in this NYT blog on design and architecture.

July 26 - The New York Times - Opinion

BLOG POST

<!--StartFragment--><p style="margin-top: 0.1pt; margin-right: 0in; margin-bottom: 0.1pt; margin-left: 0in"><span style="font-family: Verdana; color: black">Few children’s books skillfully cover the subject of urban planning. Chicago&#39;s </span><span style="font-family: Verdana; color: black"><em><a href="/node/29243">Wacker Manual for the Plan of Chicago</a></em></span><span style="font-family: Verdana; color: black"> (1911), David Macaulay’s lavishly illustrated <em>City:A Story of Roman Planning and Construction</em> (1974), and most recently, Planetizen&#39;s <em><a href="/kidsbook">Where Things Are, From Near to Far</a> </em>(2008) are standouts.</span></p><p style="margin-top: 0.1pt; margin-right: 0in; margin-bottom: 0.1pt; margin-left: 0in">&nbsp;</p>

July 25 - Mike Lydon

Hawaii is an ideal test case for creating an electric car infrastructure because fuel costs are very high and distances are manageable. Charging stations are going up all over the islands with a goal of making it easy to envision driving an EV.

July 25 - Governing Magazine

The National Trust for Historic Preservation has teamed up with The International Living Building Institute have launched a contest to envision future cities using sustainable practices - a move that the NTHP doesn't find at odds with their mission.

July 25 - Metropolis Magazine

Adam Meyer describes his parents' and grandparents' experiences growing up in the San Gabriel valley of east Los Angeles and charts the changes that have taken place since they first moved there in the 1950s.

July 25 - New Geography

A group of activists and planners has released a report showing how tearing down the Claiborne Ave. Expressway in New Orleans and turning it into a boulevard would benefit the neighborhood and the city.

July 25 - The Times-Picayune

"Officials argue that the main problem with Cairo is not that it is too big, but that three-quarters of its inhabitants are concentrated in a 20km radius from the center," reports Heba Saleh

July 25 - Financial Times

"London's councils seem set on continuing the imbalance between the city center and outer suburbs, where the former supplies most of the jobs, and the latter most of the residents." Joe Peach reports on economic potential of suburban independence.

July 24 - The Global Urbanist

Monocle magazine interviews James Corner, the landscape architect responsible for New York's lauded high line and recent winner of Cooper Hewitt Award for best landscape architect.

July 24 - Monocle

Dan Weikel of the L.A. Times suggests that the focus on rail transit at the expense of buses has pushed general transit ridership down in general.

July 24 - Los Angeles Times

As the British Government shelves the project to build and rebuild schools across the nation, Rowan Moore, architecture critic at The Observer and Rick Jones, teacher and journalist consider the effect building design has on learning.

July 24 - The Guardian

A review of the <em>Our Cities Ourselves</em> at the Center for Architecture in New York, which features ten proposals to create better cities by 2030.

July 24 - The Architect's Newspaper

Eden Prairie, Minnesota tops Money Magazine's recent list of Best Places to Live 2010. Blogger Chris O'Leary points out that Eden Prairie is devoid of anything to separate it from any other suburb, and in fact has no downtown at all.

July 23 - On Transport