The Daily Source of Urban Planning News

FEATURE

Jennifer Evans-Cowley, Phd, AICP, spends a couple of hours exploring the phenomenon that is chatroulette.com. Chatroulette sets you up to videochat with a complete stranger. Are there applications for the future of public participation in planning?

April 5 - Jennifer Evans-Cowley

Justin B. Hollander at Tufts University looks at the increasing shrinkage of cities like Flint, Michigan and Youngstown, Ohio and the myriad strategies these cities are taking to shrink effectively.

April 5 - Cityscape

A new survey of buyer preferences says that most would be more practical and make sacrifices like giving up the upstairs laundry room.

April 4 - The Los Angeles Times

So says Ken Greenberg, a noted urban designer who resigned from the project after the city began moving forward with a conventional stadium plan rather than an urban facility with a mix of uses.

April 4 - The Toronto Star

Here's one you don't find often - a neighborhood may sue the city of Sacramento for approving an infill project they categorize as 'too suburban and car-oriented', while the city council woman extolls the infill qualities, citing SB 375 and AB 32.

April 4 - The Sacramento Bee - City News

Aaron Renn, The Urbanophile, argues that the stats actually show that cities are losing people in their urban cores, not gaining them.

April 4 - New Geography

Westchester County, NY has a mandate to spread its affordable housing into wealthier neighborhoods instead of just clumping it in poorer ones. But making it happen is a challenge.

April 4 - The New York Times

As cities like Long Beach and Santa Monica get more focused on urban design, their general plans become more and more proscriptive.

April 3 - The Architect's Newspaper

CNN turns its eye to the world of urban and transportation planning, highlighting five cities that are moving towards a more sustainable, urban-centric lifestyle.

April 3 - CNN

A new poll from Transportation for America shows that Americans respond to the call to reduce oil dependency, particularly when told how much of the U.S.'s oil intake goes to transportation.

April 3 - Grist

A growing number of cities and towns in the Atlanta area are not only using social media, but using it innovatively, reports Shane Blatt.

April 3 - Atlanta Journal-Constitution

2.5 million workers are set to scour the country in the most complex demographic collection effort to date, reports the Times of India.

April 3 - The Times Of India

BLOG POST

<p><img src="/files/u10085/ipad.jpg" alt="iPad" title="undefined" width="300" height="186" align="right" onmouseover="undefined" onmouseout="undefined" />Earlier this week I read a <a href="http://mitatlawrence.net/projects/classes/dusp-lawrence-practicum-2004/">report about creating a geographic data system</a> for a community group in Lawrence, Massachusetts. The document contained detailed technical documentation for how to use iPAQ handheld computers to collect geocoded data. Since the data was collected and managed in geographic information system (GIS) software, it required pages of technical instructions. This case seemed a prime example of how GIS tools missed the mark for planners who need to work with geographic data, but in a different way than technical analysts. The purpose of the project was to empower community youth to collect basic data, a task ill suited to software designed for data management by experts using hundreds of attributes and a fine degree of precision.<br /><br />One day later, I found myself reading Newsweek&#39;s <a href="http://www.newsweek.com/id/235565">cover story</a> about the iPad, which reported that Apple expects to sell hundreds of thousands of the sturdy, easy-to-use devices in the coming months. Could the iPad be used for planning? I have <a href="/node/40512">previously written</a> about the potential for the iPhone to augment city life. Since then the types of apps I described have only grown in popularity: navigation apps that use transit data, apps to report potholes or other issues to city officials, augmented reality apps providing information about your surroundings, and geographic networking and gaming like <a href="http://foursquare.com/">FourSquare</a>.<br />

April 2 - Robert Goodspeed

Revelations that a school cafeteria in Philadelphia is being used as a nightclub on the weekends has outraged locals and parents.

April 2 - The New York Times

Chicago's Union Station is announcing a potential upgrade in order to prepare for future high speed rail construction, says The Christian Science Monitor.

April 2 - The Christian Science Monitor

Due to complexity of the issues related to our food system, altering the food system requires the type of interdisciplinary, comprehensive thinking at which urban planners excel.

April 2 - Urban Farm Hub

The booming real estate market in Beirut is causing the rapid disappearance of the city's history, says Guardian critic Deen Sharp.

April 2 - The Guardian U.K.

One of the most significant pieces of legislation for transportation was last month's job bill that contained essential transportation provisions, including extension of the transportation act, $19.5 Billion to HTF, $4.6 billion to Buy America Bonds.

April 2 - AASHTO Journal

A new book details how Walt Disney secretly secured the land for Walt Disney World in Florida, and created a special district of his own to give the company unprecedented control over the area.

April 2 - SamLand's Disney Adventures

Roberta Brandes Gratz has released her own account of the showdown between Jane Jacobs and Robert Moses, with her own history of growing up in New York interwoven. George Beane has this review.

April 2 - Metropolis Magazine