The Daily Source of Urban Planning News

A judge has overruled a voter-approved plan in the California city of Pleasanton to cap the number of new residences allowed in the city in an effort to curb the area's growing congestion.

March 18 - San Francisco Chronicle

Through a new competition, the city of Seattle is looking to revive and reuse the alleys of the urban core.

March 18 - Crosscut

This piece from <em>National Geographic</em> takes a look at the three-year drought that's plaguing California's cities and farms.

March 18 - National Geographic

New research suggests that huge domes of carbon dioxide hover over urban areas, which is prompting some scientists and policymakers to stress the importance of cities as the frontlines of the war on greenhouse gas emissions.

March 18 - Grist

Too much, too fast, is the analysis from The Transport Politic. Based on a voter-approved, Nov, 2003 plan funded by a one-cent sales tax, the transit plus HOV/HOT conversion plan has run into funding problems. This article focuses on LRT expansion.

March 18 - the transport politic

FEATURE

A recent study shows that for every significant freeway that gets built in a major city, population declines by about 18%. Nathaniel Baum-Snow, author of the study, talks with Planetizen.

March 18 - Tim Halbur

After years of debate and negotiation, the redevelopment of the World Trade Center site finally appears to be going forward. But there is considerable doubt as to its economic viability, writes Eliot Brown.

March 17 - New York Observer

In a recent piece in Wired, Clive Thompson suggests that the solution to the problem of texting while driving is not to stop texting, but to stop driving. The popularity of texting is a good reason to support public transit.

March 17 - Wired Magazine

State legislators in Illinois have lifted a 23-year ban on building nuclear plants within the state.

March 17 - Chicago Sun-Times

Spain's high speed rail system is consistently beating out airlines for inter-city travel. But it's not through low prices.

March 17 - The New York Times

WalMart made an offer to purchase a plot from a family in Frankenmuth, Michigan, but withdrew the offer when the City Council rezoned the land for a limited building size. The family sued, and a federal judge awarded them $3.6 million.

March 17 - The Saginaw News

In Seattle, the street names were settled a century ago. Naming alleys and other unnamed civic features is a way to reclaim urban spaces and enhance heritage. Kurt Cobain Way, anyone?

March 17 - Crosscut

Do certain kinds of people - students, elderly, environmentalists - choose to ride transit because of who they are? Or does the proper infrastructure make the difference?

March 17 - Psystenance

The public image of Pittsburgh is of a dirty, industrial city, but the city has been at the forefront of sustainability for some time.

March 17 - Pittsburg Post-Gazette

The Colorado River Delta is in tough shape once it ventures into Mexico. But now, a group of NGOs and local governments are showing how the sensitive area can be kept clean.

March 17 - Miller-McCune Magazine

The American Dream is a concept that's had a rough go for the past few years. A new survey shows that nearly two-thirds of Americans don't think that dream can become reality.

March 17 - The Atlantic

BLOG POST

<p style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"> <a href="http://www.reason.tv/"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; color: #800080; font-size: small">Reason.tv</span></a><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small"> has launched a multipart series of videos </span><a href="http://www.reason.tv/video/show/reason-saves-cleveland-with-dr"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; color: #800080; font-size: small">on how the city of Cleveland can turn itself around</span></a><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small"> using free-market approaches and limited government reforms.

March 16 - Samuel Staley

The historic Angel's Flight funicular reopened yesterday, as Mayor Villaraigosa announces his vision to transform Los Angeles' transit system in 10 years.

March 16 - True/Slant

Is density a goal unto itself? John Parman argues that a 38-story building proposed for San Francisco has little to do with walkable urbanism, and continues "a sorry tradition of case-by-case rezoning."

March 16 - The Architect's Newspaper

That's what Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood wrote in his blog after attending the League of Bicyclist's 10th Anniversary Summit, March 9-11 in D.C. And he means it - as reflected in the DOT's Policy Statement on bike and ped accommodations.

March 16 - League of American Bicyclists