The Daily Source of Urban Planning News

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<p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt" class="MsoNormal"> <span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small">Most North American cities offer only basic public transit service, with limited coverage and frequency, modest speeds, unattractive waiting areas, poor land use integration, and few amenities. Such service is used primarily by people who lack alternatives. In such communities, riders tend to abandon public transit as soon as feasible.</span> </p>

February 22 - Todd Litman

This post from <em>The Overhead Wire</em> looks at the impact of parking lot sprawl in American downtowns -- and finds a striking resemblance between those downtowns and bomb-ravaged cities from World War Two.

February 22 - The Overhead Wire

The economic recession is pushing many municipalities towards declaring bankruptcy.

February 22 - The Wall Street Journal

Metropolitan officials in the Sun Corridor of Arizona are increasingly working together to form a self-organized super-region, according to this analysis.

February 22 - The New Republic

FEATURE

February 22 - Richard A. Marcantonio

Aquaponics offer urbanites a new way to farm sustainably in space- and resource-poor areas.

February 22 - The New York Times

In Anchorage, Alaska, planners are rolling out a substantial new version of their zoning code, which includes some design requirements like no blank walls. Business owners are up in arms over the proposed changes.

February 21 - Anchorage Daily News

The Victoria Transport Policy Institute has released this report to guide municipalities to transition from 'free' parking (though author Todd Litman is quick to point out that it is never free) to charging for parking directly.

February 21 - Victoria Transport Policy Institute

The Jordan Downs public housing complex in Watts, California is a perfect example of the failed projects of built mid-century. A new proposal would tear down the towers in favor of a mix of building styles connecting to the surrounding area.

February 21 - The Architect's Newspaper

Metropolitan region's make up a major part of the U.S. in terms of population and economic activity. Accordingly, the Brookings Institution was surprised to see how little of the government's first year stimulus package went to those areas.

February 21 - The New Republic

Google and the city of Mountain View, California have a unique relationship. The city is home to the search giant's headquarters, but the company is much more than a quiet tenant, according to this article.

February 21 - The New York Times

This post from <em>Next American City</em> looks at Vancouver's homelessness problem and the public outreach effort underway to bring attention and solutions to the problem.

February 20 - Next American City

In an interview, Gov. Schwarzenegger revealed that the state is considering adding another layer of freeway on top of Los Angeles' 405.

February 20 - Streetsblog

Small-scale nuclear reactors could be a new, cheap way to provide power for neighborhoods. But their inherent controversy remains.

February 20 - National Geographic

Mexico City has opened a citywide bike sharing system, similar to those in Paris and Barcelona.

February 20 - The Bike-sharing Blog

The niversity of Washington and CH2M HILL have released a new sustainability rating system for roads.

February 20 - Environmental Leader

A small city outside of Bogota, Colombia, has been overrun by stray dogs. With more than 30,000 strays on the streets, the city's mayor is calling for them to be killed.

February 19 - Los Angeles Times

Bicycling and walking advocates should also be happy about the new TIGER grants - almost half of the funded projects included funding for bike and ped infrastructure.

February 19 - Sierra Club Compass blog

Recent research explores the impacts of evictions, especially on single low-income black mothers, and finds that they are a poorly-understood factor in the cycle of poverty.

February 19 - New York Times

About one-third of the federal government's $787 billion economic stimulus has actually been spent over the last year. During the next year, much of the focus of the remainder will be on infrastructure projects.

February 19 - The Wall Street Journal