The Daily Source of Urban Planning News

A lot has changed since February, so Builder Magazine has revised its list of the Top 10 Housing Markets in the country for 2009. The Bottom 10 are, of course, also featured.

October 8 - Builder Magazine

Office workers in Seattle's Pioneer Square area are claiming their network of alleyways as social spaces.

October 8 - Northwest Hub

A new book from Britain features photos of incompetent and dangerous bicycle lanes. Sales of the book benefit the Cyclists Defence Fund.

October 8 - The Architect's Journal

The American Planning Association has released its picks for Great Places in America for 2009, including their choices for Streets, Public Spaces and Neighborhoods. Skagway, Alaska's Broadway tops the list.

October 8 - American Planning Association

After Madison, Wisconsin withdrew its FTA application for funding of a commuter rail system, the city has been wondering where Transport 2020 is going next. The buzz now includes Bus Rapid Transit (BRT).

October 8 - The Cap Times

Architect Thom Mayne and a team of UCLA architecture students have created the first floating house permitted in the U.S. as part of a mission to help flood-ravaged New Orleans.

October 8 - UCLA Newsroom

BLOG POST

<p> Did you know that yesterday was International Walk to School Day? While many communities may have let this important public awareness opportunity pass by, New York City public school students were out in full force. Perhaps one would expect nothing less in a city where 80% of students already walk to school (transit trips require walking, too!).  </p>

October 8 - Mike Lydon

The theme of this year's International Architecture Biennale is "Open City: Designing Coexistence". <em>Places Journal</em> talks with the biennale's chief curator about what that means to planners, designers and architects.

October 8 - Places Journal

FEATURE

Nandita Godbole advocates for parks and greenspaces around Atlanta. But when faced with a struggle over keeping her own quarter-acre backyard open and free, she found she was powerless.

October 8 - Nandita Godbole

With Adolfo Carrion Jr. appointed as a "cities czar" and federal stimulus dollars flowing to urban sustainability projects, the Obama Administration aims to concentrate development to boost "environmentally and economically viable neighborhoods."

October 7 - Washington Post

Planner and author Jeff Speck pays a visit to Lowell, Massachusetts, and tells an audience to tear down their civic center. "If you don't tear it down now, it will become protected in 10 years," says Speck. "Tear it down now."

October 7 - The Lowell Sun

Many of the deaths of the past few rounds of storms and earthquakes are due to inadequate drainage systems, poor building regulation enforcement, and lack of emergency planning.

October 7 - The Wall Street Journal

A proposed CCS site under an eastern German village has met serious opposition from locals who fear their crops and families will suffer. Scientists and the energy company say it's perfectly safe.

October 7 - The Wall Street Journal

Homeland Security is looking to change the way the detention of nonviolent undocumented immigrants is handled. Among the ideas for a more appropriate detention system: converting hotels and nursing homes to hold people who are not accused of crimes.

October 7 - The New York Times

'Visual Acoustics' is a new documentary about the 'vibrant' Mr. Shulman, the photographer of modernist homes who captured the ethos and energy of the Los Angeles modern architecture movement.

October 7 - The New York Times

Residents of the city of Penjaringan in North Jakarta brought a proposal to the government to convert the area underneath a toll road into a public space.

October 7 - The Jakarta Post

Thousands of subdivisions across the country have been abandoned mid-development by owners and developers hit hard by the economic recession. This video takes a tour inside one of these "zombie subdivisions".

October 7 - CNN

Drawn to the Galapagos Islands by their booming tourism industry, thousands of poor Ecuadorians are being booted from the sensitive ecosystem to counteract the negative impact of the rising human population.

October 7 - The New York Times

Every year, residents in Santa Fe, New Mexico send a huge human effigy into flames. Burning with it are physical representations of the bad memories and experiences of the past year.

October 7 - Los Angeles Times

With the layoff of City Planner John 'Rusty' Lewis, Natchez, Mississippi is left with only one employee in its planning department - and she retires next week.

October 6 - The Natchez Democrat