The Daily Source of Urban Planning News

We've gotten a lot of responses on our Top 100 Urban Thinkers list, particularly those wanting to separate out the 'bad' from the 'good'. Mary Newsom was inspired by the list to ponder, who was the worst?

September 18 - The Naked City

This year, the Environmental Protection Agency will expand its WaterSense program to label newly built homes which are 20 percent more water-efficient than standard homes. The label's landscaping clause is causing a stir among grass enthusiasts.

September 18 - The Wall Street Journal

Federal authorities recently announced $45 million in support of plans to construct a magnetic levitation train line between Las Vegas and Southern California, re-igniting a debate over two proposed rail connections.

September 18 - The Las Vegas Sun

BLOG POST

<p> Traffic is essentially &quot;an engineering issue,&quot; says author Tom Vanderbilt. &quot;But there&#39;s also a layer of culture.&quot;<br /> <br /> That layer of culture determines, to a large extent, how traffic can become a problem. This idea is explored in Vanderbilt&#39;s 2008 book <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0307264785?ie=UTF8&amp;tag=planetizen&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=9325&amp;creativeASIN=0307264785" target="_blank" title="Traffic, by Tom Vanderbilt - on Amazon">Traffic: Why We Drive the Way We Do (and What It Says About Us)</a>, a <a href="/books/2009" target="_blank" title="Planetizen Top Books 2009">Planetizen Top Book</a> of the year. He recently expanded on that idea for a discussion about traffic put on by <a href="http://www.zocalopublicsquare.org/" target="_blank" title="Zocalo Public Square">Zocalo Public Square</a> in (where better?) Los Angeles.

September 18 - Nate Berg

A public art park has sprung up on a corner in Manhattan on loan from a local developer waiting to build on the land.

September 18 - The New York Times

A profile of James Mallory, GISP, whose job in the Oklahoma County assessor's office sometimes involves using GIS to locate historic trails and treasure.

September 18 - The Journal Record (OK)

Citing the estimated current cost of repairs as a partial reason for noncompliance with federal law, Caltrans heads to court against disability advocacy groups. The agency has failed to maintain or upgrade thousands of curbs and intersections.

September 18 - Los Angeles Times

In the Seattle suburb of Medina, security cameras are now capturing all vehicle driving into the city, and using license plate recognition software to check cars and drivers for criminal records.

September 18 - The Seattle Times

M.I.T.'s Senseable City Laboratory launched a project to track the journey of garbage and recyclables, using small electronic sensors, in Seattle and New York City, in part to highlight the high cost of waste to the environment and cities.

September 18 - The New York Times

Dusty "red snow" in the Rockies, plunging water levels in Lake Mead and California's forest fires are all signs that the West is drying up, writes Chip Ward.

September 18 - TomDispatch

Among other issues tackled by the noted New Urbanist during a recent speech, Duany said that the current form of public engagement is broken because it engages only the immediate neighbors.

September 17 - Northwest Hub

Advanced Transit Systems is pitching the city of Mountain View on using the PRT system developed for Heathrow Airport to connect the downtown train station, NASA Ames and Shoreline businesses like Google.

September 17 - Mountain View Voice

A 42-storey condo building to be built in Toronto will include parking for nine car-share vehicles and 315 bicycles but no on-site parking spaces for residents’ private automobiles.

September 17 - Toronto Star

Witold Rybczynski bemoans the green movement's emphasis on sustainability measure that treat environmental action as a process of accessorizing rather than changing lifestyles.

September 17 - The Atlantic

Last year, Forbes Magazine named the 10 Fastest Dying Cities in the U.S. Eight of those cities decided to come together and fight back.

September 17 - Next American City

BLOG POST

<p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; line-height: normal" class="MsoNormal"> <span style="font-size: small; font-family: Calibri">Should society encourage parents to <a href="/node/40737">drive children to school</a> rather than walk or bicycle? Should our transportation policies favor driving over walking, cycling, ridesharing, public transit and telecommuting? Probably not. There is no logical reason to favor automobile travel over other forms of accessibility, and there are lots of good reasons to favor efficient modes, so for example, schools spend at least as much to accommodate a walking or cycling trip as an automobile trip, and transportation agencies and employers spend at least as much to improve ridesharing and public transit commuting as automobile commuting.

September 17 - Todd Litman

<cite>The New York Times</cite> goes over the debate over whether it is acceptable to let children walk to school nowadays. The topic has many parents expressing mixed feelings about the issue.

September 17 - The New York Times

A judge has overruled challenges from two northern California cities over the siting of the state's proposed high speed rail line. Environmental studies can now move forward.

September 17 - San Jose Business Journal

This map from <em>Mint</em> looks at American cities that have spent the least so far in 2009, and those that are also cutting back budgets.

September 17 - Mint

This piece from the <em>Guardian</em> looks at a handful of projects and ideas that are emphasizing the importance of sustainable metropolitan areas in an age of diminishing resources and environmental devastation.

September 17 - Guardian