The Daily Source of Urban Planning News

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<p> &nbsp; </p> <p> In 1979, the City of San Diego launched a plan to steer new development into the craftsman-lined neighborhoods close to downtown.   The idea was sound:  scatter higher density housing throughout existing smart growth communities. 

August 25 - Diana DeRubertis

HUD has established new rules limiting the percentage of units in a building that can get FHA loans. Developers cry foul, calling it a bias against affordable housing and density.

August 25 - San Diego Business Journal

The goal is to increase California's use of clean, renewable sources of electricity so as to meet the state's climate protection goal. Two bills are being debated that will require that 33% of electricity sources be composed of renewables by 2020.

August 25 - The Sacramento Bee

An online publisher set out to show that urban farming could be profitable. In her fourth year, she brought in $68k from her half-acre plot in Philadelphia.

August 25 - Governing Magazine

A proposed Wal-Mart retail center near a Civil War battlefield in Virginia has preservationists up in arms.

August 25 - NPR

The Fed's passenger rail stimulus program kicked opened its doors on Monday, and states were ready with a slew of funding requests. California submitted 42 applications, totaling $1.1 billion.

August 25 - The Wall St. Journal

The Whole Village in Ontario, Canada is an environmentally sustainable co-op made up of architects, doctors and teachers instead of draft dodgers and dropouts.

August 25 - The Montreal Gazette

New "Lifetime Homes" standards in the U.K., which are designed to accommodate people at all stages of life, will lead away from ultra-small flats to larger apartments, says Builder Magazine.

August 25 - Building

The Los Angeles Conservancy has been building a coalition to preserve the Century Plaza Hotel after developers announced plans to replace the hotel with new mixed use development.

August 25 - The Planning Report

Short sea shipping involves moving freight on the sea around the coast without crossing an ocean. The City of Miami is looking at extending the process to relieve traffic pressure, getting some big rigs off the freeway.

August 25 - Miami Today

The box office hit "District 9" was shot in a real Soweto slum, and now the residents are hoping that the popularity of the film will lead to real improvements to the settlement.

August 25 - The Globe and Mail

Some estimate that almost 50% of current projects in Dubai are on hold or canceled. Can Dubai recover from the financial crisis?

August 24 - Fast Company

In an odd twist of the urban vs. suburban debate, here's an interesting nuance - bank robbers are finding the open atmosphere of suburban banks to be more appealing than the bulletproof glass-protected tellers that one often sees in busy urban areas.

August 24 - The New York Times - N.Y/Region

In considering the daunting task of building high-speed rail in the midst of an economic crisis, CBS Sunday Morning looks back and finds that the Transcontinental Railroad was built during similarly tough times.

August 24 - CBS Sunday Morning

Think "Leaving Las Vegas" starring Nicholas Cage, except the 'actors' here are the real thing - 'chronic inebriates' costing the city about $13 million annually in ambulance costs alone. It's not necessarily a 'homelessness' problem.

August 24 - San Francisco Chronicle

The city of Honolulu is $500 million short of what it will need to fund the $5.3 billion commuter rail system voters approved last fall.

August 24 - The Honolulu Advertiser

This article from <em>Triple Canopy</em> looks at the unrealized urban planning ideas of former New York City Mayor John Lindsay, which were somewhere in between Jane Jacobs and Robert Moses.

August 24 - Triple Canopy

Denver is seeking to revise its zoning, shifting to a form-based code that more precisely dictates what type of buildings go where and what they should look like.

August 24 - Architectural Record

Neal Peirce looks at a few examples where regions have pooled their powers to utilize ARRA stimulus funds to create programs and jumpstart regional efforts.

August 24 - Citiwire

Stunning many even outside Seattle, the two-term incumbent mayor came in third in a 'top two' primary despite outspending his six competitors. Voters will choose between two political newcomers, including an activist who goes by "Mike Bikes".

August 24 - Seattle PI