The Daily Source of Urban Planning News

FEATURE

According to the Census Bureau, the United States will have over 400 million people by 2040. How will population growth – 100 million more Americans over the next three decades – impact the quality of your environment? The answer will depend on the choices we make as a society, says James A. LaGro, Jr.

January 19 - James A. LaGro Jr.

The town of Eden Prairie, Minnesota, has grand plans for a new, pedestrian-oriented downtown, but making this idea reality involves getting rid of one large and vocal neighbor: WalMart.

January 19 - Minneapolis-St. Paul Star-Tribune

BLOG POST

<p style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"> <span style="font-size: small; font-family: Times New Roman">Just getting started here, so I hope you’ll give me time to set my voice and you will tune in to provide a thoughtful dialogue. Like many of you, I am an urban planner with a distinguished background. My current emphasis is on new community development that will begin to emerge in the United States by 2013. Over the past two years, I was lucky enough to have a patron who sent me all over the world to see and record the best places, and meet with experts in energy efficiency, health care delivery, workplace transformation, learning and transportation demand reduction.

January 18 - Rick Abelson

Even as businesses across the spectrum are failing, the small alternative energy companies are seeing increased investment and a growing market.

January 18 - The Wall St. Journal

Pittsburgh Mayor Luke Ravenstahl is considering a plan to raise extra money for his city by leasing public parking spaces and garages to a private company.

January 18 - Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

When Borton and Welsh found 90 acres bordering a national forest near Whitehall, Montana, they parked a trailer, dug in, and began building Sage Mountain Center, a combination of cordwood and straw bale, powered off-grid by the sun and wind.

January 18 - Terrain.org: A Journal of the Built & Natural Environments

BLOG POST

<p> On Friday, in the first week of my second semester of planning graduate school, we did the hokey-pokey. We put our right foot in, put our right foot out, put our right foot in, and then we shook it all about. We turned ourselves around. That was what it was all about. </p> <p> The demonstration was all about pointing out common ground and how people were rooted in order to approach problem solving and conflict resolution. It sounds a little squishy, I know. But it got the point across, and more important, it introduced the dance to one international student who had never heard of the hokey-pokey. </p>

January 18 - Jeffrey Barg

The first draft of the house stimulus package has been released. This piece from <em>Stateline</em> looks at its major components.

January 18 - Stateline

Officials are complaining about the first draft of the economic stimulus package, arguing that it does not dedicate enough money to transit projects and heavily favors road building.

January 18 - The Wall Street Journal

An exhibition in Houston organized by the Center for Land Use Interpretation looks at how the oil industry has transformed the landscape of Texas.

January 17 - The Blaffer Gallery

Plummeting gas prices, roads in disrepair, and soaring state deficits have caused some state politicians to, gasp, attempt to raise gas taxes - last raised over 15 years ago in some states.

January 17 - The New York Times

Barack Obama has announced the three members of the "urban issues" arm of his incoming cabinet. <em>Grist</em>'s Ryan Avent takes a look at Shaun Donovan, Ray LaHood and Adolfo Carrion and what they may mean for urban policy.

January 17 - Grist

Security considerations are already making a huge impact in Washington D.C. as the Capitol readies for the inauguration of President-elect Barack Obama.

January 17 - The New York Times

The master plan for Salem, Oregon's Pringle Creek Community is ambitious, says Jim Fitzsimons, incorporating mixed-use, sustainable development with the community-enhancing aspects of old city neighborhoods.

January 17 - Terrain.org: A Journal of the Built & Natural Environments

Rats choose Manhattan because if its logical street grid, according to new research by a team of zoologists and geographers at Tel Aviv University, who are using rats to test wayfinding in cities.

January 16 - Science Daily

Plans to redevelop a section of the Mississippi Riverfront in New Orleans have been approved and construction could begin by the end of 2009.

January 16 - New Orleans Times-Picayune

The latest figures show that one out of every 54 households were in foreclosure in 2008; analysts expect millions more foreclosures in the coming year.

January 16 - Foreclosures up a record 81% in 2008

UC Davis Professor Daniel Sperling, a transportation expert and member of CA's ARB has co-written "Two Billion Cars: Driving Toward Sustainability". In this radio interview, Sperling describes cleaner auto technologies but dismisses transit's role.

January 16 - NPR: 'Fresh Air'

As Secretary of Commerce, Herbert Hoover championed the Standard Zoning Enabling Act. Rick Cole argues it is time to leave Hoover's legacy behind.

January 16 - Citiwire.net

The age of iconic architecture may be ending. The recession is a major factor, but much of the shift may be due to changing perceptions about what architecture is supposed to do for a place, according to critic Robert Campbell.

January 16 - The Boston Globe