The Daily Source of Urban Planning News

The District of Columbia may be expecting the largest gathering of people in America's history for President Obama's inauguration, but many residents will also be leaving town.

January 12 - The Globe and Mail

San Francisco's federally-funded parking experiment SFPark will be a live test of the theories of dynamic parking management popularized by Donald Shoup.

January 12 - Streetsblog San Francisco

Through festivals, lighting master plans, and creative integrations of artistic interpretations, cities across the world are harnessing the power of light to reinvigorate neglected areas and renew public interest.

January 12 - The Christian Science Monitor

BLOG POST

A common refrain among environmentally-minded planners is: policy X will reduce global warming. So why would anyone be dumb enough to oppose policy X? <br /> <br /> But often, global warming will be the weakest, not the strongest, argument for policy X.

January 11 - Michael Lewyn

In this excerpt from their new book, The Urban Homestead, authors Kelly Coyne and Erik Knutzen point out all the ways city dwellers can move away from industrial agriculture.

January 11 - AlterNet

As Liverpool ends its year as the European Union's "Capital of Culture", the city is vastly different and better than it was just a year ago, according to this column.

January 11 - Financial Times

The new U.S. Embassy in Baghdad embodies all of the negative connotations of the American presence in Iraq and provides an example of how not to build an embassy, according to Jonathan Glancey.

January 11 - Guardian

FEATURE

Communities aren't going to get a green code implemented, or any code, without that code appealing to developers, says Sandy Sorlien. They're building our new sustainable places and infilling our old ones.

January 11 - Sandy Sorlien

Creating transit, and planning around it, will be the key to success for metro areas, according to a new report from New York's Metropolitan Transportation Authority.

January 11 - Citiwire

The economic recession is hurting the California High Speed Rail Authority, the lead agency developing the high speed rail network for which the state's voters approved $10 billion in bonds in 2008. With no buyers, the bond money is unavailable.

January 11 - San Francisco Chronicle

A NY Times profile of Suffern, NY focuses on real estate, but in the process creates a miniature of the struggles of all small towns- keeping the historic downtown vibrant, offering varied housing options, and competing with neighboring cities.

January 10 - The New York Times

Turning the page back to 1965, a woman confesses in Ladys Circle Magazine that she hates the suburbs. 'It isn't just monotony; it's stagnation!', she exclaims.

January 10 - Lady's Circle (Posted by ModernMechanix.com)

After decades of restructuring, Pittsburgh is doing significantly better than other cities attempting to recover from the loss of industry. Here's how they did it.

January 10 - The New York Times

If you want to drive your biofuel car between Gary, Indiana to Mobile, Alabama, now you can. A collaboration of states with the Dept. of Energy has created a 886-mile corridor of biofueling stations stretching from Lake Michigan to the Mobile Bay.

January 10 - Clean Cities Now

In this column, former New York Governor Eliot Spitzer calls on the Obama Administration to direct its stimulus package towards innovative technologies and "transformative" projects, not just the status quo roads and bridges of the past.

January 10 - Slate

BLOG POST

<p> <span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial">In 2008 I took a wonderful trip to Copenhagen, Rotterdam, Amsterdam and Malmo, Sweden. Although the occasion involved invitations to speak on Vancouver&#39;s waterfront achievements and challenges, it was really an opportunity for me to learn from these dynamic cities, and see the best and worst of European waterfront design and master-planning.</span><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial">  </span> </p>

January 9 - Brent Toderian

A giant crossword puzzle has been painted on the side of a 100-foot tall building in Lvov, Ukraine. Clues to the puzzle are planted throughout the city, and the puzzle's answers are revealed at nighttime with the use of special lights.

January 9 - English Russia

Winnipeg and Ottawa are facing off over which city has the world's longest -- and best -- ice trail.

January 9 - The Globe and Mail

A new GIS-based service promises to improve on real estate agents by using GIS data to locate promising sites to locate for business.

January 9 - BusinessWeek

Plans to install free Wi-Fi internet in New York City parks has fallen through. Unable to find corporate sponsors, the private contractor leading the project has been forced to remove all equipment. But the idea may not be completely dead.

January 9 - The New York Times