The Daily Source of Urban Planning News

Wendell Cox looks at how single-family detached housing came to be, and why it's likely to remain a popular option for the middle class.

November 12 - New Geography

Belgian photographer Filip Dujardin combines photos of wildly different buildings into new constructions of impossible architecture.

November 12 - BLDBLOG

Paris' bike sharing program is well-known, but not alone - these programs are flourishing throughout Europe. The key to their proliferation lies in the new technology they utilize. This article highlights the 'third-generation' Barcelona program.

November 11 - The New York Times

Almost 90% of the homeowners in Mountain House, CA, a planned smart growth community in the Central Valley, owe more on their mortgages than their homes are worth- the highest percentage in the country.

November 11 - The New York Times

In a time of plummeting oil prices, one might think rail would lose business to trucks, but the freight business is more detailed. In this interview with Burlington Northern Santa Fe CEO Mathew Rose, one gains an insight into freight rail's future.

November 11 - Business Week

President-elect Barack Obama is set to overturn as many as 200 Bush-era decisions, including those aimed at addressing greenhouse gas emissions and recognizing climate change.

November 11 - Washington Post

Cities facing budget cuts are cutting back on Christmas decorations and events. Has the Grinch stolen Christmas?

November 11 - The Wall St. Journal

As renewables replace polluting, carbon-intensive power sources, the reliability of the nation's electricity will be impaired because of the inability of the grid to accommodate power produced from distant sources, according to a new report.

November 11 - The New York Times

BLOG POST

<p> &#160; </p> <p> A few days ago, I was looking at a regional planning document and saw something startling: an assertion that transit ridership in my region has been going down. Since transit ridership has been going up nationwide, I smelled a rat. </p> <p> After digging around through a big pile of statistics, I realized that there are so many different ways of measuring transit ridership that one can easily prove either that ridership is going up or that ridership is going down. Some possible measurements include: </p>

November 11 - Michael Lewyn

A surge in streetcar system construction in the United States is benefitting a number of tram builders like Siemens of Germany and Skoda of the Czech Republic.

November 11 - International Herald Tribune

Urban Velo Magazine updates readers on new methods for making cities cycle-friendly, and provides a brief history of cycles in cities.

November 11 - Urban Velo Magazine

The Old Town neighborhood of Bellingham, WA, is a hangout for the homeless. The city plans to revitalize the area with new condo buildings, but locals fear that new residents won't mix well with the current ones.

November 11 - Seattle Post-Intelligencer

As China embarks on the greatest rail-building investment since the U.S. built its transcontinental railroad, this article points to the urgent need to reform its state-controlled pricing system, both for freight and passengers, to make it effective.

November 11 - Business Week

Reporter Robert Campbell says that the new Springfield Courthouse designed by architect Moshe Safdie is 'one of the most inviting public buildings I've ever seen.'

November 10 - Boston Globe

A newly-designed nuclear "battery" utilizing 50-year old technology promises to revolutionize nuclear power with sealed, shed-sized reactors suitable for powering thousands of households.

November 10 - Guardian (UK)

BLOG POST

<p> &nbsp; </p> <p> This weekend, I had the pleasure of taking a ride up the Pacific Coast Highway in a hot-off-the-assembly-line Tesla sportscar. While I normally fall in with the camp that thinks the focus on alternative fuel cars is distracting from the need to move people out of cars and into transit, walking and biking, I have to say, the Tesla Roadster is a beautiful piece of machinery. </p>

November 10 - Tim Halbur

In what may prove a decisive test to see the political limits of what green building offers developers, a LEED Platinum, 10-story office building is proposed along San Francisco's tightly regulated waterfront - exceeding the height limit by 40 feet.

November 10 - San Francisco Chronicle

Toronto's Art Gallery of Ontario is about to open its spectacular renovation designed by Frank Gehry.

November 10 - The Globe and Mail

A start-up in Livermore, CA is generating buzz with its plan to generate power from thousands of aluminum-coated balloons.

November 10 - Fortune

'It stinks,'says Mayor John Hipp of Rutherford, New Jersey, as his town struggles to fulfill its requirements for affordable housing. The planning board has reluctantly agreed to require affordable units in a previously planned redevelopment site.

November 10 - The Leader