The Daily Source of Urban Planning News

BLOG POST

<p> <span style="font-family: Arial"><span style="font-size: small">In my recent post outlining Council&#39;s approval of the <a href="http://www.vancouver-ecodensity.ca/content.php?id=42" target="_blank">EcoDensity Charter and Initial Actions</a> I referenced that two new rezoning policies approved by Council (Actions A-1 and A-2) may give Vancouver the highest green requirements for private-sector building design and large site design in North America. Here are these two policies that are in effect as of May 13, 2008.</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial"><span style="font-size: small"> </span></span> </p>

July 7 - Brent Toderian

<p>The Red River Floodway, built in the 1960s to protect the City of Winnipeg from flooding, has been named by the International Association of Macro Engineering Societies as one of the engineering wonders of the world.</p>

July 7 - The Winnipeg Free Press

<p>It's known as the Iron Triangle, though some call the sewerless 13-block collection of auto junkyards just east of Shea Stadium an eyesore and disgrace. A controversial application of eminent domain is at the heart of the $3 billion makeover plan.</p>

July 7 - Queens Chronicle

<p>Landscape architecture firm dlandstudio is taking the stench out of the Gowanus Canal by building a new public park that is beautiful as well as functional.</p>

July 7 - The New York Sun

<p>Street posters play an important role in participatory civic life, according to this article from <em>re:place</em> magazine.</p>

July 7 - re:place

<p>City officials in Lockhart, near Austin, consider allowing golf carts on arterial streets.</p>

July 7 - Fox 7 KTBC Austin

<p>It has been a long time since the State of California was a public policy innovator. But a draft plan for implementing a greenhouse gas reduction law places California right on the cutting edge.</p>

July 7 - California Planning & Development Report

FEATURE

Former Maryland Governor Parris N. Glendening says that Americans are tired of feeling like victims and are ready for innovative changes in how they live and get around.

July 7 - Parris Glendening

<p>With tourist season in full effect, the Czech city of Prague is hoping to clean up its notoriously dirty streets with a new ban on littering and urinating in public places.</p>

July 6 - Ceske Noviny

<p>A recent study by the Maryland Department of Natural Resources says sprawl is to blame for declining natural resources in Chesapeake Bay.</p>

July 6 - Delmarva Now

<p>Renee Lewis Glover, president and CEO of the Atlanta Housing Authority, reflects on the troubled history of housing projects in Atlanta, GA, as the last of its kind in the city is demolished.</p>

July 6 - The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

<p>Despite efforts by politicians to enact policies that reduce congestion, the biggest improvements in traffic reduction appear to be tied to rising gas prices and tolls, according to data from New York.</p>

July 6 - The New York Times

<p>This segment from <em>NPR</em> looks at what's behind the trend of house prices falling more sharply outside of cities.</p>

July 6 - NPR

<p>The Onion reports on a study showing that a vast majority of Americans want further investments in public transit so everyone else can get off the road and make their drive faster.</p>

July 5 - The Onion

<p>Florida's plans to purchase nearly 300 square miles of land for Everglades restoration may face some significant challenges, according to skeptics.</p>

July 5 - The New York Times

<p>In this column, landscape architect Bill Thompson, FASLA, takes a look at the shortcomings of Boston's City Hall Plaza as a public space and what he feels are misguided efforts to preserve it.</p>

July 5 - Land Online

<p>In a move to combat the growing numbers of foreclosed homes and provide affordable housing, Fairfax County, Virginia, has announced plans to buy up foreclosed properties to augment the county's supply of affordable homes.</p>

July 5 - The Washington Post

<p>Plans for redeveloping the World Trade Center site in Manhattan have been pushed back again, possibly to 2013.</p>

July 5 - BBC

<p>Satirist Stephen Colbert demands an explanation why the U.S. no longer has the world's tallest skyscrapers while construction is booming overseas.</p>

July 4 - Comedy Central

BLOG POST

Last week marked the third anniversary of the Supreme Court’s ruling in <em>Kelo v. New London</em>. The first time I read <em>Kelo</em>, I thought what many Americans probably thought: that any government could seize property for any reason, so long as it compensated prior owners. <br /> <br /> But after having taught <em>Kelo</em> to law students several times over the past few years, I now realize that Kelo is much more complex. <em>Kelo</em> was a 5-4 decision, and Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote a separate concurrence. Because Justice Kennedy was the “swing vote”, his decision predicts future Court decisionmaking more accurately than the Court’s primary opinion, because a taking which fails to satisfy Kennedy might not be able to get five votes in the Supreme Court.

July 4 - Michael Lewyn