The Daily Source of Urban Planning News

"Mixed-use"? "transit-oriented development"? Development in Farmington, Utah hits a wall while the planning commission debates definitions.

June 2 - The Salt Lake Tribune

<p>Oshawa, Ontario residents have noticed a suspicious substance leaking into their community. Development next to the former landfill almost didn't happen because city planners worried about this very possibility.</p>

June 2 - durhamregion.com

<p>While mega-condo developments are enlivening districts in and around Miami's urban core, a long moribund downtown business district struggles to keep up. Many hope that small improvements will make a big difference in the area's quest for vitality.</p>

June 2 - The Miami Herald

<p>Houston tops the list, which includes Des Moines, Boise and Omaha. Yeah, we want to see their criteria too...</p>

June 2 - Kiplinger's

<p>Freight trains already face serious traffic on the nation's network of rails. If nothing is done, insiders project disaster in the near future.</p>

June 1 - Associated Press

<p>Students in Ohio State University's City and Regional Planning department worked closely with the Franklinton neighborhood in Columbus to create a new vision for the community.</p>

June 1 - Columbus Alive

<p>A developer has plans for a new Palestinian city in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, which he says would be the first new city in the West Bank in thousands of years. But he is still awaiting approval on a crucial road.</p>

June 1 - NPR

<p>Downtown Knoxville has seen many improvements in recent years. This column calls on the city to be careful how it lets private interests use downtown's new public spaces.</p>

June 1 - Metro Pulse

<p>Big box stores are following their customers into downtowns, and stores like Circuit City and Target are retooling for density.</p>

June 1 - Architectural Record

<p>Rising gas prices have caused a big increase in transit ridership in Loudoun County, Virginia, where officials are looking to expand their bus fleet and capacity to handle the jump in demand.</p>

May 31 - The Washington Post

<p>Waynesville, North Carolina Mayor Gavin Brown is forced to give up on pedestrian-friendly design to save potential jobs from Best Buy.</p>

May 31 - The Smoky Mountain News

<p>Americans are notoriously bad at navigating European-style traffic circles, but it seems Canadians are also confounded.</p>

May 31 - The Edmonton Sun

<p>Portland, famed for its progressive policies and smart growth, is facing criticism that the same growth they are applauded for is squeezing other groups out- particularly African-Americans.</p>

May 31 - The New York Times

<p>Transit ridership is spiking across the country as gas prices go up. Is this a tipping point for America's car culture?</p>

May 31 - The Philadelphia Inquirer

<p>A punch was thrown and hair was pulled at a recent meeting of the Guilford, Maine, Historical Society after tension arose over the removal and display of historic photos from the town museum.</p>

May 30 - Bangor Daily News

<p>At the World Science Festival in New York, visions of future cities mix the usual Blade Runner-esque architecture with abundant greenery.</p>

May 30 - Tim Halbur

<p>Railroads are overcoming decades of resistance from environmentalists by touting their greener aspects.</p>

May 30 - Wall St. Journal

<p>"Honey from the Hood" is one of the home-grown prodcuts from a Kensington neighborhood garden. To avoid soil contamination from this former industrial site, plants are grown in raised beds or hydroponically.</p>

May 30 - The New York Times

<p>City commits to adding over 450 miles of new bikeways/lanes linking neighborhoods, parks, downtown, and employment centers over the next 20 years and making an initial investment of $20 million.</p>

May 30 - The Columbus Dispatch

BLOG POST

<p style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"> <span style="font-size: small; font-family: Times New Roman">Randal O’Toole’s recent policy study from the Cato Institute, “</span><a href="http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=9420"><span style="font-size: small; font-family: Times New Roman; color: #800080">Roadmap to Gridlock</span></a><span style="font-size: small; font-family: Times New Roman">” is s worthy read for <strong>all</strong> professional planners, no matter what their ideological or professional stripe. Undoubtedly, most planners probably consider someone who maintains a blog called the “</span><a href="http://www.ti.org/antiplanner/"><span style="font-size: small; font-family: Times New Roman; color: #800080">Antiplanner</span></a><span style="font-size: small; font-family: Times New Roman">” more of a bomb thrower than a serious policy analyst. But this dismissive attitude throws an awful lot of good work by the road side, and a good example of that is O’Toole’s “Roadmap to Gridlock.”

May 30 - Samuel Staley