The Daily Source of Urban Planning News

<p>This article from the <em>Albany Times Union</em> looks at the importance of using a regional approach to addressing poverty, crime and inner city blight.</p>

March 15 - Albany Times Union

<p>Officials in D.C. have sought to punish Philadelphia's Housing Director for not selling a vacant property to a friend of the HUD Secretary. The city was then found in violation of rules, and could now lose $50 million in housing funds.</p>

March 15 - The Washington Post

<p>Burial space has already run out on Nantucket Island, but Massachusetts law requires burial spaces for anyone dying within town limits. Now officials are scrambling to find a place for their dead to go.</p>

March 15 - The Nantucket Independent

<p>A severe drought in Australia has cut into the country's wheat production -- and pushed prices up all over the world.</p>

March 15 - BBC

<p>More and more people are injuring themselves by walking into poles while looking down at their cell phones. This video from <em>ITN News</em> looks at an effort in England to make the streets safer for walking texters.</p>

March 14 - ITN News via Engadget

<p><em>The Onion</em> reports on an innovative new infrastructure plan from DOT: self-cleaning special lanes for reckless drivers.</p>

March 14 - The Onion

<p>A state task force looking at improving the Oregon state land use and planning system is going back to work.</p>

March 14 - The Oregonian

<p>Forbes looks at the world's 25 most polluted cities, and concludes that governments and industries need to realize how cost-effective pollution remediation is.</p>

March 14 - Forbes

<p>The Friends of the Bloomingdale Trail want to convert a three-mile section of abandoned elevated rail line into a bike trail. It could take a decade, but the idea already has the backing of some of the city's power players.</p>

March 14 - Chicago Public Radio

<p>A proposal to stack millions of concrete blocks containing ashes of the deceased in a gigantic pyramid in Germany is attracting proposals from architects -- and some skepticism.</p>

March 14 - BBC

<p>The coal industry, electric utilities and manufacturers are in line to get trillions of dollars in federal funding to reduce carbon emissions, leaving virtually no money for smart growth and transit solutions to climate change.</p>

March 14 - California Planning & Development Repot

<p>City councilors in Washington D.C. have proposed a plan to throw out exemptions that allowed hundreds of landlords to evict residents with little or no notice so they could convert buildings to high priced condos.</p>

March 14 - The Washington Post

<p>A recent report form the U.S. Public Interest Research Group highlights the arguments for increased investment in public transportation.</p>

March 14 - U.S. PIRG, the Federation of State Public Interest Research Groups

<p>This article from the <em>Brooklyn Daily Eagle</em> looks at the increasing public demand for Complete Streets in Brooklyn.</p>

March 14 - The Brooklyn Daily Eagle

<p>Measures are moving forward in Connecticut and Vermont that would protect the rights of residents to dry their laundry on clotheslines -- an act many opponents say drives down property values.</p>

March 13 - The Boston Globe

<p>The mega cities of the developing world are expected to experience increasing rates of growth in the coming decades. The growth in population will be a challenge, but so will be dealing with the increase in air pollution.</p>

March 13 - CNN

<p>Included in the budget of any new county building in Los Angeles County is a 1% line item for the creation of public art -- part of a public art program initiated in 2004. The first building to utilize this line item has just been completed.</p>

March 13 - The Los Angeles Times

<p>Denver is not providing enough resources to undertake historic preservation efforts, according to this open letter to Mayor John Hickenlooper.</p>

March 13 - The Rocky Mountain News

As a part of Chicago's $1.4 billion "Plan for Transformation," the once massive Cabrini-Green project has been redeveloped into a mix of affordable, public and market housing. But 80% of the former tenants have moved away.

March 13 - GOOD Magazine

BLOG POST

<p> I'm reposting this from my <a href="http://cities.iftf.net">Future of Cities</a> blog. You're all invited to join our conversation over there: it's sort of for urban studies what Planetizen is for urban planning and design. </p><p> Some of you may know that my wife and I welcomed a little girl to the world last month (Stella!). Despite the fact that my mother was a nurse for 40 years - or perhaps because of it - I've never spent a lot of time around hospitals. In fact, like many of you I share an aversion to the centralization of sick people. </p>

March 13 - Anthony Townsend