The Daily Source of Urban Planning News

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<p><br /><img src="/files/u2/20080211_1.jpg" alt=" " title=" " width="234" height="112" align="right" />The <strong>Strange Maps</strong> blog is an eclectic collection of maps, diagrams, and cartoons. Some graphics featured on this blog are informative, some are creative, and others are completely bizarre.The website is maintained by an anonymous blogger. The posted graphic is often accompanied by informative notes. Here is a list of 21 maps that I found interesting:</p>

February 11 - Abhijeet Chavan

<p>Seattle seems to be on its ways to becoming a successful world city, according to a private consultant's list of the global trends that make cities great.</p>

February 11 - The Seattle Post-Intelligencer

<p>One holdout landowner is preventing the redevelopment of Pittsburg, California's waterfront, but the city is pushing for eminent domain.</p>

February 11 - The Contra Costa Times

<p>Politicians in Georgia are pushing a resolution that would redraw the state's border with Tennessee so that a plentiful river would lie within the boundaries of water-poor Georgia.</p>

February 11 - The Tennessean

FEATURE

February 11 - Josh Stephens

<p>The California Coastal Commission has voted against expanding a controversial toll road through a state beach.</p>

February 10 - The New York Times

<p>Foreclosed homes continue to plague cities across the country as large swaths of land and entire neighborhoods are abandoned.</p>

February 10 - The Wall Street Journal

<p>This editorial from <em>The Kansas City Star</em> argues that Mayor Mark Funkhouser's plan to create a regional light rail system may be too ambitious, and efforts should be focused on building a smaller system.</p>

February 10 - The Kansas City Star

<p>Rental car companies are venturing into the field of car-sharing.</p>

February 10 - The Wall Street Journal

<p>With available landspace running low, a 1-million square-meter underground development is being planned in Amsterdam.</p>

February 10 - Building

<p>As Vancouver weighs the importance of density in the city, some say the debate needs a refresh.</p>

February 9 - The Globe & Mail

<p>Eminent domain usage by the Denver area transit authority may be severely limited by a law that specifies land seizures be made only for "public transit purposes". This may prevent takings for such uses as parking lots and TOD.</p>

February 9 - The Denver Post

<p>More suburban commuters around the Twin Cities are ditching their cars and riding the bus.</p>

February 9 - Minneapolis-St. Paul Star Tribune

<p>Community activists and affordable housing advocates in New Orleans face ongoing struggles to promote alternative redevelopment schemes that meet the needs of low-income households.</p>

February 9 - Women's International Perspective

<p>A new transportation corridor prompts the coordination of transportation and land use planning efforts in Boise.</p>

February 9 - The Boise Weekly

<p>A farmer in England secretly built a mock-Tudor castle on his property and kept it out of view for years by hiding it behind a 40-foot stack of hay bales.</p>

February 8 - Daily Mail

<p>The increasing use of food grains in biofuels, rising meat consumption in Asia and perverse government farming subsidies are having a serious effect on global food security.</p>

February 8 - Telegraph

<p>Despite complaints from residents and critics, a 27-story tower to be built on the edge of Boston's high-rise Financial District and its more modest Chinatown neighborhood has passed review form the city's design commission.</p>

February 8 - The Boston Globe

<p>While Montgomery County, Maryland had one of the first affordable housing programs in the country, recently, the community has not seen the required units constructed by developers.</p>

February 8 - The Washington Post

<p>Chicago Mayor Richard Daley is looking to make his city's streets safer for cyclists by raising fines for reckless drivers who endanger bikers.</p>

February 8 - Chicago Sun-Times