The Daily Source of Urban Planning News

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Who doesn’t love the Apocalypse? Society collapses, people run around in chaos, and we try to imitate the survival strategies culled from too many Hollywood end-of-the world blockbusters. Apocalyptic predictions have always been part of American culture, and why not?

February 6 - Greg Smithsimon

<p>The California Coastal Commission is scheduled to weigh the planned completion of a 28-mile toll road that would cut through a state beach. Many say the road is necessary to cut congestion between San Diego and L.A., but others see it as destructive.</p>

February 6 - The New York Times

<p>A regional rail and bus expansion is now being planned for several cities in North Carolina's Triangle Region. However, if the plan is to come to fruition, voters must agree to carrying half of the costs.</p>

February 6 - The News and Observer

<p>Despite lacking enough signatures for a statewide amendment, a local Sierra Club chapter is pursuing growth limits in Florida's Polk County.</p>

February 6 - The Ledger

<p>This March 2007 presentation from the TED conference features former Curitiba Mayor Jaime Lerner discussing the rise of the sustainable city.</p>

February 6 - TED Blog

<p>This article discusses an architect's attempt to classify his homes as "McMansions" and the city's unwillingness to accept the "McMansion" label as an acceptable way to categorize the architecture of proposed homes.</p>

February 6 - The North County Times

<p>Groundbreaking is scheduled this week for Masdar City, the car-free eco-city planned near Abu Dhabi.</p>

February 6 - The New York Times

<p>A small and distinct subculture of African Americans on the island of St. Helena on the coast of South Carolina is increasingly threatened by developers who want to bring a supermarket and golf courses to the island.</p>

February 6 - The Economist

<p>This piece from the <em>Los Angeles Times</em> asks some experts how a new president could potentially reduce the nation's congestion.</p>

February 6 - The Los Angeles Times

<p>This opinion piece from the <em>Atlanta Journal-Constitution</em> argues that the city has many reasons to support streetcar proposals.</p>

February 6 - The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

<p>A train capable of reaching speeds of 224 mph has been unveiled in France.</p>

February 6 - BBC News

<p>According to an increasing number of theorists, modernist planning and urban renewal practices have produced nothing but an overly simplified, paternalistic urbanism that has in time proved unable to mirror the complexity of urban life.</p>

February 5 - The Urban Reinventors Online Urban Journal

<p>The San Francisco Chronicle Magazine profiles several "extreme" commuters from San Francisco to Sacramento aboard the Amtrak Capital Corridor train. Complete with great photos and anecdotes, it portrays the Amtrak bus and train ride quite accurately.</p>

February 5 - San Francisco Chronicle Magazine

<p>If you want to get a sustainable building or community built, you have to know your audience. Architect and urban planner Andres Duany offers a field-guide of target groups.</p>

February 5 - New Urban News

<p>The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has blocked an Army Corps of Engineers pumping project that would have drained and damaged up to 200,000 acres of Mississippi wetlands -- its first block of a Corps project in nearly 20 years.</p>

February 5 - Time

<p>Mortgage lenders are increasingly imposing new loaning restrictions on risky areas encompassed by entire ZIP codes and county lines, creating what some are calling the "new redlining".</p>

February 5 - The Washington Post

<p>The United Arab Emirates of Dubai and Abu Dhabi are generating a lot of speculation and interest as they develop into two major cities, but Abu Dhabi's focus on infrastructure sets it apart -- and ahead -- of its neighboring emirate.</p>

February 5 - The Chicago Tribune

<p>This editorial argues that one-way streets kill downtowns, and they need to be converted to two-ways to help save downtown areas across the country.</p>

February 5 - The Courier-Journal

<p>Increasing bicycle use in Seattle may depend on how well the city can address the danger of the "right hook" -- right turns at intersections that cause many of the city's bicycle accidents and fatalities.</p>

February 5 - The Seattle Times

<p>In Cairo, the problem of street children was once ignored, but is now a growing concern in the public consciousness. Numerous services and aid agencies have developed in recent years to help the city's impoverished children.</p>

February 5 - The Christian Science Monitor