The Daily Source of Urban Planning News

<p>London Mayor Ken Livingstone discusses how congestion pricing came about in 2003, and the key role the business community played. Unlike London or NYC, downtown San Francisco merchants fear that congestion pricing will only be bad for business.</p>

November 3 - San Francisco Examiner

<p>With nearly $10 billion in bonds going up for a vote in 2008 to fund high speed rail in California, residents should consider the history of public works projects that have greatly exceeded their initial low cost estimates, writes Adam B. Summers.</p>

November 2 - Reason

<p>Consultants are advocating for the use of the "SmartCode" to help Hamden, Connecticut, bolster economic development and improve its urban form.</p>

November 2 - New Haven Register

<p>Philadelphia's city facilities are in disrepair, and a recently released report outlines the city prisons, buildings, and ventilation systems that would require millions of city dollars to repair -- money that the city doesn't have.</p>

November 2 - The Philadelphia Inquirer

<p>A new online visual mapping tool enables users to virtually tour places from a pedestrian's perspective online.</p>

November 2 - Technology Review

<p>Opposition to a plan to increase fees on a Virginia tollroad may result in a pullout by private interests, leaving the state with the burden of paying for its transportation infrastructure -- a task that may be impossible, according to this article.</p>

November 2 - Reason

<p>Everybody loves Portland, but this article from <em>Willamette Week</em> deconstructs the media crush on the city from inside its borders.</p>

November 2 - Willamette Week

<p>This editorial calls on the city of San Jose, California, to bend recently-passed planning process rules to keep hopes alive for a mixed-use soccer stadium project.</p>

November 2 - San Jose Mercury News

<p>Climate change and rising sea levels will greatly threaten many of the world's cities and should be considered when planning and designing for coastal areas. But this article argues that planners and designers haven't yet "connected the dots".</p>

November 2 - Harvard Design Magazine

<p>An art park is being planned as an anchor for future transit oriented development near one of Charlotte, North Carolina's new light rail stations.</p>

November 2 - The Charlotte Observer

<p>In this reprinted excerpt from his 1999 book The Ecology of Fear, Mike Davis recounts the fire-prone history of Malibu and shows that development there has succumbed to repeated disastrous fires.</p>

November 2 - Radical Urban Theory

BLOG POST

<p><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana">Some of you may remember my observations in an earlier post on the wonderful event I participated in earlier this year, with New York&#39;s Forum for Urban Design. Its rare indeed to get the opportunity to discuss and debate issues of urbanism over 2 days with the chief planners for New York, Boston, London, Singapore and Toronto. Months later, I&#39;m still thinking about some of the perspectives I debated about with my peers in these great cities. You can see my earlier comments on the discussion, titled &quot;World Urbanists take Manhattan: Lessons learned and left&quot; at: </span></p><p><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana"><a href="/node/24956">http://www.planetizen.com/node/24956</a> </span></p>

November 1 - Brent Toderian

<p>Toronto city officials recently approved a $1.5 billion capital budget to tackle some of the city's most pressing infrastructure issues.</p>

November 1 - The Toronto Star

<p>A number of cities in California are adopting policies to limit the conversion of industrial lands to housing and, in some case, retail development. Cities insist they need to defend their industrial job bases.</p>

November 1 - California Planning & Development Report

<p>The American embassy under construction in Baghdad will be the largest, most heavily fortified and most expensive such facility in the world. And probably the most unnecessary, writes William Langewiesche.</p>

November 1 - Vanity Fair

<p>Proponents say carbon trading is an essential market-based strategy for combating global warming while critics argue that it provides cover for corporate polluters.</p>

November 1 - Democracy Now!

<p>Experts say smarter land-use planning is needed as risk from wildfires and droughts caused by global warming increases.</p>

November 1 - The Washington Post Writers Group

<p>Droughts are causing many Georgia municipalities to tightly restrict water use, but just across the border in Alabama is a city that has plenty of water to spare.</p>

November 1 - The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

<p>Plans to build an expansive mid-city park in Dallas may be squashed as voters consider whether they want to pay for a six-lane tollway and various other highway improvements to mitigate the loss of transportation routes through the proposed park.</p>

November 1 - The Wall Street Journal

<p>Seattle has shown that Kyoto Protocol-level reductions in greenhouse gases are practical and achievable, and won't hurt the economy. But with car use rising, much more needs to be done.</p>

November 1 - The Seattle Times