The Daily Source of Urban Planning News

<p>Southern California's wildfires have emphasized the fact that many people choose to live in disaster-prone areas all across the country. Many of them say the benefits outweigh the inherent risk.</p>

October 30 - U.S. News & World Report

<p>Housing activists are pushing city officials to adopt a type of eminent domain to take over neglected buildings and turn them into affordable housing. That idea is easier said than afforded by city coffers.</p>

October 30 - The Toronto Star

<p>The border towns of El Paso, Texas, and Juárez, Mexico, are increasingly becoming more and more alike -- from demographics, to land development types, to housing prices.</p>

October 30 - The New York Times

BLOG POST

<p style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><font size="3"><font face="Trebuchet MS">You drank the Kool-Aid; you know that if you link transit and land use to create transit-oriented development (TOD) the result is fewer car trips and a host of benefits. From Portland to Miami, Boston to Los Angeles, a record number of TODs are being built in the US. Yet most bankers, developers and regulators are drinking from a different cup. As a result the majority of new development adjacent to transit stops in America has been built in a manner oblivious to the fact that a rail stop is nearby.

October 29 - G.B. Arrington

<p>A look at the interesting architectural features of the new skyscraper in Mumbai that will serve as a corporate meeting facility and private residence for India's richest person.</p>

October 29 - Architectural Record

<p>Smart Growth projects are having trouble gathering support in Long Island, New York, mainly because of their large scales.</p>

October 29 - The New York Times

<p>Participatory planning in Philadelphia creates a new vision for the city's Delaware River waterfront.</p>

October 29 - The Philadelphia Inquirer

<p>Belo Horizonte is by no means a well-known city from the South American country of Brazil. But with more than 12,000 bars, the city is gaining notoriety as one of the world's best places to drink.</p>

October 29 - The New York Times

FEATURE

Seattle activist Jim Diers takes his expertise on cultivating neighbor power 'Down Under'.

October 29 - Mark Tirpak

<p>Criteron Planners, a certification reviewer for the LEED for Neighborhood Development program, offers its analysis of LEED-ND pilot project locations and areas.</p>

October 29 - Criterion Planners

<p>At a unique, combined meeting of two regional agencies, planners in the San Francisco Bay Area proposed several transportation pricing strategies to reduce global warming.</p>

October 29 - Inside Bay Area.com

<p>Two HOV lanes on I-93 built as part of the Big Dig sit largely unused two years after the project opened.</p>

October 29 - The Boston Globe

<p>With two major fires in four years, San Diego County officials are trying to evaluate their options. Though many acknowledge that the battle against forest fires is a losing one, there are no proposals to restrict home building in fire prone areas.</p>

October 29 - The New York Times

<p>Americans across the country suffer from unhealthy diets and too little exercise, but these cities' residents are the worst offenders.</p>

October 29 - Forbes

<p>Though the fate of Seattle's light rail plans remain undecided, developers are moving forward with plans for transit node developments.</p>

October 29 - Seattle Post Intelligencer

<p>Joining the ranks of other major American cities like Chicago, San Francisco and Houston, St. Louis has lost its bid to build a citywide wi-fi network. AT&amp;T cites high costs as it pulls out.</p>

October 28 - St. Louis Post-Dispatch

<p>A proposal to include advertising in certain visitor areas near San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge has been rejected.</p>

October 28 - The San Francisco Chronicle

<p>With a flood of new condos, booming downtown Toronto is the fastest-growing area in the city.</p>

October 28 - The Toronto Star

<p>A new survey from Smart Growth America notes that three-fourths of Americans think improving public transportation is a better long term solution than building roads.</p>

October 28 - Smart Growth America

<p>In an effort to curb its energy use, the city of Berkeley, California, is considering a plan that would subsidize the installation of solar panels on homes in the city.</p>

October 28 - The San Francisco Chronicle