The Daily Source of Urban Planning News

<p>A number of ideas for improving public transit and reducing congestion are floating around Los Angeles. But without consensus, it may be a long while before any of the proposed solutions is realized.</p>

October 1 - Los Angeles City Beat

<p>A proposal to expand Seattle's light rail system also includes provisions for extensive road construction, putting transit advocates in the awkward position of voting for both transit and roads.</p>

October 1 - The Seattle Stranger

<p>The deterioration of Ontario's aging roadways and bridges isn't emerging as an issue in Provincial elections.</p>

October 1 - Canadian Broadcasting Corporation

BLOG POST

<p style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: 'Janson Text'">I live a ten-minute cab ride from the airport. I love it. Many a morning, I have stumbled down the porch steps in flip-flops and a business suit, carrying an overnight bag and high heels to make a flight in an hour’s time. Several weeks ago, I stepped into a cab and chirped my usual, “Good morning—National Airport, please!” and settled back into the seat, ready to finish applying eyeshadow. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: 'Janson Text'">“Do you know how to get there?,” the driver asked.</span></p>

September 30 - Jess Zimbabwe

<p>This column from <em>The Washington Post</em> discusses the other most important criteria for development: timing.</p>

September 30 - The Washington Post

<p>A new study by Mark Delucchi, research scientist at the U.C. Davis Institute for Transportation Studies, has found that "motor-vehicle users in the U.S. -- unlike users in most European countries -- do not 'pay their way.'"</p>

September 30 - Streetsblog

<p>The construction of a new office tower on Russia Wharf exemplifies an improving commercial real estate market in Boston.</p>

September 30 - The Boston Globe

<p>Corporations have long been able to use regulatory instruments and the courts to override community interests to gain access to resources or to site noxious land uses. Now communities are fighting back.</p>

September 30 - Yes! Magazine

<p>Sprawling Calgary, Alberta, may have the biggest ecological footprint of any city in Canada -- and no municipal recycling program -- but will soon supply 75% of its energy needs through wind power.</p>

September 30 - The Globe & Mail

<p>In India, plans to build the world's largest statue and an accompanying complex dedicated to the Buddha are causing an uproar over concerns that poor farmers will be displaced from their lands.</p>

September 29 - The Globe & Mail

<p>Sao Paulo, Brazil, has recently brokered the first regulated stock sale of carbon credits, collecting more than $18 million in exchange for credits covering nearly 1 million tons of carbon emissions. This may lay the foundation for a carbon market.</p>

September 29 - The Houston Chronicle

<p>In response to the recent decision by Amherst County, Virginia, not to join a regional waste management partnership, this editorial examines why the American system of waste management is ineffective and antiquated.</p>

September 29 - Lynchburg News & Advance

<p>Locally-grown foods and an influx in chefs have brought a dining boom to Portland, Oregon, in recent years, making it one of the nation's best cities for eating.</p>

September 29 - The New York Times

<p>In the 15 years since its inception, San Francisco's Critical Mass bike rides have spread across the country, and helped to change the public perception of cyclists and streets.</p>

September 29 - The San Francisco Chronicle

<p>Pigeon poop is driving officials crazy in towns across the world -- crazy enough to propose putting the birds on birth control to cut down their populations.</p>

September 28 - BBC

<p>Two major development projects for downtown St. Louis were announced this week including plans for a headquarters relocating from the suburbs to downtown and the conversion of the closed St. Louis Centre shopping mall into a mixed use development.</p>

September 28 - St. Louis Post Dispatch

<p>In Manhattan's old Meatpacking District, New York City's Department of Transportation has converted a dangerous and dysfunctional expanse of asphalt into a stylish public plaza.</p>

September 28 - Streetsblog

<p>A new study shows that Victoria B.C. leads Canadian cities in terms of sustainable transportation initiatives. But, overall, Canadian cities are not performing as well as they could be.</p>

September 28 - The National Post

<p>The Americans with Disabilities Act has generally been the subject of much controversy and debate, but especially amongst planners and developers.</p>

September 28 - New Towns

<p>World-renowned environment experts have proposed a system of huge tubes placed in the world's oceans that would cycle nutrients to encourage booms in the population of algae -- organisms that naturally consume and sequester carbon.</p>

September 28 - The Guardian