The Daily Source of Urban Planning News

Neighbors Battle Over Pocket Parks In Seattle

<p>Homeowners in Seattle are trying to retain use of public land along the city's shorelines, but park advocates want the land for exclusive public use.</p>

March 4 - The Seattle Post-Intelligencer

New Thom Mayne Building Asserts Eco-Idealism

<p>The new San Francisco Federal Building, designed by architect Thom Mayne, has a soft 'green' underbelly to its hard industrial exterior.</p>

March 4 - Bloomberg

Federal Dollars Assisting Displaced Workers Go Largely Unused

<p>Though it is designed to cushion the blow for workers laid off because of foreign competition, the Trade Act Adjustment program is widely criticized for being difficult to access and unrealistic for many adults with extremely limited incomes.</p>

March 4 - The Wall Street Journal

BLOG POST

If You Build It, They Will Come...

<p> The planned expansion of Interstate-5 in San Diego County would finally complete the Southern California metropolis. Los Angeles and Orange Counties became wall-to-wall sprawl development decades ago, erasing all traces of their rural heritage and the scenic outdoors. Northern San Diego County, with its quaint beach towns, is tenuously holding on to the last vestiges of agricultural land and breathable open space. But these areas too are rapidly developing. It is no surprise then that I-5, the only north-south route along the coast, is increasingly traffic clogged. The county’s solution? Invest $1.4 billion to expand the freeway from 8 lanes to 12 or 14 lanes along a 26-mile stretch of the north county coast.</p>

March 3 - Diana DeRubertis

BLOG POST

The End of Planning (as we know it)

<p><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'"><font size="2">For as often as the Gulf Coast and 9/11 debacles and their aftermaths have been analyzed, one discussion has been conspicuously missing: how starkly those events, natural and man-made, revealed the inability of planning today--however professionally designed, organized and regulated—to contend with the vagaries of circumstances and conditions out of its control.

March 3 - Roger Sherman


Far East of South Beach

<p>Shanghai's market may have tanked, but its planners see an upside in Miami Beach. So do Mumbai's.</p>

March 3 - The Slatin Report

City Moves To Include Public Health Element In General Plan

<p>The City of Richmond, California, has received a grant from the California Endowment to include a Public Health Element in its General Plan -- one of the first in the state.</p>

March 3 - The Contra Costa Times


Automated Garage Comes To Manhattan

<p>Touchless parking garages, more common in Europe, will be opening soon in New York.</p>

March 3 - The New York Times

Austin Permitting System Goes Online

<p>Developers, neighborhood leaders and all interested parties will be able to track project approvals at every stage of the process.</p>

March 3 - Austin American-Statesman

London's Bold Plan For Greenhouse Gas Reductions Unveiled

<p>Mayor Livingstone set forth a bold, detailed plan to reduce London's greenhouse gas emissions by 60% by 2025. However, many sectors are outside the city's scope, such as an increase aviation emissions, and a nationwide price on the carbon pollution.</p>

March 3 - The Guardian

The Mega-Problems Of Hyper-Urbanization

<p>Why we should be worried about the rise of the world's new mega-cities.</p>

March 2 - The Los Angeles Times

Boomers Need Immigrants

<p>Within 20 years the baby boomer generation will need the immigrant youth, who are more successful than the public believes, reports USC planning professor Dowell Myers, in his new book, Immigrants and Boomers.</p>

March 2 - The Los Angeles Times

BLOG POST

Such a Sisyphean task this Thing we call Planning

<p style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><font size="3"><font face="Times New Roman">What is this thing we do called planning? Are we really planning or just reacting? And visioning? What’s that all about? These the questions that came to mind as I was reading yesterday’s - <em><a href="http://www.planetizen.com/node/23076"><span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none">Ineffective Local Planning Efforts Push County To Seek Greater Control</span></a></em></font></font><span style="font-size: 11pt; color: black; font-family: Verdana">. </span><font face="Times New Roman" size="3">And, also, how many articles like this are published on a daily basis?? If you were to add them all up from across the country, I’m sure the number wouldn’t be insignificant. </font></p>

March 2 - David Renkert

Instead Of Congestion Pricing, Try Parking Pricing

<p>A new report demonstrates that restructured parking fees could resolve a significant portion of Manhattan's traffic congestion, without the need for London-style congestion pricing.</p>

March 2 - Streetsblog

Beijing To Hit The 3 Million Car Mark

<p>With Chinese's new middle class embracing automobiles, gridlock in the capital is set to get a lot worse.</p>

March 2 - Reuters

Co-Ops Vs. Condos: A Primer

<p>While condos and co-ops share many attributes, confusion often persists about how the two function.</p>

March 2 - The Motley Fool

Sierra Club Backs Ballot Box Planning Measure In Florida

<p>Responding to concerns over the state's rapid growth, the environmental group has pledged to support a proposed measure that would allow voters to decide questions regarding planning and growth.</p>

March 2 - The Orlando Sentinel

Creating A Chinatown Without Chinese

<p>With South Korea's historic apprehension towards China, efforts at resurrecting or creating new Chinatowns in Incheon and other cities have been so far been lacking one key ingredient -- Chinese residents.</p>

March 2 - International Herald Tribune

Selling Roads To The Highest Bidder Won't Solve Transportation Problems

<p>While leasing public roads to private companies for large cash payments might be attractive for some public officials, it doesn't help solve the larger issues facing the country's transportation system.</p>

March 2 - The Hartford Courant

New SRO Building Gets Starchitect Treatment

<p>Architect Helmut Jahn's design for a new single-room occupancy building on the edge of Chicago's former Cabrini Green project gets high marks, but some criticize the cost of using high-end architects for affordable housing.</p>

March 2 - The Chicago Tribune

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