The Daily Source of Urban Planning News

The Root Causes of the D.C. Metro Crisis
The 40-year-old system, second busiest in the nation after New York's, has seen ridership decline since 2010 as the region grows. A major cause is "frequency delays." The Washington Post reporters state that the subway has entered a death spiral.

Los Angeles Reaps the Benefits of Restoring the Santa Monica Bay
Los Angeles has made major progress in restoring the Santa Monica Bay. Now, The Bay Foundation's Tom Ford sees opportunities for L.A. to capitalize on its natural resources.

What's a Tree Worth?
The U.S. Forest Service has continued to refine the valuable i-Tree software program, which allows cities to calculate the benefits, in dollar figures, of the urban forest.
Seattle Introduces New Urban Park Prototype
Seattle's 12th Avenue park offers a prototype for future urban parks. It is compact, doesn't require buying a lot of costly land, and can accommodate neighborhood scale events and programs

Esoteric No More: Facadism Explained
Facadism is a critical concept for evaluating projects that rehabilitate, renovate, or redevelop historic structures—but it's often considered too esoteric for conversation. It's time we all got on the same page.

New Storefront Index Reveals Evidence of Jacobs's 'Sidewalk Ballet'
City Observatory illustrates a key contributor to a vibrant urban environment by mapping all of the businesses in the urban cores of the nation's 51 largest cities.

Visions of Revitalization Compete in Baltimore
A grassroots housing plan in Baltimore would keep control over neighborhood revitalization, and its benefits, in communities.

Bringing Pedestrian Life Back to Little Havana
Planners have set their sights on the Little Havana neighborhood of Miami with the goal of turning the area's car-centric Calle Ocho into a ped-friendly Main Street.

PBS Takes on Urban Planning, Good and Bad, with '10 Towns' Special
Beginning with the first U.S. planned urban development, St. Augustine, Fla., and ending with one of Portland's newest neighborhoods, the Pearl District, host Geoffrey Baer takes us through ten developments that left their mark, for better or worse.

D.C.'s New Streetcar Not As Slow As Rumored
Washington D.C.'s new streetcar line opened to a chorus of media naysayers who mocked the slow moving transit, but reality shows it's not quite as slow as some would have you believe.

Oregon Governor Kicks Off State Gas Tax Campaign in Eugene's Bus Rapid Transit
A transportation funding proposal including a gas tax will be prepared for the 2017 legislative session. The media event in the EmX bus highlighted the need to have continuous, dedicated lanes for the Eugene-Springfield bus rapid transit system.

Self-Driving Cars Have Their Own Lobby Now
A coalition of the automated, if you will, as Ford, Volvo, Google, Uber, and Lyft have formed the new Self-Driving Coalition for Safer Streets to lobby for the causes of the nascent self-driving car industry.

Resistance Rising Against Port Authority's Manhattan Bus Terminal Plans
Nicole Gelinas writes a column that deliberately establishes an urban vs. suburban conflict over the issue of a $10 billion proposal to build a new Port Authority bus terminal on Manhattan's West Side.
Facebook's Live Video Has Consequences for Local Governments
Localities face differing requirements from state to state when it comes to using social media. Are you ready for live video?

Feds Finally Kill $400 Million Tongue River Coal Railroad Proposal
The unraveling of the coal industry, as exemplified by the demise of Arch Coal, was on display again as federal regulators put the final nail in the coffin of a proposed coal railroad.

How Planning Fails to Make Women-Friendly Urban Places
Planning decisions overwhelmingly don't address women's needs, according to an article in The Huffington Post.

Report: Dog Parks 'Lead the Pack' in New Urban Parks
The Trust for Public Land's annual City Parks Facts report finds cities around the country are adding dog parks with the enthusiasm of a pack puppies.

Auditing D.C. Metro's New Bus Prediction Technology
Regular bus riders know how integral an accurate real-time bus arrival system can be to the experience of bus transit. D.C. Metro just made a switch in technology, and Greater Greater Washington evaluated the results (so far).

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When Will the Trucking Industry Electrify?
Tesla's success with the Model 3 begs the question: When will the trucking industry electrify?

Real Estate Prices Booming in Downtown Detroit
As downtown real estate prices soar, similar to other cities in the United States, it's possible to see signs of recovery around Detroit. Other parts of the city, however, are not seeing the same changes.
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City of Moorpark
City of Tustin
Tyler Technologies
City of Astoria
Transportation Research & Education Center (TREC) at Portland State University
Chaddick Institute at DePaul University
Regional Transportation Commission of Southern Nevada
Toledo-Lucas County Plan Commissions
Urban Design for Planners 1: Software Tools
This six-course series explores essential urban design concepts using open source software and equips planners with the tools they need to participate fully in the urban design process.
Planning for Universal Design
Learn the tools for implementing Universal Design in planning regulations.