The Daily Source of Urban Planning News

The San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency voted 6-0 on March 3 to approve a controversial plan to redesign 1.3 miles of Polk Street, one of the most dangerous corridors for biking and walking in The City. It only took 2.5 years.

March 5 - The San Francisco Examiner

Be a citizen, not just a consumer.

March 5 - PlaceShakers

It might be hard to believe if you're in Boston right now, but the entire West Coast is suffering a poorly timed dearth of snow, a critical source of drinking water and hydroelectric capacity for the region.

March 5 - The Bellingham Herald

Castle Rock, located between Denver and Colorado Springs, has approved a massive shopping and residential development. The project will be built on top of a prairie dog colony.

March 5 - The Denver Channel

Could it be that places for the dead might be a new source of urban innovation? Austin provides an example of new thinking regarding urban resting places.

March 5 - Next City

The tendency of transportation planning of the 20th and 21st centuries to negatively impact poor and minority populations received deep attention on national media outlets over the past few days.

March 4 - Slate

The contract is signed, after years of planning, Bikeshare is coming to Atlanta as part of an ambitious goal to double the number of bike commuters in the city by 2016.

March 4 - Atlanta Creative Loafing

Sometimes a public shaming can be good for less-than-desirable land uses. Case in point: designers mobilizing to remodel a notorious parking crater in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

March 4 - Tulsa World

A huge crowd braved un-Texas-like weather this weekend in Dallas to participate in the "Festival of Ideas." The Dallas Morning News hopes the citizens of Big D will keep up their momentum in working to improve their city.

March 4 - The Dallas Morning News

In some places, it might be hard to imagine even considering a cap on the development of commercial development. Palo Alto, home to Stanford University and a hot bed of California's tech industry, did just that in City Council earlier this week.

March 4 - Palo Alto Weekly

The Wall Street Journal examines desalination efforts on the Central and South Coasts, starting with the reactivation of a Santa Barbara plant. Notwithstanding criticisms on costs and environmental damage, eight plants have been built since 2006.

March 4 - The Wall Street Journal

With as many as a half-dozen groups vying to develop an NFL stadium in Los Angeles, things were bound to get ugly. And they did. A report warns of a possible terrorist attack at one stadium site. The report's publisher? Backers of a rival stadium.

March 4 - California Planning & Development Report

A sweeping remodel of Cleveland's Public Square (designed by James Corner Field Operations) will begin construction later this month, to be complete in time for the 2016 Republican National Convention.

March 4 - The Cleveland Plain Dealer

Alain de Botton has an idea that beauty is not in the eye of the beholder, when it comes to cities anyways. He also proposes a system for evaluating the beauty of the world's cities (spoiler: most cities don't qualify).

March 4 - CityLab

FEATURE

"Zoned in the USA: The Origins and Implications of American Land-Use Regulation," by Sonja Hirt, describes the exceptional characteristics, compared to European land use regulations, that make U.S. zoning laws so conducive to sprawl.

March 4 - Josh Stephens

OpenStreetMap has released an animated map to illustrate the impressive growth of the project over the first ten years of its existence.

March 3 - Maps Mania

The Nissan Leaf, the world's best selling electric vehicle (EV), has a major depreciation problem: leasing contracts are so favorable that when the lease expires, dealers return many of them to the manufacturer because of low demand.

March 3 - The Wall Street Journal - Business

Historic planning documents, like those found in the APA's Planning Advisory Service, are full of lessons about how past planning doctrines failed their intentions, and it's always a good time for planners to re-evaluate their antecedents.

March 3 - Strong Towns

An exhibit at LA’s Annenberg Space for Photography looks at how different communities are adapting in order to become resilient to the threats of climate change - a review by LA County planner Clement Lau.

March 3 - UrbDeZine

An article by Sven Borg for the Idaho Statesmen introduces the concept of infill while also detailing some of the challenges facing a wave of development in Downtown Boise.

March 3 - Idaho Statesman