The Daily Source of Urban Planning News

<p>In order to raise money to provide much-needed housing for its soldiers, the Russian Army has plans to auction of millions of dollars worth of property -- from huge mansions to entire towns.</p>

March 13 - BBC

<p>South Korea's new president has proposed the engineering and construction of a huge cross-country canal -- a plan he hopes will revive much of the country's depressed villages and offer an attractive venue for tourists and shipping companies.</p>

March 13 - The New York Times

<p>Plans for streetcars in Cincinnati are moving forward, as advocates have formally requested nearly $1 million to perform the preliminary studies required to apply for federal funding.</p>

March 13 - The Cincinnati Enquirer

<p>A recent ruling that upholds the right of local communities to control overbuilding may prove to increase the crackdown on McMansions -- and demand for design professionals and architects.</p>

March 12 - Architectural Record

<p>New scientific reports laying out the potential impacts of global warming on cities are being directed to planners, whom some say are not reacting to the changing climate adequately.</p>

March 12 - The New York Times

<p>Downtown waterfront redevelopment is attracting a new kind of resident to Yonkers, New York.</p>

March 12 - The New York Times

BLOG POST

<p style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-indent: 0.5in" class="MsoNormal"> <font face="Times New Roman" size="3">Why plan? That’s an important question for a planning skeptic like myself. I’m not at all convinced that conventional public urban planning has much value, despite (or because of?) spending eight years on a city planning commission. Yet, I don’t consider myself an “antiplanner”. I’m happy to leave that role to my friend and virtual colleague </font><a href="http://www.cato.org/people/otoole.html"><font face="Times New Roman" size="3" color="#800080">Randal O’Toole</font></a><font face="Times New Roman" size="3"> at the Cato Institute. (He even runs a blog called “</font><a href="http://www.ti.org/antiplanner/"><font face="Times New Roman" size="3" color="#800080">The Antiplanner</font></a><font size="3"><font face="Times New Roman">”.)<span> </span></font></font> </p> <p style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-indent: 0.5in" class="MsoNormal"> <font face="Times New Roman" size="3">Urban planning has a role even though, IMO, on balance, its application has had a negative impact on communities and cities. Notably, even the free market (and Nobel Prize winning) economist </font><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friedrich_Hayek"><font face="Times New Roman" size="3" color="#800080">F.A. Hayek</font></a><font face="Times New Roman" size="3"> recognized a role for planning in his classic book on political economy <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Constitution-Liberty-F-Hayek/dp/0226320847"><font color="#800080">The Constitution of Liberty</font></a></em>. </font> </p> <p style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-indent: 0.5in" class="MsoNormal"> <font face="Times New Roman" size="3">The question is: what <em>is</em> planning’s role and, perhaps more importantly, how has this role changed or shifted in modern times?</font> </p>

March 12 - Samuel Staley

<p>This piece from the <em>San Francisco Chronicle</em> argues that the best way to improve the city's sluggish public transit system is to put it underground.</p>

March 12 - The San Francisco Chronicle

<p>Crippling violence and dangerous streets in the Rose Town area of Kingston, Jamaica, have motivated Prince Charles to bring his Foundation for Architecture and Urbanism to the island ghetto to attempt a rebirth.</p>

March 12 - The Guardian

<p>James Howard Kuntsler muses on how the end of cheap oil will mean the parallel decline of the suburban sprawl economy of the South and its NASCAR subculture.</p>

March 12 - AlterNet

<p>Residents and public officials are calling on merchants to clean up Duval Street in Key West, Florida. Long considered the city's economic engine, the opposition believes some of the questionable quirkiness give the street and the city its character.</p>

March 12 - The Miami Herald

<p>Bay Area political columnist Dan Borenstein examines long-term transportation data and concludes that driving will only increase unless politicians make driving more expensive and transit cheaper, a solution he regards as unlikely at best.</p>

March 12 - The Contra Costa Times

<p>Libertarian economist Randal O'Toole has become notorious for defending sprawl in recent years. This article from <em>The Toronto Star</em> wonders if he might have a valid point.</p>

March 12 - The Toronto Star

<p>Plans were recently announced for a $4 billion revamping and extension of the public transportation system in Ottawa.</p>

March 12 - Daily Commercial News and Construction Record

<p>After three decades of planning, a new commuter rail line has opened in the San Diego area.</p>

March 11 - The San Diego Union-Tribune

<p>"Slum tourism" is on the rise in developing countries around the world. Some say the tours help the affluent understand the dire situations faced by the world's poor, but others say it's just a way to help Westerners feel good about themselves.</p>

March 11 - The New York Times

<p>A swath of residential developments are ushering in a more dense and more lively atmosphere into L.A.'s Wilshire corridor. But many are concerned that the new residences will add too much traffic to an already congested area.</p>

March 11 - The Los Angeles Times

<p>Farmland in Central California's San Joaquin County is replaced with development more than any other county in the state -- a wasteful pattern that could create the "next L.A.", according to a new report.</p>

March 11 - The Stockton Record

<p>Urban projects have resulted in the paving over of significant chunks of parkland in Melbourne, Australia -- land set aside more than 150 years ago to act as the city's lungs.</p>

March 11 - The Age

<p>Cities are undergoing major changes in terms of demographics and development patterns. How cities will react to these changes remains up in the air.</p>

March 11 - The Guardian