The Daily Source of Urban Planning News

<p>In this new column, award-winning journalist and author Roberta Brandes Gratz reports on urban development crises around the country and the opportunities they present for positive action.</p>

July 8 - The Next American City

<p>AECom -- the Los Angeles based parent company of planning and design firm EDAW and a host of other development and engineering firms -- is continuing its consolidation.</p>

July 8 - CNN Money

<p>The town of Bridgeville, California, is for sale for the third time on the online auction site.</p>

July 8 - Forbes

<p>They just wanted to get away from growth and suburban sprawl by moving out to the country, but for residents of the Texas Hill Country, growth and sprawl were not far behind.</p>

July 8 - The New York Times

<p>If you are a billionaire in the market for a second (or third) house in Aspen, Colorado, the $135 million Hala Ranch might be for you.</p>

July 8 - The New York Times

<p>To help ease concerns about expansion -- a sore spot in town and gown relations across the country -- New York University is trying to engage its surrounding community through an open and inclusive planning process.</p>

July 7 - The New York Times

<p>The city of Chicago has leased four parking garages to generate more than $122 million for improvements to the city's parks.</p>

July 7 - The Chicago Tribune

<p>Will new high-rise buildings ruin the city's landscape?</p>

July 7 - The San Francisco Chronicle

<p>Restoring a historic theater in a downtrodden neighborhood of Norfolk, Virginia, has served to revitalize the neighborhood as well.</p>

July 7 - The New York Times

<p>Though Boston's historic Ames Building has lain fallow for 10 years, a new infusion of capital will turn this historic "skyscraper" into a four-star boutique hotel.</p>

July 7 - The Boston Globe

<p>New mapping has revealed that part of a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border is actually intruding on Mexican land, usurping between 1 and 6 feet of Mexican soil for more than a mile. The U.S. insists it was a mistake, but Mexico wants its land back.</p>

July 6 - Associated Press

<p>Announcing a deal that will further sharpen the fierce competition in the hotel industry, the seemingly insatiable Blackstone Group is set to acquire Hilton Hotels Corp. for more than $26 billion.</p>

July 6 - The Slatin Report

<p>The bald eagle has made a heartening recovery from the brink of extinction. But hundreds of other species are now in grave danger due to slashed budgets, Bush administration policies, and political interference in science.</p>

July 6 - The Los Angeles Times

<p>In New Orleans, some devastated neighborhoods are beginning to come back to life. But for those performing the revitalization, it is a long and often lonely path.</p>

July 6 - The New York Times

BLOG POST

<p class="MsoNormal">This year in <em>Parents Involved in Community Schools Inc. v. Seattle School District and Meredith v. Jefferson County (Ky.) Board of Education</em> the Supreme Court ruled that school districts could not assign students on the basis of race, even if the goal was to promote integration.<span> </span>To some this is the end of an era, with affirmative action and other diversity promoting programs in jeopardy as the court has now come full circle using the <em>Brown </em>decision to outlaw programs that promote integration.<span> </span>Most commentators on this ruling have highlighted the implications for school integration programs and even affirmative action more broadly.<span> </span>But the ruling also speaks to an issue pertinent to planners as well—racial segregation in American cities, and by racial segregation I am referring to the segregation of African Americans who are by far the most segregated group in America.</p>

July 6 - Lance Freeman

<p>Having gone 25 years without a comprehensive review of all routes and operations, officials at MARTA -- metro Atlanta's transit system -- have decided that the time is finally right for an overhaul.</p>

July 6 - The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

<p>Rural communities lag behind their metropolitan counterparts in terms of access to services and information. Greater investments in telecommunications technology and infrastructure can help bridge these gaps.</p>

July 6 - Center for American Progress

<p>Generating energy from renewable sources such as wind and water often requires stringing new transmission lines to remote areas, a prospect that concerns some environmentalists.</p>

July 6 - California Planning & Development Report

<p>A new report calls on planners in the metropolitan Boston area to significantly alter housing development patterns to avoid a severe loss of land and natural resources by 2030.</p>

July 6 - The Boston Globe

<p>Operators of the emerging high-speed rail lines in Europe are joining forces to improve the way European travelers move around the region. Some hope the partnership could increase competition between rail and low-cost airlines.</p>

July 6 - The Economist