The Daily Source of Urban Planning News

<p>Even with the constant threat of Harvard's ongoing expansion and new attention from developers, the Riverside neighborhood of Cambridge, Massachusetts, still manages to preserve its quirky atmosphere and charm, though affordability has declined.</p>

March 18 - MIT Tech

<p>The Economist reports on how San Jose, CA and Las Vegas, NV, have tried -- and failed -- to revive their downtowns.</p>

March 17 - The Economist

<p>One Chinese lawmaker is claiming the coffee chain's outpost in Beijing's Imperial Palace Complex, a venerable symbol of American capitalism, is tainting the national culture that the site represents.</p>

March 17 - Forbes

BLOG POST

<p class="MsoNormal"><strong>Information Strategies for Answering Fundamental Planning Questions</strong></p> <p class="MsoNormal">In universities in the northern hemisphere, April and May are months for completing work and moving closer to graduation. Assignments are due. Exams are looming. Students are too tired to write well and professors are too tired to notice. In the crunch for time, enterprising students look to the power of new information and communication technologies to reach out beyond their harried contexts to experts who can help them answer important questions. If Paul Davidoff (now dead) had email, they reason, he would have been happy to respond.</p>

March 17 - Ann Forsyth

<p>Emory University hopes wants provide affordable housing for faculty and staff and tackle the area's traffic problem by building pedestrian-friendly, mixed-use communities on land near campus -- though some area residents aren't sold on the idea.</p>

March 17 - The Sunday Paper

<p>The new Paris-Strasbourg TGV line is the continent's fastest high-speed rail link yet, and will connect France with Germany and Eastern Europe.</p>

March 17 - Der Spiegel

<p>The suburbs of Brisbane, Australia could soon be home to 20-story high-rises under a new plan to accommodate the city's projected growth.</p>

March 17 - The Courier Mail

BLOG POST

<div class="MsoNormal"> </div><div class="MsoNormal"> </div><div class="MsoNormal"> </div><div class="MsoNormal"> </div><div class="MsoNormal"> </div><div class="MsoNormal"> </div><div class="MsoNormal"> </div><div class="MsoNormal"> </div><div class="MsoNormal"> </div><div class="MsoNormal"> </div><div class="MsoNormal"> </div><div class="MsoNormal"> </div><div class="MsoNormal"> </div><div class="MsoNormal"> </div><div class="MsoNormal"> </div><div class="MsoNormal"> </div><div class="MsoNormal"> </div><div class="MsoNormal"> </div><div class="MsoNormal"> </div><div class="MsoNormal"> </div><div class="MsoNormal"> </div><div class="MsoNormal"> </div><div class="MsoNormal"> </div><div class="MsoNormal"> </div><div class="MsoNormal"> </div><div class="MsoNormal"> </div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Helvetica" class="Apple-style-span">First, let me begin by introducing myself. I am Parris Glendening, and I serve as the president of the Smart Growth Leadership Institute in Washington, D.C., which is part of Smart Growth America. From 1995-2003, I was Governor of Maryland, and for more than 20 years before that I served at various levels of local and county government. I am excited about being part of the network of contributors here at Planetizen and participating in the discussion.<br />---<br /><br />In 1956 Pres. Dwight Eisenhower shepherded the Interstate Highway into existence, fulfilling a decades-long aspiration to link the nation with highways that could move both people and materiel as efficiently as those he had seen in Germany. Later, he would warn us against the military-industrial complex, but with a bit more foresight he might have warned against the asphalt-industrial complex, as well.

March 16 - Anonymous

<p>A real estate company in Chongqing city, China, turns the home of a man who refuses to move into an island. [Includes a stunning photo.]</p>

March 16 - Ananova

BLOG POST

<p>I&#39;m glad this blog to date has provided fertile ground both to challenge planning as a profession as well as to compliment planning when it happens to do something worthy.  In this spirit, I&#39;d like to irritate many of my colleagues out there and definitively say that starchitects are not the problem.  </p><p>I wish I could play the role of <a href="http://newstandardnews.net/content/fourthcolumn/?itemid=4244">Stephen Colbert</a> and ridiculously declare the end to this debate, but alas, I do not have the television airtime (or wit) to make this point as effectively as I would like.  This forum will have to do.</p>

March 16 - Scott Page

<p>Forget buying a home -- an increasing number of middle-class Americans are having a difficult time even finding affordable rental apartments.</p>

March 16 - Apartment Finance Today

BLOG POST

<p><img src="/files/u4/sl-spanish-sm.jpg" alt="Spanish-style home at Darrow Estates (small)" title="Spanish-style home at Darrow Estates (small)" hspace="5" vspace="5" width="200" height="128" align="left" />I&#39;m making a <strong>prediction</strong>: While the real estate market in RL (real life) is cooling off, the<strong> real estate market in Second Life</strong> (SL) is heating up.<br /><br />I was recently contacted via IM (instant message) by Elliot Eldrich. I interviewed Elliot several months ago for a feature-length article about urban planning in Second Life. (The article appeared in the January, 2007 issue of the American Planning Association&#39;s <em>Planning</em> magazine, but is now also <a href="http://www.urbaninsight.com/virtual/2ndlife0307.html">available online</a>.)</p>

March 16 - Chris Steins

<p>The city council unanimously approved the real estate tycoon's plans for a 70-story hotel and condo tower.</p>

March 16 - New Orleans Times-Picayune

<p>In Perris, California, a bedroom community in the outer orbit of Los Angeles, 1 out of every 53 homes is in default.</p>

March 16 - The Los Angeles Times

<p>Voters have approved construction of a bridge over the Elbe River in Dresden, Germany -- a construction project that puts the city in danger of losing its status as a United Nations World Heritage Site.</p>

March 16 - Der Spiegel

<p>A list of neighborhoods heading towards gentrification in the nation's 10 largest cities aims to give homebuyers and investors a chance to get in before prices skyrocket.</p>

March 16 - Business Week

<p>The proposed Florida Hometown Democracy constitutional amendment calls for citizens to vote directly on whether to make changes in local comprehensive plans, instead of elected officials advised by professional and citizen planners.</p>

March 16 - Florida Trend

<p>The city of Toronto plans to devote dedicated lanes to some of the city's major light rail routes. The project was promised in the mayor's re-election campaign and is expected to cost more than $2 billion.</p>

March 16 - The Globe and Mail

<p>Protests and violence have erupted in China's rural areas, where many of the country's poorest people struggle to find jobs. The government has pledged to improve spending to help provide for the rural poor and improve access to public services.</p>

March 16 - The Economist

<p>Bicycle advocates in San Francisco want the city to pave bike lanes with colored pavement, but so far the city has resisted the plan, citing a lack of standards.</p>

March 16 - Beyond Chron