The Daily Source of Urban Planning News

Love Legos? Looking for a Job?
This sounds like a dream for a lot of Planetizen readers: building models for Legoland.
Who Killed the Electric Car (in Georgia)?
Until this past summer, the Atlanta metro region was ranked second in electric car use in the United States. The generous state tax credit of $5,000 made electric vehicles (EVs) particularly attractive. But what happens when the credit is withdrawn?
Newark Trying to Make the Most Out of Port Newark
A lack of a master plan for Port Newark is one of the reasons the city of Newark is looking to improve on the leadership of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.
12 Seattle Schools to Get the Safe Routes to School Treatment in 2016
The Urbanist takes a close look at the first of 12 Safe Routes to School projects scheduled for Seattle schools this year.
Nova Scotia Cracks Down on Jaywalkers—Advocates React As Expected
The provincial government has taken draconian measures on jaywalkers in an effort to curb pedestrian injuries and fatalities.
GM Announces Renovation of Detroit's Iconic Renaissance Center
Detroit's most iconic building, the Renaissance Center, will soon get a major upgrade.
Satirical Ad Campaign Pitches Belgian Traffic Jams as World Heritage Sites
The "war on cars" and its pushback has a achieved a singular pitch in Belgium, where the national rail service has canvassed the country with a satirical ad campaign excoriating the country's horrible congestion.

Managing Abandoned Homes in North Braddock
The usual litany of Rust Belt woes hit North Braddock, Pennsylvania particularly hard. The Pittsburgh suburb has shed two-thirds of its population and is burdened with 350 abandoned properties.

Imagining the Future Urban Food Market
Public food markets can be key centers of urban commerce and social life. Late last year, a brainstorming event in London considered how they might evolve to accommodate modern lifestyles and technologies.
D.C. Metro Will Be Closed for Commuting, But Capitol Hill Will Be Open for Sledding
A large winter storm is bearing down on the East Coast, prompting advanced preparations by local officials.
Students Submitting Ideas for the Hyperloop
As a part of a competition sponsored by SpaceX, university students and independent engineering teams are building scale-model Hyperloop pods.
Data Plus Community: A Winning Formula for Green Infrastructure
These days, Big Data is the topic at hand, but Arup's Vincent Lee says data analysis can only go so far. He uses his work on the New York Rising Community Reconstruction Program to illustrate why a "human element" is crucial to finding solutions.
Op-Ed: Billionaire's Ballot Initiative in San Diego Trades Revitalization for Tourism
The unlikely alliance of a ballpark billionaire, tax watchdog, and environmentalists in San Diego circulate a planning ballot initiative that makes an all-too-familiar sacrifice: urban neighborhoods.
Odd-Even Licensing Worked, So Why Is New Delhi Halting It?
Reporting from the world's most polluted capital, Julie McCarthy speaks with Ari Shapiro on NPR's "All Things Considered." McCarthy talks glowingly about how successful the two-week trial went in reducing pollution and congestion even more so.

BLOG POST
A Year's Worth of Music About Places
Musicians from all varieties of musical genres spent the past year pondering, celebrating, and complicating our perception of places.
New Studies Reveal 5 Reasons Policymakers Should Prioritize Local Business in 2016
A raft of recent research finds that small, local businesses are critical to overcoming many of our biggest challenges. This article rounds up the new studies and what they say about why local business should be a focus of planning in 2016.
The Dutch Junction Explained
Cars and cyclists have issues at intersections. A new type of intersection design from the Netherlands offers improved protection to cyclists. The solution is based on the four islands near each corner of the intersection.

Friday Funny: A History of Political Cartoons on the Subject of Gentrification
Cartoonists have been satirizing the issue of gentrification for almost a century. Witness the evolution of gentrification political cartoons in an article by The Guardian.

On the Surprising Efficiency of Big City Commutes
Logically we might assume that as cities grow larger, commutes get harder. It can certainly feel that way. But research points to structural factors that actually make commuting in big cities more efficient.
Demographic Changes Spell Trouble Ahead for Auto Industry
It's not only young adults who are delaying in getting drivers licenses, but a drop in licenses among all age groups according to a new analysis of license data from 1983-2014 by the University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute.
Pagination
City of Moorpark
City of Tustin
City of Camden Redevelopment Agency
City of Astoria
Transportation Research & Education Center (TREC) at Portland State 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.