The Daily Source of Urban Planning News

Over the past decade, Texas has led on wind but lagged on solar power. That may soon change. Texas solar companies are now offering "all-solar" plans to take advantage of an improved market.

January 21 - Dallas News

Despite continued dispute over their effectiveness, carbon taxes and cap-and-trade programs in the United States and Canada have raised billions of dollars. And China has now followed suit.

January 21 - New York Times

Architecture critic Christopher Hawthorne describes an L.A. in flux, at once beholden to its postwar image and pushing in a new direction. The city, he says, faces existential questions on a scale unmatched elsewhere in the nation.

January 21 - The Architect's Newspaper

Among other things, the Las Vegas Strip is famous for seemingly infinite numbers of free parking spots. MGM, however, will soon change the game.

January 21 - Los Angeles Times

Sometimes, city walks can mean more than just getting from place to place. Author and book critic David Ulin discusses his favorite accounts of that rich experience.

January 21 - Barnes and Noble Review

The new transportation funding formula approved by voters in Texas will bring new funding to the Texas Department of Transportation.

January 21 - The Dallas Morning News

After heavy snow, protected bike lanes can be caught in an unfortunate position between roads and sidewalks. More public awareness may help keep them clear for winter cyclists.

January 21 - Chi.Streetsblog

The D.C. Zoning Commission last week approved a new zoning code for the nation's capital. The new code will go into effect in September.

January 21 - WAMU

FEATURE

Though the need for resilient communities is obvious, exactly how to measure resilience is less obvious. Edward J. Jepson, Jr. provides a new metric of the evidence of a community's resilience and produces a corresponding ranking of 30 U.S. cities.

January 20 - Edward J. Jepson Jr.

Here's a counter-intuitive proposition for transit agencies: feed the Twitter trolls.

January 20 - The Urban Edge

On the fringes of the built environment in Southern California, comes a turn of events much more common in the urban core: the California Environmental Quality Act has been invoked to put the brakes on a general plan update.

January 20 - The Desert Sun

A revolution is happening in the automotive industry. Self-driving cars, electric vehicles, and car sharing programs are disrupting the traditional car manufacturer's industry. Could personalized, 3D printed cars, be the next trend?

January 20 - Cities of the Future

This past April, the Landmarks Law turned 50. Its legacy and impact has been inconsequential for shaping the urban environment.

January 20 - Thriving Cities Blog

The price of oil has been on a steady decline since 2014, and the housing markets of oil industry towns are on their own, similar slide.

January 20 - The Wall Street Journal

A study presented last week to the Transportation Research Board shows that the quality of the bike infrastructure has a significant effect for commuting rates and safety.

January 20 - Streetsblog USA

Sacramento Bee's political columnist, Dan Walters, writes that NIMBYs are among the main reasons for the state's chronic housing crisis, and one of their main tools is the California Environmental Quality Act, which must be reformed by politicians.

January 20 - The Sacramento Bee

The Colorado Department of Transportation's RoadX pilot project will test early alerts to drivers on Interstate 70.

January 20 - FutureStructure

Planner Clement Lau shares his New Year's resolutions: ten professional development and career growth goals for planners and urban design professionals.

January 20 - UrbDeZine

A new report by U.S. PIRG and the Frontier Group identifies the highway projects most likely to break the transportation funding bank.

January 19 - Frontier Group

Any open streets benefits for a proposal to shut down Clark and Addison streets near Wrigley Field would have been secondary to security concerns—but it's all conjecture after the Mayor's Office nixed the idea.

January 19 - Chicago Tribune