The Daily Source of Urban Planning News

The residents of Atlantic City are chomping at the bit for a chance to prove their resilience. Investors are also game.

July 1 - Philadelphia Inquirer

Alaska's 11.30 cents per-gallon gas tax, lowest in the United States, increases today for the first time in 45 years. As of July 1, the tax increases to 12.25 cents. Yes, by less than a penny. Percentage wise, though, it looks bigger: 8.4 percent.

July 1 - Planetizen

Telecom companies don’t want to compete with local governments to provide Internet to residents, but a recent rule by the federal government allows them to do just that. Pushback has come from an unlikely source: state attorneys general.

July 1 - Pacific Standard

BLOG POST

Laws designed to keep pedestrians off streets are not merely useless, but create a variety of social harms.

July 1 - Michael Lewyn

The answer depends on location, according to previous studies on EVs. The study from NBER evaluated both gas and electric-powered vehicles to determine their effect on the environment. A surprising recommendation is a new road funding option.

July 1 - CityLab

Local residents are upset with the effects of the placemaking installment in Chicago, opened this spring—namely slower traffic and a polka dot color scheme. An article in DNAinfo points out that slowing traffic was kind of the point.

July 1 - DNAinfo Chicago

The rural county of Story in Iowa, located to the north of Des Moines, is launching a planning process that will set a 20-year planning agenda for the county's 90,000 residents.

July 1 - Ames Tribune

Florida Governor Rick Scott approved a $78 billion state budget last week, which includes $25 million for a statewide network of non-motorized trails.

July 1 - Reuters

The latest installment of a series titled "Field Notes from Gentrified Places," written by Vinson Cunningham, focuses on the city of San Francisco.

June 30 - McSweeney's

CBRE and Maastricht University 2015 edition of an index measuring the adoption of the Environmental Protection Agency's Energy Star program and the U.S. Green Building Council's LEED standard.

June 30 - Minneapolis Star Tribune

The price of long commutes can't just be measured in lost hours. Income segregation, job sprawl, and the resulting negative feedback on families eats into overall economic and social well-being.

June 30 - Chicago Magazine

The Associated Press reports that while the exact details of the compromise plan that involve an 11.9-cent gas tax increase have yet to be released, the deal affects Gov. Jay Inslee's proposed low carbon fuel standard.

June 30 - Seattle Post-Intelligencer

When Congress returns from the July 4 recess, they will have less than four weeks to pass and fund a transportation bill—be it for six years, as desired by transportation advocates, or less, as Senate Finance Committee Chair Orrin Hatch prefers.

June 30 - The Hill

The Texas city is the largest municipality so far to sign onto the Blue Zones Project, an initiative for improving longevity. In a nutshell, Blue Zones wants to make healthy choices the easy ones.

June 30 - Next City

Chinese and Indian cities have been quick to welcome housing developments modeled on North American suburbs, including "Orange County" and "Vancouver Forest" in Beijing. This globalized sprawl perpetuates all the ills of our own.

June 30 - The City Fix

The familiar tales of expensive living in U.S. cities like San Francisco, New York, and Vancouver gain a little perspective when compared to London. Or maybe London just provides a crystal ball to the future of those cities and others like them.

June 30 - The Observer

Stymied for a time by lackluster investment, planned redevelopment of Hudson Yards on Manhattan's West Side is picking up speed. Joining residential buildings and budget hotels, office towers will bring municipal revenues back up.

June 30 - The New York Times

According to this editorial, Governor Larry Hogan's decision to halt a planned $2.9 billion light rail line betrays a politically-motivated preference for roads.

June 30 - Baltimore Sun

An article in Governing argues that increased housing supply in Bricknell has helped keep down the costs of housing in adjacent neighborhoods like Overtown and Little Havana.

June 29 - Governing

Call it tactical urbanism, call it reactivating spaces, call it good old fashioned fun—games like ping pong, foosball, and bean bag toss are central to plans to make Westlake park more hospitable.

June 29 - KUOW