The Daily Source of Urban Planning News

A key ruling on whether and/or how to allow the High Volume Horizontal Hydraulic Fracturing (or fracking) method of extracting natural gas is imminent in New York State. The decision could set a nationwide precedent.

January 13 - THE DIRT

Writing for the NY Times Sunday Review, Sarah Williams Goldhagen opines on the attraction of architects and urban designers to the design language of trees and other embodied metaphors.

January 13 - The New York Times

A police sergeant displayed his mediation skills at a regional planning meeting by temporarily replacing the facilitator after 20 tea party activists disrupted the meeting.

January 12 - The Press Democrat

There might be something to the analogy, opines Blair Kamin, when comparing the building's star status to its contribution to the urban setting.

January 12 - Chicago Tribune

Despite strong opposition from homeowners and environmentalists, the UK Government has just approved an ambitious investment in high speed rail linking London with Birmingham, Manchester, and Leeds.

January 12 - The Guardian

Llewellyn Hinkes-Jones makes a strong argument for why ugly buildings deserve some love.

January 12 - The Atlantic Cities

On the second anniversary of the devastating earthquake in Haiti, Sara Miller Llana assesses the rebuilding effort.

January 12 - The Christian Science Monitor

Laura Allsop chronicles the controversial plans, which have caused consternation amongst heritage workers and restorers.

January 12 - CNN

Rowan Moore judges the return of the "huge" housing estate in the shape of the 2012 Olympics Athletes' Village in London.

January 12 - The Observer

A new study has created unexpected tensions between public health advocates and smart-growth-oriented urban planners.

January 12 - California Watch

The City's top budget official has warned that dismantling the Redevelopment Agency could cost the city more than $109 million in new expenses.

January 12 - Los Angeles Times

According to a team reviewing the city's finances, a state-appointed emergency manager may not have to be put in place, indicating that Detroit isn't necessarily going broke. However, the city and union leaders must act quickly to prove so.

January 12 - The Washington Post

With strong advocates in Washington and in City Hall, planning continues for an ambitious multi-billion dollar effort to overhaul the Los Angeles River and its relationship to the city.

January 11 - Planning

The Super Bowl bid in Indianapolis has had a ripple effect in the community, leading to significant revitalization efforts and a "mini-building boom in anticipation of the big game."

January 11 - The New York Times

A new guidebook illustrates ways to create safer streets and more livable public spaces.

January 11 - Institute for Transportation and Development Policy

For those who missed it, Friday brought the end to the influential infrastructure focused blog -- The Infrastructurist

January 11 - The Infrastructurist

Used by Condoleezza Rice and George W. Bush to define a key difference between "free" and "fear" states, historian Jeffrey Wasserstrom looks to the global public uprisings of 2011 to prove the validity of the Town Square Test.

January 11 - Miller-McCune

Much of the existing literature on Gentrification looks at what happens to residents as places change. Two authors are focusing their attention on commercial uses to better understand the interrelationship between retail and changing neighborhoods.

January 11 - The Atlantic Cities

Writing in the Los Angeles Times, Bob Pool profiles a project by Urban Planner James Rojas, who's constructed an 80-square-foot scale model of Long Beach that residents and business owners can tinker with to illustrate their own vision of the city.

January 11 - Los Angeles Times

Dozens of renewable energy projects completed in California's national parks and forests have yet to be utilized due to a years-long squabble with Southern California Edison, wasting tens of thousands of dollars in potential savings.

January 11 - Los Angeles Times