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Death and "De-Planning" in Gaza

<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:WordDocument> <w:View>Normal</w:View> <w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:DoNotOptimizeForBrowser/> </w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--> <!-- /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-parent:""; margin:0in; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language:EN-CA;} a:link, span.MsoHyperlink {color:blue; text-decoration:underline; text-underline:single;} a:visited, span.MsoHyperlinkFollowed {color:purple; text-decoration:underline; text-underline:single;} @page Section1 {size:8.5in 11.0in; margin:1.0in 1.25in 1.0in 1.25in; mso-header-margin:.5in; mso-footer-margin:.5in; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} --> <p class="MsoNormal"> <span>Like all of us I have been watching the carnage in Gaza with concern and growing despair. And like many people, I have struggled with how best to understand this conflict, fraught as it is with historic hatreds, accusations and counter-accusations. If it is at all possible I would like to attempt a pragmatic view, starting with the recognition that the historic conflict over Palestine concerning land ownership, use and associated rights may be seen as falling within the spectrum of issues related to land use planning.</span>

January 13 - Michael Dudley

A Year For City Ideas in Chicago

Chicago's 100-year anniversary of the Daniel Burnham city plan offers an opportunity to rethink how the city works and how it should look for the next 100, according to this piece from Blair Kamin.

January 13 - Chicago Tribune

Baghdad Combats Street Beggars

Officials in Baghdad are instituting a new program to sweep beggars off the city's streets -- a number that has risen sharply since the U.S. invasion in 2003.

January 13 - Agence France Presse

'Green' Governor Fast-Tracks Highway Construction

Environmentalists reject CA Gov. Schwarzenegger's attempt to waive new highway construction projects from environmental review to qualify for Obama's stimulus package, offering 'fix-it-first' construction and public transit projects as alternatives.

January 13 - Los Angeles Times

Hunting in the 'Burbs

It's open season in Montgomery County, Maryland, where hunters are being allowed -- and in some cases encouraged -- to hunt deer in populated suburban areas.

January 13 - The Washington Post


City Mandates Pet Tracking

San Marcos, Texas, joins a handful of other cities around the country in requiring pet owners to monitor their pets electronically.

January 13 - News 8 Austin

Pittsburgh Looks to Transit For Rebirth

Officials in Pittsburgh are hoping that expanding transit-oriented development will spur growth in struggling and decaying neighborhoods -- and they have the voter-approved legislation to help.

January 13 - Pittsburgh Post-Gazette


Global Warming May Trigger a 'Perpetual Food Crisis'

A new study predicts that by the mid- to late- 21st century, scorching summer temperatures may result in massive failures of heat-sensitive crops such as wheat.

January 12 - The Globe and Mail

Phoenix Falling

Some trends are indicating that when the 2010 Census goes through Phoenix it's going to show a shrinking population -- a first for the booming desert city.

January 12 - The Arizona Republic

Exxon to Congress: Give Us A Carbon Tax, Please!

Exxon's CEO has joined Al Gore, Dr. James Hansen, and others on the forefront fighting climate change in requesting a carbon tax, though they make in clear it should be in lieu of cap & trade, the method favored by the Democrats.

January 12 - The Wall Street Journal

Amid Downturn, Dubai Metro Moves Ahead

While the economic downturn is slowing many construction projects in Dubai, the city's 47-station light rail system is moving forward on schedule.

January 12 - Architectural Record

Preserving Cuba's Urban Quality

As U.S.-Cuba relations evolve with a new presidential administration, author Richard Louv argues that officials should be careful about relying on commerce to save the country's decaying urban areas without preserving them.

January 12 - Citiwire

A New Plan For Congestion Pricing in New York

Charles Komanoff reveals a revised new plan that aims to bring congestion pricing to New York City and use its revenue to reduce the price of transit.

January 12 - Grist

Chicago Misses Deadline for $153 Million Transit Grant

The city of Chicago has missed a deadline to approve a pending parking fee ordinance that would have helped the city qualify for $153 million in federal grant money.

January 12 - Crain's Chicago Business

Washington D.C.'s 'Inaugural Refugees'

The District of Columbia may be expecting the largest gathering of people in America's history for President Obama's inauguration, but many residents will also be leaving town.

January 12 - The Globe and Mail

SF's Parking Experiment to Test Shoup's Theories

San Francisco's federally-funded parking experiment SFPark will be a live test of the theories of dynamic parking management popularized by Donald Shoup.

January 12 - Streetsblog San Francisco

Cities See The Light

Through festivals, lighting master plans, and creative integrations of artistic interpretations, cities across the world are harnessing the power of light to reinvigorate neglected areas and renew public interest.

January 12 - The Christian Science Monitor

BLOG POST

A weak link

A common refrain among environmentally-minded planners is: policy X will reduce global warming. So why would anyone be dumb enough to oppose policy X? <br /> <br /> But often, global warming will be the weakest, not the strongest, argument for policy X.

January 11 - Michael Lewyn

Grow Your Own

In this excerpt from their new book, The Urban Homestead, authors Kelly Coyne and Erik Knutzen point out all the ways city dwellers can move away from industrial agriculture.

January 11 - AlterNet

Liverpool's Transformative Year of Culture

As Liverpool ends its year as the European Union's "Capital of Culture", the city is vastly different and better than it was just a year ago, according to this column.

January 11 - Financial Times

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