The Daily Source of Urban Planning News

Bloomberg's Office In Hot Water Over Yankee Stadium Deal

Mayor Bloomberg's office reportedly cut a deal with the Yankees allowing 250 more parking spaces and three additional billboards at their new stadium in exchange for a luxury suite, complete with free food and access to post-season games.

January 8 - The New York Times

BLOG POST

Helping is Hurting

<p> Protecting the poor and protecting the environment are two areas we haven’t quite figured out yet. Put them together, and we’re really up a creek. And we are, because these two silos are actually linked very closely. The relationship between poverty and environmental degradation is incredibly complex, but you wouldn’t guess it by looking at some recent policies gathering support out there in the world. Solutions, it would seem, are incredibly simple. But most of these ideas, though well-intentioned, address only one side of the poverty-environment relationship -- and really hurt the other. </p>

January 8 - Nate Berg

Philadelphia Trains to Try Out Quiet Cars

Starting Monday, some SEPTA trains will launch a pilot program that discourages too-loud talking, a problem now prevalent during rush-hour.

January 8 - Philadelphia Inquirer

American Architects Taking on the World

As they currently lead the way in designing the most avant-garde projects for overseas clients, American architecture firms must understand the roots of their success to stay afloat .

January 8 - Newsweek

L.A. Subway Construction Timeline is "Unacceptable"

It will take more than two decades to expand Los Angeles' Subway to the Sea by 10 miles, according to an MTA timeline. The mayor's office and transit activists are pushing for it to get done more quickly.

January 8 - Los Angeles Times


Sanjay Gupta Discusses Livable Cities

Correspondent/neurosurgeon Sanjay Gupta, who has been tapped to fill the Surgeon General position by President-elect Obama, talks about 'livable cities' as they relate to climate change and public health.

January 8 - WorldChanging

Skyscraper Farms, Agriculture for the Future?

Thirty-story buildings used for crop-growing is a good idea on paper, but the challenges still outweigh the benefits.

January 8 - The Christian Science Monitor


Coal Ash Dumps Unregulated, Pose Health Risks

The catastrophic spill of coal ash sludge in Tennessee is a wake-up call: there are more than 1,300 such dumps across the U.S., and, as a result of coal industry lobbying, no federal regulations for safe storage, reuse or disposal of the waste.

January 8 - New York Times

An Argument for Congestion Pricing

In the first of two guest posts, UCLA researcher Eric A. Morris blogs on the logic behind congestion pricing.

January 8 - The New York Times

Living at the Mall - Not Just a Figure of Speech

What comes next for the doomed, enclosed mall across America? This article highlights a number of solutions, including an adaptive reuse model that incorporates housing units inside the mall itself.

January 8 - HousingWire

FEATURE

TOD Q&A With John Renne and Jeff Wood

Transit oriented development experts John Renne, PhD, and Jeff Wood recently fielded questions from Planetizen readers about TOD, its current applications and its future.

January 8 - Planetizen

Trans-Texas Corridor Plans Dropped

Plans for a broad statewide highway project known as the Trans-Texas Corridor have been abandoned by state officials.

January 8 - The Dallas Morning News

Miami's Highway Shoe Mystery Remains Unsolved

Was it a walkability protest, political demonstration, or just an accident? Regardless, the thousands of used shoes that covered Miami's Palmetto Expressway last week, delaying traffic for hours, are now on their way to Haiti.

January 7 - Miami Herald

One Victory for the City in Billboard Battle

A federal court has knocked down a previous ruling that Los Angeles' billboard ban is unconstitutional.

January 7 - Los Angeles Times

Oregon UGB Expanded

Bend, Oregon councilmembers took no more than five minutes to vote to expand the city's urban growth boundaries, adding nearly 9,000 acres of developable land to the city's map.

January 7 - KOHD

Canada on Verge of Wind Energy "Breakthrough"

Canada is now on the road to developing enough capacity to have at least some residents in every province receiving at least some of their energy from turbines.

January 7 - The Globe and Mail

For Amish, Building Code and Religion Don't Jibe

Eleven Amish families have sued their own town for religious discrimination in its building code.

January 7 - Chicago Tribune

Obama Knows Jane Jacobs

Last summer in Toledo, former mayoral candidate Keith Wilkowski handed Barack Obama a book, saying it is the most important book about rebuilding cities. Obama responded, 'Is it Jane Jacobs?'

January 7 - BeyondDC

Cities and Cognitive Burnout

Compared to natural settings, busy urban environments can be detrimental to cognitive functioning and self-control. Well-designed, biodiverse parks are integral to counterbalancing the concrete jungle.

January 7 - The Boston Globe

Young, Japanese, and Car-Free

Young Japanese men and women are ditching the car as a status symbol, sparking concern for car companies.

January 7 - The Oregonian

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