The Daily Source of Urban Planning News

<p>Rachel Carson is credited with launching the modern environmental movement with her landmark book "Silent Spring". Her work was attacked by the chemical industry. One hundred years after her birth, her critics are back.</p>

November 5 - PBS - Bill Moyers Journal

<p>Tribune-Review columnist Bill Steigerwald interviews economic Randal O'Toole about his new book, "The Best-Laid Plans: How Government Planning Harms Your Quality of Life, Your Pocketbook, and Your Future."</p>

November 5 - Pittsburgh Tribune-Review

<p>An elderly man watering his lawn in drought-stricken Australia was recently berated by a passerby for wasting water. A fight then broke out and the man was beaten to death.</p>

November 5 - Reuters

<p>Plans for a pedestrian-friendly city near Sacramento, California, have fallen short of goals, creating neighborhoods that are just as car-oriented and car-dependent as other nearby suburbs.</p>

November 5 - The Sacramento Bee

<p>Los Angeles City Council President Eric Garcetti is proposing much-needed changes to the way L.A. facilitates neighborhood development.</p>

November 5 - The Planning Report

BLOG POST

<p>Last week I attended the <a href="http://www.dcp.ufl.edu/sacrph/conference/conference.html">Society of American City and Regional Planning History</a> (SACRPH) conference in Portland, Maine. The conference attracted a variety of notable planners and historians to my hometown for sessions on everything from radical 1970s public participation exercises to best practices in waterfront planning.</p><p> At the conference, outgoing group president and historian Greg Hise gave a provocative lecture titled “Whither the Region, or Why Ought There to Be an ‘R’ in SACRPH?” In the talk he described how he believed there was a declining interest in the organization in studying regions, pointing out that the word was declining in use in the titles of papers presented at recent conferences.</p>

November 4 - Robert Goodspeed

<p>The states of Georgia, Alabama, and Florida have come to an agreement that will reduce the flow of river water out of Georgia as droughts have turned the three states against each other in a battle over limited water resources.</p>

November 4 - Reuters via Environmental News Network

BLOG POST

<p class="MsoNormal">Although it is sometimes difficult to recognize in day-to-day planning activities, our ultimate goal is to make the world better, that is, to help create paradise on earth. It’s a tough job, but somebody’s got to do it!<br /> <br /> There are two different and often conflicting concepts of how to create paradise. It is important that planners understand the differences between them.</p>

November 4 - Todd Litman

<p>Rapid economic and physical development are posing problems for China's environment. But a new eco-friendly development model may soon replace the heavily resource-reliant "SuperBlock" development pattern.</p>

November 4 - GreenBiz

<p>Government officials in Britain are calling on planners and designers to put more emphasis on re-visioning cemeteries as public parks.</p>

November 4 - The Globe & Mail

<p>In a tough month for Southern California, L.A. County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky claims that infrastructure investment and land use policies lessened the damage of the fires in the county -- more so than in other Southern California counties.</p>

November 4 - The Planning Report

<p>Independent Institute research fellow Gabriel Roth advocates for road pricing to relieve traffic congestion but laments when the revenues are not directed to new road capacity but instead applied to public transit.</p>

November 4 - The San Francisco Chronicle

<p>This editorial from <em>The New York Times</em> looks at a recently approved bill that will give more than $3 billion a year to help resuscitate Amtrak, and argues that more help is needed.</p>

November 3 - The New York Times

<p>Development along the riverside in Glasgow, Scotland, is being described as "rape" by two of the country's leading architects. They blame the city's planning policies for encouraging the destruction.</p>

November 3 - The Scotsman

<p>Tight restrictions and codes relating to immigrants their assimilation in Quebec are being blamed for causing a mass exodus from the Canadian province.</p>

November 3 - CBC

<p>No treat for preservationists on this Halloween, as the City Council of Stockton, California approves demolition of historic hotels to build surface parking lots.</p>

November 3 - The Stockton Record

<p>London Mayor Ken Livingstone discusses how congestion pricing came about in 2003, and the key role the business community played. Unlike London or NYC, downtown San Francisco merchants fear that congestion pricing will only be bad for business.</p>

November 3 - San Francisco Examiner

<p>With nearly $10 billion in bonds going up for a vote in 2008 to fund high speed rail in California, residents should consider the history of public works projects that have greatly exceeded their initial low cost estimates, writes Adam B. Summers.</p>

November 2 - Reason

<p>Consultants are advocating for the use of the "SmartCode" to help Hamden, Connecticut, bolster economic development and improve its urban form.</p>

November 2 - New Haven Register

<p>Philadelphia's city facilities are in disrepair, and a recently released report outlines the city prisons, buildings, and ventilation systems that would require millions of city dollars to repair -- money that the city doesn't have.</p>

November 2 - The Philadelphia Inquirer