The Daily Source of Urban Planning News

What if most cars were electrics, most electricity was generated locally, and new development was required to have solar? Would this paradigm make sprawl more energy sustainable than compact growth? A new paper argues yes.

August 6 - Science Daily

You think your daily commute is bad? In one of the world's largest cities, a lack of citywide rapid transit means daily commutes of four hours for many Jakarta residents. Help is on the way, but conditions may get worse before they get better.

August 6 - The New York Times

If the hiring of the city's first Chief Sustainability Officer is any guide, the Garcetti administration intends to make sustainability a priority for Los Angeles.

August 6 - KPCC

The temporary projects that enliven Britain's derelict and overlooked urban spaces offer a taste of the power of transformative placemaking. But they come hand in hand with increasing consolidation and homogenization in the architecture field.

August 6 - The Guardian

Flush with revenue from higher gas taxes, Maryland is moving ahead with plans for a 16-mile light rail line connecting the state's dense D.C. suburbs. It's seeking a private partner to help it construct and operate the planned Purple Line.

August 6 - The Washington Post

Mayor Ignazio Marino of Rome has banned private vehicles from Via dei Fori Imperiali, built by Benito Mussolini to link his palace in Piazza Venezia to the Colosseum. Initially open to buses and taxis, it will eventually be completely pedestrianized.

August 6 - The New York Times - Europe

Two decades of phenomenal growth have transformed Nashville into 'one of America’s hottest success stories.' In an op-ed for The Tennessean, Bill Freeman argues that for the area to continue to grow wisely it will need to embrace regional planning.

August 5 - The Tennessean

A new exhibition of the bold designs that were never executed in Los Angeles provides lessons for today's leaders and planners. By imagining a more public-minded path for Los Angeles, it provides the impetus for creating such a future.

August 5 - Los Angeles Times

Mexico City, Melbourne, and Vancouver are just some of the cities that have struggled to get citywide bike-sharing systems off the ground due to local laws mandating the use of bike helmets. A new helmet vending machine could help break the impasse.

August 5 - PSFK

BART commuters were undoubtedly delighted to board trains on Monday morning thanks to Gov. Jerry Brown's last minute action to return BART employees to work for one week while a panel investigates why negotiations have stalled.

August 5 - San Francisco Chronicle

Everybody's a progressive in Berkeley, right? As recent struggles over land use make clear, it depends on what you mean by "progressive."

August 5 - Dissent

In an interview with The Wall Street Journal, emergency manager Kevyn Orr explains how his own experiences living in once-derelict, now-thriving cities leave him optimistic about Detroit's revival.

August 5 - The Wall Street Journal

Blogger Andrew Lynch’s collection of unrealized city plans is a catalog of could-have-beens.

August 5 - Wired Blogs

London has always been a pedestrian-friendly city. But over the last decade the number of daily trips taken on foot in the city jumped by 12 percent, while walking declined nationwide. What explains the capital's pedestrian popularity?

August 5 - The Economist

Michigan is a national leader in rail-to-trail conversions, but a mining company in the Upper Peninsula will necessitate the first "reactivation" of a trail in the state. The federal Rails to Trails law sanctions such conversions.

August 5 - Detroit Free Press

While MTA’s East Side Access project, which will bring Long Island Rail Road (LIRR) trains directly to Grand Central Terminal by 2019, has received much attention, less well-know is a complementary plan to bring Metro-North trains to Penn Station.

August 5 - City & State

Senior citizen apartment complexes, a gas station, and 17 emergency communication towers are among the latest targets of staunch neighborhood opposition in the St. Louis area. What is the line between reasonable objections and "BANANAS" opposition?

August 4 - St. Louis Post-Dispatch

In the 1980s and 90s, a pair of accomplished architecture firms were asked to design restaurants for the world's most famous, and formulaic, fast food chain. See what happened when the avant garde rethought the golden arches.

August 4 - Smithsonian

Though Connecticut is well served by commuter rail, a new report indicates that only half of the communities with Metro-North station have land use regulations in place to maximize development around them.

August 4 - The Hartford Courant

Using 8,000 photos taken from atop the Tokyo Tower, photographer Jeffrey Martin has assembled a 150-gigapixel panorama of the city. The best part - its interactive - meaning you can pan and zoom to an incredible level of detail.

August 4 - io9