The Daily Source of Urban Planning News
Should Toronto Put the Bus Stop Up For Sale?
<p>A transportation official in Toronto is hoping to convince colleagues that the system should allow advertisers to buy naming rights for transit stops in the city as a way of increasing revenue, but many remain opposed.</p>
Governor Looks to Slice Park With Power Line
<p>California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is pushing forward with plans to run a power line through the middle of one of the state's parks -- much to the chagrin of environmentalists.</p>
Developer Action Needed to Spur Light Rail Plans
<p>Private investors and developers must come forward and plan around proposed rail lines in Detroit if there is any hope of transit materializing, according to this editorial.</p>
Cities Built From Scratch
<p>This slideshow from <em>Slate</em> looks at the elaborate plans for new cities in the United Arab Emirates, and compares them to other built-from-scratch cities in history.</p>
City Mayors To Candidates: Notice Us!
<p>Mayors of Reading and Scranton, Pa. plead for presidential candidates to address substantive city-region issues, such as transit access, investment in high-tech industries and increased federal funding for sustainable infrastructure improvements.</p>
BLOG POST
A City The Car Built?
<p> When talking to people about Los Angeles, one comment I often here is that L.A. was the first city to be built around the automobile. This statement certainly makes sense when you look at the current landscape of Los Angeles – with its freeways and strip malls and crowded parking lots – and lack of a widespread rail transit infrastructure when compared to other dense American cities.<br /> <br /> The problem with this statement is that it’s not really true. While the car has definitely left its impression on the region, Los Angeles could actually be considered a textbook example of a city built around transit – albeit one that no longer exists.<br />
BLOG POST
Finishing the Exit Project in Planning
<p class="MsoNormal"> My recent posts have provided advice on the exit project or thesis in planning: <span style="background: yellow none repeat scroll 0% 50%; -moz-background-clip: -moz-initial; -moz-background-origin: -moz-initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: -moz-initial">how to <a href="/node/29520" target="_blank">get started</a>, write a <a href="/node/29949" target="_blank">proposal</a>, <a href="/node/30572" target="_blank">manage</a> one’s committee, and <a href="/node/29121" target="_blank">troubleshoot problems</a></span>.
Bike-Sharing Comes to D.C.
<p>Based on Paris' Velib bike-share program, private sponsorship will support SmartBike in Washington, DC. For a $40 annual membership fee, SmartBike users can check out three-speed bicycles for three hours at a time.</p>
Boston's Cruise Boat Terminal Faces Uncertain Future
<p>Once supported by the Mayor and Massachusetts Port Authority, plans to enhance Boston's Black Falcon cruise boat terminal are now up in the air.</p>
Learning From Vancouver
<p>Scholar and Brookings Fellow Christopher B. Leinberger says Vancouver provides an accessible model for American cities as they look for examples of sustainable development done right.</p>
The Value Of Outdoor Space
<p>Private outdoor space, such as balconies and terraces, are valuable assets to highrise urban dwellers in New York City -- at least, on paper. Whether or not they are actually used to enjoy the outdoors is another issue entirely.</p>
How Urban Road Networks 'Evolve'
<p>Think a city's road network is a result of rational planning? Well, think again. After analyzing over 300 cities -- both old and new -- scientists have discovered that cities tend to grow like organisms, and follow a similar mathematical pattern.</p>
Sustainable Cities Could Save The Planet
<p>A review of the 7th annual EcoCity World Summit reveals some of the ideas and innovations the planners, architects and builders are using to create greener and more sustainable cities.</p>
Earth To Houston: Wake Up And Smell The Greenhouse Gas Emissions
<p>While the American Dream Coalition celebrates the 'freedom and affordability' of Houston -- Robert Steuteville wonders why the group ignores the environmental and financial consequences of such an auto-dependent city.</p>
More Americans Struggling With Energy Poverty
<p>Rising natural gas, heating oil and electricity prices are becoming a major financial burden for millions of Americans, and without more generous relief programs many could face service shut-offs.</p>
Low Cost Bus Carriers Competing For Travelers
<p>Boltbus, a joint venture between Peter Pan and Greyhound, is betting high gas prices and clogged airline terminals, will make way for yet another low-cost carrier between Boston and New York City.</p>
Strenghtening The Center City Is Not Enough
<p>Harald Bodenschatz calls for a radical shift in the urban planning discourse when he claims for a revitalization not only of the downtown, but of the district centers and of suburbia itself, which should be made denser and more valuable.</p>
BLOG POST
Building Green in Los Angeles
<p> Last Tuesday was a big day for me and an even bigger Earth Day for the City of Los Angeles. After 18 months of meetings, focus groups, workshops, conference calls, briefings, and a lot of collective putting together of heads the City Council unanimously passed a landmark green building ordinance. Three hours later it was signed into law by the Mayor. </p>
BLOG POST
The Case for Density in Sustainable Cities
<p> <span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial">One of the many signs that green development and design is reaching a tipping point toward becoming business-as-usual, is the quantity of articles and writings on the subject in what might be considered "mainstream" land development publications. Case-in-point is the current Issue of <em>Urban</em><em> Land</em>, the <em>Green</em> issue. This attention is a good thing, despite the growing need to ensure that developments that play the green card, truly do walk the talk.</span><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial"> </span> </p>
BLOG POST
Live From Vegas: Millennial Planners, Activist Planners, & The CE Soap Opera
<p> <img src="/files/u4/20080428-apa-0667.jpg" alt="Las Vegas Strip" title="Las Vegas Strip" hspace="5" vspace="5" width="320" height="240" align="right" /> I'm at the Paris Hotel on the Vegas strip for the 100th annual American Planning Association (APA) <a href="http://www.planning.org/nationalconference/">conference</a>, which started Saturday, and runs through Thursday, May 1. The conference offers 300 sessions and 60 mobile workshops to the approximately 5,000 participants. </p> <p> And it's going to be a crowded week, if the 30-minute line for coffee this morning in the Paris boulangerie is any indication. </p> <p> <strong>Infrastructure matters; Planners should be politically active.</strong> </p>
Municipality of Princeton
Roanoke Valley-Alleghany Regional Commission
City of Mt Shasta
City of Camden Redevelopment Agency
City of Astoria
Transportation Research & Education Center (TREC) at Portland State University
US High Speed Rail Association
City of Camden Redevelopment Agency
Municipality of Princeton (NJ)
Urban Design for Planners 1: Software Tools
This six-course series explores essential urban design concepts using open source software and equips planners with the tools they need to participate fully in the urban design process.
Planning for Universal Design
Learn the tools for implementing Universal Design in planning regulations.
