The Daily Source of Urban Planning News

A controversial new sales tax on motor vehicles in a state with no sales taxes survived a court challenge. As a result, Oregon consumers will have another reason to consider purchasing or leasing an electric vehicle: receiving up to a $5,000 rebate.

August 9 - Utility Dive

Car crashes are the leading cause of death for U.S. teens, and while parents often instruct teens not to text and drive, they admit to texting and driving at about the same rates as teenage drivers.

August 9 - Chicago Tribune

Concern about the city's supply of affordable housing is one of the key messages from the recent "geography of Jobs" report published by the New York Department of City Planning.

August 9 - The Real Deal

The popular game Minecraft offers deep lessons what building in the virtual world means in the real world.

August 9 - Places Journal

The U.S. power system is split into three separate sections with very little overlap. A more seamless infrastructure could deliver benefit, but a new study, still unpublished, is the first to take on the question of how much benefit.

August 9 - NREL

The Willamette Week put out a call for tips about electric scooter users acting badly. They got an earful of the unexpected.

August 9 - Willamette Week

A local block association leader expresses frustration with the development approvals process in New York City.

August 9 - Crain's New York Business

Legislation on the verge of approval in Massachusetts would enact a linkage fee, in effect, that would generate revenue for funding affordable housing.

August 8 - Governing

Repeal proponents have already planned a sequel for Proposition 6, regardless of whether the measure passes, resulting in the loss of over $5 billion annually from new transportation user fees, including a 12-cents per gallon gas tax increase.

August 8 - The Sacramento Bee

For doctors trying to provide mental health care to people who are incarcerated or detained by the New York City Department of Corrections, city jails pose a challenge — and provide an opportunity.

August 8 - Urban Omnibus

Oregon Metro's Regional Transportation Plan sets policy and project goals through 2040.

August 8 - Bike Portland

The $2.16 billion Transbay Transit Center opens to the public on August 11, with bus service launching on August 12.

August 8 - San Francisco Chronicle

The largest planning process in Denver's history has already completed two years of community engagement and planning work.

August 8 - The Denver Post

A series of new investments in the civic realm aren’t enough—some in Wheaton, Maryland want the community to catch up with its neighbors in providing a walkable town center.

August 8 - Bethesda Magazine

Cities around the country are scrambling with ways to accommodate monuments to a past that many consider as oppressive.

August 8 - National Public Radio

Columbus, Ohio has stood out from its midwest peer cities, with strong growth. Can the city keep it up?

August 8 - Forbes

The West Thames Street Pedestrian Bridge is over budget and will not be completed until late 2019.

August 8 - Crain's

State attorneys general and green groups are gearing up to fight the emissions rule rollback. Mayors would have a greater climate impact by helping their constituents drive less, argues Alissa Walker.

August 7 - Curbed

Chuck Wolfe reflects on his rapidly changing hometown, arguing that Seattle’s signature location and setting—however rearranged by the regrades of the past, Freeway Park, or a pending James Corner-led waterfront remake—remains for all to see.

August 7 - Crosscut

Anchorage officials have started to take a more assertive effort toward the clean up of nuisance buildings and properties that have become magnets for crime and other problems. This is the first clean-up of this scope since 2007.

August 7 - Anchorage Daily News