The Daily Source of Urban Planning News

A section of the $4 billion World Trade Center Transportation hub, designed by Santiago Calatrava, opened to the public today. The project has already inspired controversy, and will likely continue to do so.

March 3 - The New York Times

As more and more people live on this planet, the pressure to build smart cities that feature environmentally sustainable infrastructure will become immense. Planners will be challenged to do more with less. Here's a discussion of this complex issue.

March 3 - CK Vango

Los Angeles' relative economic stagnation from 1980 onward was as much a choice as was the Bay Area's meteoric rise. According to planning scholar Michael Storper's account, Los Angeles' culture—not any policy or industry—is to blame.

March 3 - California Planning & Development Report

Professor Zhenghong Tang, from the Community and Regional Planning Program at University of Nebraska-Lincoln, taps mobile tech, aids access to environmental data.

March 3 - University of Nebraska-Lincoln

When it comes to housing construction, the best intentions of regulators aren't always enough to sway the market.

March 3 - Metro News

Three major American cities this week—San Francisco, Dallas, and Los Angeles—responded to the growing number of homeless living on the streets with sweeps, arrests, and seizures, respectively.

March 3 - San Francisco Chronicle

Los Angeles is experiencing an elevated anti-growth conversation and suspicion of insider dealings at City Hall. In the midst of this, a councilmember known as an "outsider" aims to reconcile his constituents with the city's development processes.

March 3 - The Planning Report

The long-time executive director of the South Coast Air Quality Management District, Barry Wallerstein, may be removed to make the powerful regulatory agency more business-friendly. The board meets in closed-session on Friday.

March 3 - Los Angeles Times

The fixed costs of infrastructure projects leave cities like Flint struggling to pay their bills with fewer people pooling their resources.

March 3 - The Atlantic

FEATURE

The latest installment of the "Planners Across America" series visits Columbus, Ohio, for a conversation with Planning Administrator Kevin Wheeler.

March 3 - Josh Stephens

A CityLab article takes a trip to Levittown, Pennsylvania for a lesson in how places change, even when some places stay the same.

March 2 - CityLab

A strong coalition is pushing for a $4 million planning effort to lay the tracks for commuter rail between New Hampshire and Boston.

March 2 - New Hampshire Business Review

The collective amount of time Americans spend commuting is staggering, and it's only growing.

March 2 - The Washington Post - Wonkblog

Between 2014 and 2015, Spain led 16 other countries by increasing its bicycle mode share the most—8 percent.

March 2 - Next City

A development controversy in Seattle raises larger questions about land use regulation authority.

March 2 - The Seattle Times

A newly hired cohort of chief bicycle officers is only the latest example of "title inflation," according to an article in Governing magazine.

March 2 - Governing

Maryland legislators are considering a rating system for transportation projects recently approved in Virginia. The bill would also check the power of the state's governor in killing project proposals.

March 2 - Greater Greater Washington

The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority board voted to shut down late night transit service on the T this week, finding that ridership did not justify the cost of the long operation hours.

March 2 - The Boston Globe

Brent Toderian barnstormed Edmonton, Canada recently, giving the city an A+ for policy aspirations and a D- in budgetary prioritization. That sounds like a problem in many other cities as well.

March 2 - Edmonton Journal

2007 had set the prior record, which sparked the term, "peak miles driven" or "peak car." Historically low gas prices and an improved economy have fueled more driving, resulting in a record of 3.148 trillion miles driven last year.

March 2 - Federal Highway Administration