The Daily Source of Urban Planning News

Baltimore was only beginning to undo the ill effects of the architecture and planning response to the riots of 1968 when the protests and unrest of 2015 struck. Can the architecture field produce a more positive response to violence this time?

May 5 - Architect Magazine

In anticipation of the expected opening of the H Street/Benning Road streetcar line in Washington, D.C., Peter Dovak examines the evolution of streetcar planning over the past 20 years.

May 5 - Greater Greater Washington

In a segment for WNYC, journalist Simon van Zuylen-Wood discusses Amtrak's current status as a "national embarrassment." Decades of lackluster investment, he argues, make it difficult to prove demand in the first place.

May 5 - WNYC

Some think of May 4 as Star Wars day, others remember May 4 as the birthday of Jane Jacobs. Charles Marohn suggests that May 4 should now be known as "Urban Renewal Remembrance Day."

May 4 - Strong Towns

A new study by Harvard economists provides the best evidence yet that where children grow up matters to the outcomes of their lives.

May 4 - New York Times

Long considered a desert backwater and second fiddle to Las Vegas, the city of Reno is having a resurgence. Small entrepreneurs, industrial giants like Tesla, and artists inspired by Burning Man are converging to overshadow the fading casino economy.

May 4 - Next City

A proliferation of 99-cent stores in the Woodhaven neighborhood in Queens has strangled the commercial offerings in the neighborhood. But can residents or the local business improvement district do anything about the trend?

May 4 - TimesLedger

A Market Urbanism op-ed makes the case for high-rise neighborhoods as an integral part of successful cities—even if some Jacobs fans tend to overlook the benefits of such parts of town.

May 4 - Market Urbanism

Following up on last month's emergency rule addressing trains speeds, the Transportation Department issued new rules addressing tanker car standards, long thought to be one of the most important factors contributing to fiery oil tank car explosions.

May 4 - The New York Time - Energy & Environment

BLOG POST

Housing policy is not just about houses, it is also about people, and the determination of who may live in a community. We challenge communities to proclaim, “Yes in our backyard! We welcome new neighbors. We favor more diversity.”

May 4 - Todd Litman

The Milken Institute Global Conference brought hoards of business leaders to Beverly Hills last week. Sessions included some high praise for cities and buoyant predictions about innovation, development, and accommodating six billion city-dwellers.

May 4 - California Planning & Development Report

BLOG POST

Leading a walking tour of your neighborhood can be easy if you focus on the basic differences between types of neighborhoods.

May 4 - Michael Lewyn

BLOG POST

Well known planning scholar and theorist Dr. Karen Christensen, from UC Berkeley, introduces her findings from a decade of interviews with exemplary planners in the San Francisco Bay Area.

May 4 - JPER

An already controversial project got bad news earlier this week, as substantial increases in the expected cost of the Southwest LRT extension added more fuel to the fire for opponents of the project.

May 3 - MinnPost

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 13% of high school age students used e-cigarettes in 2014, up from 4% in 2013. Regulation is being developed, but health effects and related tobacco usage implications are not clear.

May 3 - USA Today

To the chagrin of many Orange County transportation leaders, two express lanes will be added to each direction on a 14-mile stretch of the 405 (San Diego) Freeway, one through conversion, and a general purpose lane funded in part by Measure M added.

May 3 - KPCC

Of all the inventions of the modern world, few have been so embraced as artificial light. But constant light, like that which floods city streets and illuminates buildings, is not necessarily healthy or safe. Some cities are trying to go dark.

May 3 - The Architect's Newspaper

Joseph Stomberg of Vox has initiated a series of articles on commuting in America, the first based on the issues explaining the domination of the auto, the second on the debate about the driving decline associated with millennials.

May 3 - Vox

Opticos Design, Inc., the Berkeley-based urban planning and architecture firm has launched a new website dedicated to the missing middle of the housing market.

May 2 - Logos Opticos: Composing Vibrant Urban Places

The results of a multi-lingual survey of residents in East Portland produced surprising results about which transportation investments are most desired.

May 2 - Bike Portland