The Daily Source of Urban Planning News
BLOG POST
How Cities Grow Big; Not How Big Cities Grow!
Can cities stop growth? is there an ideal size for a city-region? What really matters is HOW a city grows big, not how big a city grows. Design matters. When people suggest a city is getting too big, shift the conversation from quantity to quality.
Responsible Tourism
Communities across America are competing for tourist dollars, but what can they do to stand out from the crowd? Ed McMahon shares ten principles to "preserve the goose that lays the golden egg."
Legislation to Decimate the Federal Gas Tax Resurfaces
Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) has reintroduced a bill to cut the federal gas tax by 80 percent and give transportation authority to states, known as devolution. Also, House Transportation Chair Bill Shuster is promoting repatriation as a funding source.
Ahead of Schedule: Detroit Wrapping Up Installation of 40,000 LED Streetlights
In perhaps the brightest sign yet of recovery, the Detroit Public Lighting Authority has made incredible progress on a project to install 40,000 LED streetlights around the city's residential neighborhoods.
State Supreme Court: Development Can Block Views of the Brooklyn Bridge
In a tale as old as New York City, residents are upset that a development project, already underway in Brooklyn, will block view of the Brooklyn Bridge from the Brooklyn Heights Promenade.
Study Measures Street Connectivity for Evidence of Sprawl's Decline
A study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences finds evidence of the decline of sprawl as the dominant form of construction in the United States and attracted lots of media attention in the process.
FEATURE
Book Review: 'City by City'
A Planetizen review of "City by City: Dispatches from the American Metropolis," edited by Keith Gessen and Stephen Squibb, finds too much to fault in the book's essay about Los Angeles.
California State Supreme Court Upholds Inclusionary Zoning Laws
The California Building Industry Association (BIA) had taken its case to the State Supreme Court, but in the end the court decided that municipalities could require developers to set aide a portion of units for affordable housing.
Mo' Money, Mo' Problems: Community Edition
Do we ever reach a point as a community wherein our problems are behind us? Sorry, but no. If anything, it gets more complicated.
Seattle Confronts Its Transportation Bottleneck
By some measures, Seattle's geography makes other cramped cities like Boston and San Francisco seem positively agoraphobic. New Transportation Director Scott Kubly has vowed to keep Seattleites moving through its many bottlenecks.
Lack of Data Still Impedes Multi-Modal Trip Navigation
A call for all transportation agencies to open their data.
The End of the Illiana Expressway Is Nigh
According to a recent op-ed, the Illiana Expressway "was built upon faulty assumptions, and motivated largely by crony intentions."
Governing Profiles Charles Marohn's Message on Transportation Funding
An article for Governing profiles the method and message of Charles Marohn, known to Planetizen readers as the name behind the Strong Towns blog.
United Nations Agreement Takes Action Against Deforestation
In a mover that came to a surprise to United Nations observers, the international body reached agreement on the Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation, or REDD+, initiative.
HUD's 'Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing' Provokes Controversy in Congress
A rule proposed by the Obama Administration has been criticized for attempting to build an "unrealistic utopia." The Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing would require cities to fund affordable housing in a broader spectrum of neighborhoods.
Residents Want a Say as Los Angeles Neighborhood Changes
The big market forces of Los Angeles long ignored Elysian Valley, colloquially called Frogtown. But now the neighborhood has hip cachet and residents are organizing to have a say as the area changes.
Michigan House Road Funding Plan B Would Rob Peter to Pay Paul
Now that voters have decisively rejected a sales tax measure that would have also hiked the gas tax, House representatives have proposed eliminating the state's Earned Income Tax Credit that benefits the working poor to help pay for roads.
Increase Gas Tax—Fund Highway Expansions
While some states are cutting back on transportation expenditures as funds run short, Iowa is not one of them, having passed a 10-cent gas tax increase that took effect March 1. New highway expansions are funded in addition to "fix it first."
San Francisco's Intractable Housing Dilemma
Blogger Shane Phillips writes that San Francisco has two possible responses to its housing crisis: increase supply to accommodate newcomers, or hunker down and promote only subsidized housing. Both, he says, are lousy. Other coastal cities, beware.
Google Launches its First Smart Cities Company: Sidewalk Labs
Google, already one of the most pervasive technology providers of urban experiences everywhere, has increased its bet on the smart cities movement.
One Hundred Miles
County of Mendocino
planning NEXT
The Architects Foundation
University of Cincinnati Online
Montrose County
Northern Illinois Transit Authority (NITA)
The Pocatello Development Authority
FREE Course: Walkable City 1: Why Walkability?
After describing his path towards focusing on walkability as the essence of good planning, Jeff Speck marches through his five principal reasons for making more walkable places.
Reinventing Malls: Planning Alchemy—Turning Gray Fields Into Gold
The course focuses on the opportunities and imperatives that shape reinvention of mall sites.
