The Daily Source of Urban Planning News

What are all the elements that make people more likely to successfully come together? It's complicated, but here are a few.

July 18 - PlaceShakers

A pair of articles explores the implications of data released in May by the U.S. Census about the increasing use of bikes among commuters. The articles, however, don't agree about the implications of the data for low income and minority citizens.

July 18 - Vox

Sen. Mark Kirk (R-Ill.) expressed irritation that Chicago is no longer a world-class city when it comes to building heights. The issue arose during a Senate floor discussion on the Terrorism Risk Insurance Act. Chicago's Willis Tower ranks #11.

July 18 - Politico

Millennium Park in Chicago had its grand opening on July 16, 2004. Now, ten years later, it's one of the country's most treasured, visited, and photographed public spaces.

July 18 - Chicagoland Television

Atlanta's BeltLine is one of the country's most exciting public space projects, and residents have even more reason for excitement after Beltline.org released a fresh batch of renderings for the forthcoming expansion of the Westside Trail.

July 18 - Curbed Atlanta

In a segment The Daily Show calls "Shabby Road" (complete with photoshopped image of President Obama, Rep. John Boehner, Sen. Harry Reid, and Vice President Biden as the Beatles), Jon Stewart takes down Congress' inaction on the Highway Trust Fund.

July 18 - The Daily Show

Since Portland began subsidizing accessory dwelling units (ADU) by waiving development fees, construction of ADUs have increased to a pace of more than 100 a year. A new study finds additional benefits in the low impact of ADUs on neighborhoods.

July 17 - Bike Portland

California's Strategic Growth Council has begun to shape the Affordable Housing and Sustainable Communities program around its new allocations of cap-and-trade funds. The first key public meeting on creating the program was July 10.

July 17 - California Planning & Development Repot

Jens Manual Krogstad provides historical context for the migration to oil boom jobs in North Dakota by comparing the current "man rush" to the silver rush in late 1800s Colorado and the Alaskan oil boom of the 1970s.

July 17 - Pew Research Center

The initial presentation of a 40-story tower, designed by Chicago architect Jeanne Gang, working for developer Tishman Speyer, prompted John King to argue in favor of the project. But will city planners and electeds grant the project an exception?

July 17 - San Francisco Chronicle

Writing for Rust Wire, Angie Schmitt wonders about the odd-person out in a proposal to redesign Public Square in downtown Cleveland: bus riders.

July 17 - Rust Wire

A pair of articles in the Times-Picayune, along with a new study from advocacy group Ride New Orleans, finds the transit system in New Orleans doing less with more.

July 17 - The Times-Picayune

Baltimore's urban gardening program dates back to 1978. A recent article details how the program works and the opportunity presented by a recent expansion to a new kind of property.

July 17 - Seedstock

Following the Rebuild by Design competition, which awarded $920 million in June, the Department of Housing and Urban Development announced another $1 billion competition for innovative resilience projects in communities recently struck by disasters.

July 17 - Next City

Jonathan Walters shares news of a new study out of Johns Hopkins University finding a connection between affordable housing and the intellectual ability of children. Spend more, or less, than 30 percent on housing, and intellectual ability suffers.

July 17 - Governing

BLOG POST

What are the philosophical and practical commitments of an approach to urban planning that respects cultural differences in ways of being and building?

July 17 - Dean Saitta

By a vote of 367-55, the House passed Rep. Dave Camp's "pension smoothing" bill to provide ten months of funding for the deficit-plagued Highway Trust Fund through May. A long-term (five- or six-year) funding plan will be attempted then.

July 16 - Politico Morning Transportation

Students in Atlanta have designed a tiny house village inside a parking garage to help better understand how livable micro-housing projects can be.

July 16 - Pop-Up City

Helsinki, capital of Finland's, is working to create a "mobility on demand" system that integrates shared and public transit in a single payment network. The idea is that with such a system in place, residents would no longer need cars.

July 16 - Guardian Cities

A combination of environmental factors exposes Virginia’s coastal dwellers to some of the nation’s most severe climate change-related hazards, yet the state has almost zero plans for adaptation. Could that be about to change?

July 16 - Pacific Standard