The Daily Source of Urban Planning News

Are your local planning tools supporting a thriving and resilient future? Andrew von Maur shares a little inspiration from Las Cruces, New Mexico.

March 3 - PlaceMakers

An estimated 500,000 residents of the Atlanta area live without access to grocery stores. A recent article asks the obvious question: “Why can we build multimillion-dollar highway systems and multibillion-dollar stadiums but not more grocery stores?"

March 3 - Atlanta Magazine

Jeremy Cato pens an editorial on the dark side of connected cars—the data necessary to track and integrate so many card will allow unprecedented invasions of privacy.

March 3 - The Globe and Mail (Toronto)

A recent article examines the ways New York City and Paris support large-scale pedestrian use and support the shared use of public space.

March 3 - Project For Public Spaces

BLOG POST

When considering city life, we often look to Jane Jacobs or William H. Whyte. But an exhibit commemorating the 70th anniversary of the children's classic “The Little Prince” at New York's Morgan Library surprises as a field guide for urban living.

March 3 - Hayley Richardson

A New York Times investigation into the Feb. 2 North Carolina coal ash spill by Duke Energy is turning up startling information into the role, or lack of, played by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources in safeguarding the environment.

March 3 - The New York Times - U.S.

The conversation about San Francisco has been dominated recently by housing, so maybe you forgot that San Francisco has a tradition of leading on social causes. Josh Wilson recently created a list for navigating the city like a radical.

March 3 - The Bold Italic

Real estate experts believe that a market correction is overdue for Canada’s inflated real estate market, however, prices are expected to continue rising in the short-and medium-term.

March 3 - The Huffington Post

Take 260 trucks off the road for every train, avoid costs for maintaining highways maintenance cost, and create multiple other environmental and economic development advantages—states are reinvesting in their rail lines.

March 3 - Governing

Though it may be too soon to say for sure, it looks like the United States has reached peak driving. So shouldn’t we cut back on new road construction?

March 3 - The Atlantic Cities

The newly opened Bell Street Park in Seattle offers the kind of "social friction" Leigh Gallagher called for in Friday's NYT with "planters, perches ... and the simplest but most innovative feature of all, a level plane between sidewalk and street."

March 2 - Publicola

FEATURE

After a recent scholarly article raising questions about the definition of conservation subdivisions, Randall Arendt, author of "Conservation Design for Subdivisions" and "Growing Greener," wrote the following response.

March 2 - Randall Arendt

The Planning Commission of the Alaskan capital city recently approved a transit plan that expands service and increases pedestrian access. As next steps, city leaders are talking about providing incentives for development along the transit routes.

March 2 - Juneau Empire

Many filmmakers are concerned with set making, but not architecture. Steve McQueen, Best Director nominee for 12 Years a Slave (which is also nominated for Best Picture) has made a career of examining the role of architecture in building narrative.

March 2 - Los Angeles Times

Twenty years after the movie Speed, which took place on the Big Blue Bus, Metro rail system, and other transit facilities, Keanu Reeves and crew might not recognize L.A.'s current transit system. L.A. County planner Clement Lau surveys the changes.

March 2 - UrbDeZine.com

BLOG POST

Discussing some of the most pro-urban movies ever made.

March 1 - Michael Lewyn

Turns out all those protests against the ubiquitous Google (and other tech) luxury buses that often crowd out S.F. Muni (public) buses have contributed to a show of good will to public transit in the form of a $6.8 million gift to fund youth passes.

March 1 - San Francisco Chronicle

Vermont Governor Peter Shumlin based his entire State of the State speech this year on the state’s “full-blown heroin crisis.” The crisis has obvious impacts on neighborhoods, but did land use policy contribute to the problem?

March 1 - The New York Times

In the Netherlands, a radical idea is being tested: Self-contained "villages" where people with dementia shop, cook, and live together—safely.

March 1 - Gizmodo

Are rideshare companies like Uber here to stay? The answer likely hinges on a series of legal battles taking place nationwide.

March 1 - Grist