The Daily Source of Urban Planning News

An upcoming report by the Association of Bay Area Governments projects the city of San Francisco to add a record-breaking number of residents by 2040. The SF Examiner is running a week-long series exploring the impacts of the expected growth.

January 7 - San Francisco Examiner

As Chicago's population surged in the second decade of the 20th century, one dominant single-family housing type spread across the city. Over the next year the Historic Chicago Bungalow Association will celebrate these distinctive homes.

January 7 - WBEZ

During the nightly blackouts designed to protect London from aerial attack during World War II, authorities used white paint as a cheap tool for making the city navigable in the darkness. Could London offer lessons for building resilient cities?

January 7 - Gizmodo

Outdated frameworks for participation and cutbacks in services have soured the relationship between citizens and their governments. A new study suggests policies and legislation for reviving meaningful public engagement in governance.

January 7 - Governing

BLOG POST

Garages matter a great deal to the design & enjoyment of our neighbourhoods, well beyond that garage door. Perhaps it’s finally time to reconsider whether having garages out front is really more important than the character of our neighbourhoods.

January 6 - Brent Toderian

For years, architects have promoted the possibilities of transforming shipping containers into housing. But design and functional challenges make that process difficult. With its shippable modular buildings, MEKA may have found a livable alternative.

January 6 - Treehugger

Jeff Rubins, a Canadian economist with a track record of predictions come to pass, warns that fast increasing rail shipments of crude oil are a ticking time bomb for the North American cities en-route such as Chicago and Toronto.

January 6 - Maclean's Magazine

With today's inauguration, Pittsburgh Mayor Bill Peduto is embarking on a "monumental shift in both style and substance in the mayor's office," reports Moriah Balingit. The biggest question facing the progressive mayor is where to begin.

January 6 - Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Yonah Freemark assembles his annual review of the year ahead in transit expansion by analyzing the dozens of projects that will start, continue, or complete construction this year in North America. Nearly every metro region is investing in transit.

January 6 - the transport politic

New municipal zoning laws don’t necessarily make for the most compelling reading material, but a new set of New York City regulations are worth paying attention to.

January 6 - Next City

BLOG POST

Biodiversity is not something “out there”, studied in labs, outside of our cities. It is a borderless organism that resists complete solutions to the problems arising in such interconnectivity.

January 6 - Steven Snell

A ballot measure being proposed by the Sierra Club’s San Francisco chapter would take certain waterfront development decisions out of the hands of the city's Planning Commission and Board of Supervisors, and give it to the voters.

January 6 - Sf Examiner

Throughout North America's auto-oriented suburbs, front-facing garages are a common feature of home design. According to Brent Toderian, that design decision has a significant impact on speeding and the quality of neighborhoods.

January 6 - Huffington Post British Columbia

Though the war on poverty launched by President Lyndon B. Johnson has improved the lives of low-income Americans in many ways, poverty remains a persistent problem. Republicans and Democrats disagree over the solutions to the enduring challenge.

January 6 - The New York Times

In one word: safety. And, as Sarah Laskow explains, the more folks take to riding, the safer the streets become, so it builds on itself. Critical to road safety is bike infrastructure, like protected bike lanes, bike boxes and bike traffic signals.

January 6 - Grist

Though their lack of emissions is admirable, the knock on electric vehicles is that their power is likely derived from dirty sources. Could a new solar-powered car unveiled by Ford kick-start the era of renewable energy-powered transportation?

January 6 - Fast Company Co.Exist

In the search for cutting edge, sustainable construction techniques, Brad Pitt's Make It Right Foundation may have taken a wrong step in its selection of materials. The nonprofit is spending $150,000 to replace rotting stairs and decks.

January 5 - The New Orleans Advocate

Here are five urban IT projects that are set to win big this year -- and serve as examples for cities everywhere.

January 5 - Future Cities

Mexico is poised to allow foreign investment in its state-owned oil company, Pemex, for the first time in 75 years. In Venezuela, home to the world's cheapest gasoline, prices are due to skyrocket if President Maduro ends subsidies as he's indicated.

January 5 - BBC News

A new study published in the New England Journal of Medicine examines which types of distractions lead to the most collisions. Researchers found that dialing while driving is the biggest safety hazard.

January 5 - Los Angeles Times