The Daily Source of Urban Planning News

Jaime De La Vega, the General Manager of L.A.'s Department of Transportation announced his resignation yesterday effective Dec. 1st. During his two years on the job, the department shifted away from an auto-centric focus to embrace alternative modes.

November 1 - Los Angeles Times

Cities and businesses are looking to reduce waste from demolition sites and increase the amount of recycled material used in new developments.

November 1 - Future Cities

Hurricane Sandy served as a wake up call for many cities to the dangers of rising seas and more extreme storms. To prepare for these threats, officials in Boston have proposed zoning rules that would require developers to detail mitigation measures.

November 1 - The Boston Globe

At $100 million, it is the largest of the five bonds on the Nov. 5 ballot. While six other transportation bonds were voted on (and approved) since 2000, the need for this bond comes from a 2011 law that eliminated the indexing of the state gas tax.

November 1 - Portland Press Herald

Ever travel to a foreign country and gaze longingly at their sleek modern rail stock? Pardon my wandering eye, but passenger trains in the U.S. are undeniably ugly. New rules being developed by the FRA could ease the import of foreign beauties.

November 1 - Next City

As localities increasingly pursue public-private partnerships to fund much-needed infrastructure projects, Ryan Holeywell explores the promise and pitfalls of this popular financing arrangement. Are dissenting voices being stifled?

October 31 - Governing

Apparently ghost towns aren't only found in America's Old West and at former nuclear test sites. Lifestyle website Thrillist has collected seven of the world's creepiest ghost towns.

October 31 - Thrillist

Kaid Benfield muses on the question of whether architects are more interested in making statements than serving people, a topic raised in a recent commentary by Christine Outram. He uses Toronto’s deconstructivist “Crystal” as an entry point.

October 31 - NRDC Switchboard

In honor of Halloween, the Geographic Information System (GIS) software company ESRI has mapped the locations of more than 200 of the top-rated horror films of all-time.

October 31 - ESRI

One of the first portions of the World Trade Center PATH station has opened beneath West Street in Manhattan. The 100-foot-long pedestrian passageway provides a taste of Santiago Calatrava's design and what a seemingly unlimited budget can buy you.

October 31 - Next City

Haunted houses are benign. If you want real evil, suggests Keith Eggener, look to the sentient houses in fiction and film that are "born bad". From Poe to Siddons, he explores examples of "architecture gone terribly wrong".

October 31 - Places

This week, San Diego's City Council voted to resurrect the city's moribund Planning Department. A government-wide reorganization and energized leadership seem certain to ensure the department won't become a zombie.

October 31 - The San Diego Union-Tribune

Jonathan Hull, a 37-year-old graphic designer from Salt Lake City, has assembled an horrific catalog of America's "demonic, hellish, and Satan-flavored" appellations.

October 31 - The Atlantic Cities

Could a 1,300-mile bike path along the length of the proposed Keystone XL pipeline quell the concerns of environmentalists? A "tongue-in-cheek" design put forth by SWA group doesn't appear to have won admirers on either side of the debate.

October 31 - Bloomberg

Once again, the fine people at the real estate web portal Zillow have assembled their top 20 cities for trick-or-treating. This year they've gone one step further and identified the top 5 neighborhoods in each city for enterprising candy collectors.

October 31 - Zillow

BLOG POST

Contrary to popular assumptions, large, transit-oriented cities have lower crime rates than smaller, automobile-oriented cities. Jane Jacobs was right! This column discusses this phenomenon and its implications for transport and land use planning.

October 31 - Todd Litman

Visionary developer James W. Rouse always wanted his planned community in Howard County, Maryland to be a "real city". As Columbia nears 50, a 30-year plan and new development seeks to fill in the community's "doughnut hole" with walkable density.

October 30 - The Baltimore Sun

In 25 of the 27 European Union members for which data is available, bikes are outselling new cars, research conducted by National Public Radio has found. Though many European cities are known for their bikeability, the buying pattern is a new trend.

October 30 - NPR

A new report sheds light on the costs of suburban sprawl that aren't well understood by officials and residents. If more knew the true financial costs they might reconsider their policies and priorities, believes author Dave Thompson.

October 30 - The Toronto Star

That's Calif. Gov. Jerry Brown and former Calif. Assembly Speaker Willie Brown. In two unrelated L.A. Times articles, Gov. Brown credits the initiative system for making the state governable while former speaker Brown is opposed to direct democracy.

October 30 - Los Angeles Times