The Daily Source of Urban Planning News

With urban populations growing, an interesting phenomenon is spreading in cities across the U.S. - the rise of the (often congested) reverse commute. It brings with it new challenges, like how to provide transit riders with last mile connections.

October 30 - NPR

Might a recent agreement to fund water projects pave the way for more transportation spending? That's what positive signals out of Washington seem to indicate. Just one small obstacle stands in the way: how to finance road and bridge projects.

October 30 - The Wall Street Journal

Are the grand plans for reviving Cleveland put forth by city leaders - and hyped by the architecture critic at the city's main newspaper - fantasies masking the city's elemental problems or goals worth pursuing?

October 30 - Cleveland Magazine

Citizens will attempt to do what the Missouri General Assembly narrowly rejected: raise the sales tax by one percent to fund state, county and city roads as well as public transit. If enough signatures are gathered, it will be on the ballot next year

October 30 - Kansas City Business Journal

In Rust Belt cities like Flint, Michigan, a loss of population translates to less cars on oversized streets. Angie Schmitt examines how Flint, and other cities like it, are trying to right-size their transportation infrastructure.

October 30 - DC.Streetsblog

On the 90th anniversary of the founding of modern Turkey, officials realized a vision dreamt by an Ottoman sultan by inaugurating a rail tunnel beneath the Bosporus to connect Asia and Europe. Critics have questioned the tunnel's safety.

October 30 - The New York Times

Regulations and a natural gas boom have helped reduce America's CO2 emissions to their lowest level since 1994. But CO2, and plenty of other toxic particles, continue to pollute our urban air. Brentin Mock looks at 5 highly polluted urban areas.

October 29 - Grist

The controversial construction of the Los Angeles Aqueduct provided grist for famous books and movies, and conflicts that continue to this day. In a multimedia feature, Louis Sahagun explores the history of the project that helped birth modern L.A.

October 29 - Los Angeles Times

As New York and New Jersey continue to recover from Hurricane Sandy, some residents choose to preserve the watermarks left on their homes and businesses as a way to commemorate their survival.

October 29 - The New York Times

In desirable cities across America, home prices are well on their way back to pre-bust levels. But in areas like Chicago's southern suburbs, prices are down more than 40 percent from recent highs, and approaching were they were twenty years ago.

October 29 - Crain's Chicago Business

Though research has been piling up on the adverse health impacts connected with driving long distances every day, it turns out that no matter how you travel to work, "having a job far from home can undermine health."

October 29 - The New York Times

FEATURE

On the anniversary of Hurricane Sandy, ULI offers guidance on post-disaster rebuilding and building in anticipation of future disasters in a way that helps preserve the environment, boost economic prosperity, and foster a high quality of life.

October 29 - Patrick L. Phillips

Across the United States, more than 15.3 million residents have become neighbors to a new gas or oil well since 2000. The fracking-based energy boom is bringing "unprecedented industrialization" to backyards throughout the U.S.

October 29 - The Wall Street Journal

Phoenix is getting set to roll out a regional bike-share program, in partnership with CycleHop and Social Bicycles. After its initial rollout, the city will expand the service to reach Mesa and Tempe.

October 29 - Future Cities

Not only are car-oriented environments ugly, they're costly from an environmental, health, and public investment standpoint. Elly Blue finds that for comparative pennies, bike-friendly cities get happier, healthier, and less broke residents.

October 29 - The Guardian

Southern California's powerful regional planning association is one of the many public agencies across the United States that sees the future of road funding in a new technology called a 'black box'.

October 29 - Los Angeles Times

Many D.C. commuters were saddened to learn in July that hundreds of flowers surreptitiously planted at an area Metro station would be removed by officials. But has the city's "Phantom Planter" had the last laugh?

October 29 - The Washington Post

In Brooklyn's Navy Yard, the largest modular high-rise building in the world is being assembled one floor at a time by teams of 10 to 15 union workers. Sydney Brownstone tours the milestone in modular construction.

October 28 - Fast Company Co.Exist

In a delicious irony, the Las Vegas City Council has overturned the mixed-use zoning of a parcel in an area planned for more density to make room for a gas station.

October 28 - Las Vegas Review-Journal

Last month, hackers were able to shut down Haifa's Carmel Tunnels toll road, a major thoroughfare in Israel's third-largest city, in two days of cyber attacks. The attacks should come as a warning for our increasingly automated infrastructure.

October 28 - Jalopnik