The Daily Source of Urban Planning News

Emily Badger looks at the latest "ParkScore" rankings released by the Trust for Public Land (TPL). Using advanced GIS, TPL ranks America's fifty largest cities by evaluating factors including park access, size, services and investment.

June 5 - The Atlantic Cities

The American Prairie Foundation is piecing together 500,000 acres of privately owned land across the Great Plains to join with three million acres of public land in forming one of the world’s largest wildlife reserves.

June 5 - Fast Company Co.Exist

Much to the chagrin of those who partake in the city's congested commute, cars dominate as Atlantans' prime means of mobility. The city's wildly ambitious BeltLine project seeks to change this, but can it be built fast enough to have an impact?

June 5 - ASLA The Dirt

While some state struggle to raise the gas tax by even a few cents a gallon, indexing the excise tax to inflation avoids these costly battles. Kentucky approved such legislation over 10 years ago. On July 1, the gas tax will increase by 2.4 cents.

June 5 - The Courier-Journal

Zachary Edelson speculates on the ways in which Google Glass, and other augmented reality elements, will change the way we experience architecture and our environments.

June 5 - Architizer

Kelly Bennett writes on the connections between authentic places, abandonment, and a new wave of placemaking.

June 5 - Citiography

The nationwide rebound in housing prices has been treated as welcome news. But should we be celebrating the growing presence of large investment firms in our communities, often at the expense of the ordinary buyer?

June 5 - The New York Times

What's the most productive way to utilize the fertile land that sits above California's vast Monterey Shale oil reserve? The environmental impacts of fracking on California's farmland could derail what promises to be an enormous oil boom.

June 5 - The New York Times

Since it appeared online over the weekend, a humorously odd 5-minute diatribe by Wall Street Journal editorial board member Dorothy Rabinowitz has spread like wildfire. J.K. Trotter considers the possible sources of her anti-bicycle vitriol.

June 5 - The Atlantic Wire

This week, Mayor Bloomberg announced the launch of NYC's comprehensive effort to assist homeowners effected by Superstorm Sandy. The NYC Build It Back program will offer avenues for homeowners to restore, rebuild, relocate, or get reimbursed.

June 4 - Crain's Business New York

Jay Corbalis profiles NoMa (short for “North of Massachusetts Avenue”), Washington D.C.'s fastest growing neighborhood, where a building boom has been propelled by an innovative transit funding partnership between the public and private sectors.

June 4 - Smart Growth America

While conceding that suburbia, and home construction patterns, will change in the coming decades, a new report from Joel Kotkin argues that the "dream" of suburban American homeownership is alive and well and poised to remain relevant.

June 4 - New Geography

Toronto is undergoing a 'remarkable transformation', says Charles Birnbaum, and unlike most large scale redevelopment efforts, landscape architecture is leading the way. With abundant photos Birnbaum surveys the new works framing the city's growth.

June 4 - Huffington Post

The arrest of a Vallejo, California man for painting a crosswalk at a dangerous intersection near his home is the latest guerrilla urbanist intervention to run afoul of the law.

June 4 - CBS Sacramento

Brian Naylor of NPR and Stephen Lee Davis of Transportation for America examine different aspects of the government's inability to ensure that bridges are in a state of good repair.

June 4 - NPR

The recent reversal of America's historic trends in city growth, driving rates, and home sizes have urbanists wondering about their long-term prospects as the economy recovers. Recent data indicates one of those trends didn't have staying power.

June 4 - The Atlantic Cities

Seeking to standardize what is considered an ad hoc and inconsistent approach to allowing extra density in downtown developments, Austin's city council will consider a new bonus program later this month.

June 4 - Austin American-Statesman

With the privacy concerns that've arisen with its questionable data gathering, many people are unlikely to welcome the idea of a Google blimp floating overhead. But the billion people the company wants to connect to the Internet may feel differently.

June 4 - The Wall Street Journal

New Jersey Senator Frank Lautenberg, the last World War Two veteran to serve in the body, passed away on Monday. Kate Hinds looks at the record of 'the driving force between some of the country's most transformative transportation policies.'

June 4 - WNYC: Transportation Nation

BLOG POST

Shutting down cities as a response to terrorism makes such violence more rewarding and thus more tempting.

June 3 - Michael Lewyn