The Daily Source of Urban Planning News

Wash. Bridge Collapse Exposes Nation's Vulnerable Infrastructure

In a pair of articles, four Wall Street Journal writers delve deeper into the May 24 collapse of the I-5, Skagit Valley Bridge in Washington state and its relationship to our nation's aging transportation infrastructure.

May 28 - The Wall Street Journal

Public Transit Gets Bipartisan Voice in Congress

Congress has an Animal Protection Caucus, a Hockey Caucus, and a Kidney Caucus, so it's about time the millions of Americans who rely on public transit for their daily transportation needs had a voice in D.C.

May 28 - The Hill's Transportation Blog

After Several Delays, NYC Bike Share Begins

Memorial Day has been honored in America for 150 years, but you might excuse New Yorkers for celebrating an entirely different holiday yesterday - the long-waited launch of the country's largest bike-share program.

May 28 - The New York Times

BLOG POST

The Technology Enhanced City

Explore how people across the world are working to develop technology enhanced solutions to challenges facing their cities.

May 27 - Jennifer Evans-Cowley

Lighting Designers Project a Bright Future for Our Cities

Utilizing new approaches and new technologies for illuminating the built environment, lighting designers are helping to create safer, more dynamic, and more accessible cities.

May 27 - The Architect's Newspaper


Does Public Housing Need an Ad Campaign?

Perceptions of public housing are contradictory. Most approve of it for their communities, but most don't want to live near it. A new public relations initiative seeks to educate the general public on the benefits of public housing to everyone.

May 27 - The Atlantic Cities

Atlanta Embraces Big Data

An app for locating discarded tires and a program to map the condition of the city's sidewalks are two examples of local initiatives aimed at improving Atlanta's environment. With the Mayor's embrace, the city is trying to catch up to tech trends.

May 27 - Creative Loafing Atlanta


Phoenix Dust Storm

The Ten American Cities Most At Risk from Climate Change

Grist has compiled a list of the ten U.S. cities most likely to be affected by climate change.

May 27 - Grist

What Happens When Student Renters Crowd Out Homeowners?

The growing imbalance of student housing and single family homeowners in the Oakland neighborhood of Pittsburgh is affecting the surrounding community. A new master plan seeks to maintain a healthy equilibrium between the housing options.

May 27 - Global Site Plans - The Grid

Prefab is Having a Moment; Can it Sustain the Momentum?

With a modular high-rise planned for Brooklyn, a modular design winning Manhattan's micro-unit apartment competition, and several other prefabricated buildings on the drawing board throughout the U.S., prefab is getting a relook.

May 26 - The New York Times

Data Centers: The Next Trend in Adaptive Reuse?

Sears is planning to convert a number of its shuttered buildings into data centers. Could this become a trend for the reuse of vacant buildings nationwide?

May 26 - Motherboard

Pittsburgh Poised to Elect Progressive Urbanist as Mayor

With promises of creating a strong planning department, increasing bicycle mode share, and focusing development around transit, Bill Peduto won Pittsburgh's Democratic mayoral primary this past week. His win is being hailed by urbanists nationwide.

May 26 - DC.Streetsblog

Urban Ruins and the High Line Next Door

Chuck Wolfe suggests we all have the inspiration within us to envision how to remake our cities--from the conjecture of a Seattle restauranteur about Seattle's monorail to neighborhood examples of "we used this before, let's use it again".

May 26 - Crosscut

The Future of Vertical Urban Farming is Pink

Let's put aside those renderings of high-rise urban greenhouses with lush, vertical gardens. Vertical farming's future, instead, lies more practically in large, suburban "pinkhouses", says one expert.

May 26 - NPR

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Are Transportation Planning Reforms Coercive?

Changing demands justify policies and programs that encourage people too choose efficient travel options and smart growth locations. Are these coercive?

May 25 - Todd Litman

Car Production Line

The Geography of America’s Industrial Renaissance

After a sharp decline during the recession, an industrial expansion is helping to drive job growth in many of America’s metropolitan areas. New analysis outlines the country’s best manufacturing ‘storylines’.

May 25 - New Geography

America’s Top Arrested Developments, In Honor of Sunday's Season 4 Premiere

After a seven-year hiatus, Netflix is bringing back the critically acclaimed television series Arrested Development, and with it memories of the Great Recession.

May 25 - Architizer

Forgotten Freight Demands Frighten Transportation Planners

While much of the current discussion in planning centers on decreasing road capacity to promote greater pedestrian mobility, Eric Jaffe wonders if we are thinking enough about the critical and complex task of moving freight.

May 25 - The Atlantic Cities

To Pop or Not? Hirshhorn 'Bubble' Puts Museum at a Crossroads

Designed by Diller Scofidio & Renfro, the Hirshhorn "Bubble" would cost $12.5 million and operate two months out of the year, creating performance and additional gallery space for the museum on the National Mall. If it actually gets built, that is.

May 25 - New York Times

Government Report Blames City Officials and Factory Owner in Dhaka Collapse

Less than 24 hours after a structural engineer deemed the building unsafe, Sohel Rana ordered garment workers back on the job.

May 25 - New York Times

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