The Daily Source of Urban Planning News

Since the mid-1970s, Detroit’s riverfront has been transforming from a depressed industrial area into a bustling district for families and businesses.

July 1 - Detroit Free Press

Winnie Hu reports on a new effort in Macombs Dam Park in the Bronx to encourage adults into healthy activity.

July 1 - The New York Times

James Trainor looks back at the history of New York's "adventure playgrounds" of the 1960s and 70s, tracing their origin back to the original Central Park dust-up between Robert Moses and local housewives.

June 30 - CABINET

Carol Morello and Patricia Sullivan explore the recent population spike in Washington, D.C., part of a nationwide trend toward "an urban renaissance."

June 30 - Washington Post

After seizing control of a condo association, a Pennsylvania developer has forced 11 homeowners to sell their units for as little as a third of their appraised value, leaving them stranded with crippling mortgages, Teke Wiggin reports.

June 30 - AOL Real Estate

Anthony Paletta takes a look at a new book by Elihu Rubin, chronicling the intriguing political history behind the construction of Boston's Prudential Center in the mid-1950s.

June 30 - Metropolis Magazine

At long last, after more than a thousand days of politicking, Congress passed a comprehensive federal transportation funding bill on Friday. Transportation reform advocates are disappointed by the results.

June 30 - Streetsblog D.C.

One brazen entrepreneur from Detroit is looking to raise funds to bring his "zombie theme park" concept to life, Sarah Cox reports.

June 29 - Curbed

The court set a standard of "reasonable anticipation" that improved cleaner technologies will be developed, allowing government agencies to set more stringent standards for that anticipated future.

June 29 - Governing

Economist David Birch coined the term "gazelle" to refer to small businesses that double their size every four years. Charlie Gandy says these gazelles are incredibly useful when it comes to placemaking.

June 29 - Project For Public Spaces

Historically the one-year data may be an aberration as suburbs have outgrown cities for every decade since the 1920s. It may be as much a consequence of the recession and housing bust as a preference for urban living, but builders are responding.

June 29 - The Wall Street Journal

Filmmaker Dean Petersen noticed a troublesome step at the 36th Street subway exit in Brooklyn, and decided to find out how many people tripped over it. Video evidence shows this hazard in action.

June 29 - Boing Boing

David Steel explains how Buffalo's zoning code not only makes it impossible to build the type of neighborhoods people love, but also guarantees that low density development pays less taxes.

June 29 - Rust Wire

Workers making up the 'creative class,' a term first coined by author Richard Florida, continue to grow and prosper, generating trillions in wages. What cities in the U.S. have the largest creative economies?

June 29 - The Daily Beast

Often downplayed of their role in both planning efforts and in the economy, tribal governments are working collaboratively with other local governments in Oklahoma to help build and maintain roads.

June 29 - Tulsa World

Want to know how long it will take to pick up the kids at school, drive to your favorite restaurant, drive the baseball game, take the bus to the park? And all at once? Trulia's new innovative map does just that.

June 29 - Fast Company

Young activists Emaleigh and Ainé Doley take matters into their own hands to clean up their neighborhood street in run-down Germantown.

June 29 - The Philadelphia Inquirer

Nate Berg takes a look at the seven biggest cities to have filed for bankruptcy in the last two decades, the largest of which officially broke the bank as of yesterday.

June 28 - The Atlantic Cities

Brent Toderian, recently the planning director for Vancouver, was interviewed by Denmark's Sustainable Cities about technology and planning. Toderian was contrarian when it came to technology's ability to save the world.

June 28 - Sustainable Cities

A new report from the Natural Resources Defense Council ranks the cleanest and dirtiest beaches in the U.S. Jessica Camille Aguirre gives an overview of the group’s findings and discovers a less than significant improvement in overall water quality.

June 28 - NPR