The Daily Source of Urban Planning News

Throughout the history of planning, compelling visuals have been essential to communicating the concepts established in "our most influential plans," says Howard Blackson. That tradition continues in New Urban placemaking endeavors.

March 4 - PlaceShakers

Just as the debate over the planned rezoning of the Midtown East neighborhood ossified into two strongly opposed camps, the city has provided more details on their recommendations and outlined an ambitious schedule for public review.

March 4 - Crain's New York Business

Since it began in 1999, Toronto's condo boom has added 120,000 units to the city and, in the process, transformed its urban landscape. City leaders are just now beginning to address how to accommodate these new residents.

March 4 - The Globe and Mail

Ever wonder how the layout of some of television's most famous domiciles might be depicted in the hands of a professional? Look no further, interior designer Iñaki Aliste Lizarralde has you covered.

March 4 - Laughing Squid

With its surging job and population growth, and high retail sales, downtown Chicago is outperforming the suburbs for the first time in decades. Perhaps more than any other city in the country, it reflects the inversion of the post-war paradigm.

March 4 - Crain's Chicago Business

Montgomery County, Maryland is confronting a conundrum common to inner-ring suburbs now facing development pressures. How to make the case for protecting mid-century buildings that some consider too young, or "too plain or ugly," to preserve.

March 4 - The Washington Post

LAX, the LA River, Pershing Square; the list of Los Angeles' under-performing public spaces could sadly continue for a while. As the city votes for its next mayor, Christopher Hawthorne offers some "some straightforward ideas" about how to fix them.

March 4 - Los Angeles Times

Rowan Moore asks whether investing in air travel-oriented urban design is appropriate for all contexts.

March 4 - The Guardian

They're filled with musty bathrooms and peeling paint, and they're selling in the tens of millions of dollars. Jim Yardley examines New Delhi's real estate boom, which is driven by "ego, status and some unique distortions in India’s economy."

March 4 - The New York Times

You'd think the seemingly endless stream of warnings about the state of the planet (record heat, faster melting poles, increasing extreme weather, etc.) would galvanize public opinion. However, a new poll reports concern is at an all time low.

March 3 - The New York Times

Street Plans Collaborative, a New York-based urban planning and design firm, has begun an ambitious project to map the city's informal sidewalk seating culture. The project is asking the pubic to submit entries from their own observations.

March 3 - The Atlantic Cities

In an opinion piece for the Houston Chronicle, John Desmond discusses the findings of a ULI advisory panel tasked with developing recommendations for creating a mixed use 24-hour neighborhood in downtown's east side.

March 3 - Houston Chronicle

In news that's sure to please active transportation advocates, outgoing Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood announced his agency will ditch AASHTO's outdated guidelines and develop its own standards for bicycle and pedestrian safety.

March 3 - DC.Streetsblog

Brian Merchant describes the key initiatives intended to make the ex-Soviet nation "the best place in the world to buy and drive an electric car."

March 3 - Motherboard

Ryan Holeywell looks at the land use legacy of the Bloomberg Administration - perhaps his "signal achievement" - and wonders if his successor can continue the momentum.

March 2 - Governing

From an initial list of 200 candidates, Medellín, Colombia has been selected as the winner of The Wall Street Journal and Citi's “City of the Year” competition.

March 2 - Urban Land

Two reports claim wildly opposite views on where the current shale gas boom is headed. David Hughes, a Canadian geologist and fellow of the Post Carbon Institute disputes projections of energy independence. A Univ. of Texas study confirms the boom.

March 2 - The Tyee

Sarah Goodyear introduces us to Peatónito, the masked Lucha Libre inspired defender of pedestrians.

March 2 - The Atlantic Cities

Despite a wealth of upbeat news of late (surging downtown, encouraging long range plan, etc.), Detroit received a very unpleasant reminder of its intractable problems when Gov. Rick Snyder announced he will appoint an emergency financial manager.

March 2 - Detroit Free Press

Pregnant, elderly, or infirm; subway riders throughout the world rely on the kindness of strangers to secure a seat on the subway. The extraordinary efforts of one Beijing woman to get a seat were discovered in embarrassing fashion recently.

March 1 - South China Morning Post