The Daily Source of Urban Planning News

Launched today by Bloomberg Philanthropies, the Mayors Challenge will award $9 million in prizes as a down payment on urban innovation, reports Ariel Schwartz.

June 13 - Fast Company Co.Exist

With Los Angeles embarking on the "largest transit expansion in the United States," a new report looks at ways the city can preserve critical affordable housing in areas ripe for transit-oriented economic development.

June 13 - Better! Cities & Towns

Matt Bevilacqua looks at the real story behind headlines making news this week regarding the "fastest-gentrifying neighborhoods in the United States."

June 13 - Next American City

Sarah Laskow reveals what may be the greatest job in the world at the moment - those lucky Google employees who are helping to map areas of the world only accessible on foot.

June 13 - Grist

With Milwaukee's planned streetcar system a focus of campaign attacks by recalled governor Scott Walker on his Democratic challenger, and current mayor, Tom Barrett, Matt Dellinger asks if Walker's victory means the end of the line for the train.

June 13 - Transportation Nation

Bank of America is one of a handful of major banks to pump money into green initiatives, where they see an opportunity for new capital and a chance to improve their images.

June 13 - The New York Times

With a year-round temperate climate and a history of widespread urban agriculture, it's a shame that Los Angeles now finds itself ranked 43rd amongst America's 50 largest cities for their support of local food. Can L.A. turn back the clock?

June 13 - Good

In a wide ranging interview with Grist reporters Chip Giller and Scott Rosenberg on her tenure at the helm of the EPA, Lisa Jackson discusses the administration’s position on coal. It’s been accused of waging a war on it by coal supporters.

June 13 - Grist

Is "compassion fatigue" driving Philadelphia and other cities to adopt ordinances to crack down on the homeless? Homeless advocates contend that these measures are counterproductive, as they force the homeless into criminal means of getting by.

June 13 - USA Today

In a pattern being repeated across Canada's major cities, office tenants are willing to pay a premium to be located close to transit in Vancouver and buildings located only a few blocks away or in suburban office parks are seeing a rise in vacancies.

June 12 - The Globe and Mail

2,200 cities, counties and arts orgs applied to ArtPlace to fund their creative placemaking projects in 2012. 47 projects, ranging from an arts campus in rural Sitka, Alaska to a series of "aerial nets" along a Philadelphia waterfront, made the cut.

June 12 - ArtPlace

Benjamin Brownell finds that innovative technology and farming work well together at a FarmHack event in Vermont.

June 12 - Shareable

Due to its successful application in cities such as London and Singapore, congestion charging has become the favored approach for changing driver behavior. However, a professor at Stanford University may have found a nicer way to change habits.

June 12 - The New York Times

As cities across the world look for ways to blend higher densities to accommodate the increased demand for urban living, a recent proposal for how to solve Stockholm's critical lack of housing in the core of the city may define "inelegant density."

June 12 - ArchDaily

Though "generally cited as an example of all the things you don’t want a city to be," Karrie Jacobs finds reason to believe that Texas's third largest city has taken to heart the "country’s newfound passion for all things urban."

June 12 - Metropolis

Downtown Cleveland has been polished up over the past few years. David C. Barnett has the rust belt revival success story.

June 12 - NPR Morning Edition

Two assistant professors from the University of Chicago and BYU have found that the addition of a Wal-Mart store in a neighborhood can raise the value of homes within a mile of the store, reports Mary Ellen Podmolik.

June 12 - Chicago Tribune

One family in Taipei has rallied support for "victims of urban renewal" after the city demolished their home to make way for high-rise apartments, Loa Lok-Sin reports.

June 12 - Taipei Times

Sarah Goodyear looks at how smart phones and augmented reality applications may hold the key to enriching urban exploration and getting Americans off their sofas and out exploring their environments.

June 12 - The Atlantic Cities

Aaron M. Renn looks at Chicago's struggles over the last decade - one that saw the city "increasingly falling behind its large urban brethren" - and asks whether its aspirations for becoming a global city are delusional.

June 11 - City Journal