The Daily Source of Urban Planning News

Using case studies from across the country, a toolkit released earlier this month by the National League of Cities aims to provide local leaders with concrete strategies to assist the growth of their local entrepreneurs and small businesses.

April 23 - CitiesSpeak.org

With the help of a little GIS wizardry, Susan Spano and Aviva Shen map the 20 most cultured small towns in the U.S., from Gig Harbor, WA to Naples, FL and everywhere in between.

April 22 - Smithsonian

Cities like Atlanta, that have grown up in the age of the automobile and air conditioning, are making efforts to green their environmentally unfriendly buildings and spaces, explains Emily Badger.

April 22 - The Atlantic Cities

Greg Hanscom, senior editor at Grist, speaks with Denis Hayes, who coordinated the first Earth Day in 1970, when he was 25, about the big day, green building, and his prognosis for the planet.

April 22 - Grist

In April 1992, L.A. erupted in a torrent of burning, looting, and rioting following the acquittal of three police officers charged in the beating of Rodney King. Josh Sides looks at how the city responded to those events and how it's changed since.

April 22 - Places

Coinciding with Earth Day, PBS is airing a series of programs highlighting the ways in which local communities are working to conserve energy in order to save money and save the environment.

April 22 - PBS

After decades of false starts, Downtown Oklahoma City is making room for alternative transportation with streetcars, electric vehicle charging stations, and a new bike sharing program, reports Steve Lackmeyer.

April 21 - The Oklahoman

Brittany Kubinski and Jennifer Evans-Cowley turn to twitter for a detailed analysis of the trends that emerged from this year's APA national conference, and for a comparison to last year's popular topics.

April 21 - PlanningTech

As bike share systems spread across the country, Danielle Kurtzleben looks at their profitability, or lack thereof, and asks whether cash-strapped cities or the federal government will want to sink money into systems that struggle to break even.

April 21 - U.S. News & World Report

Nate Berg examines new research linking restrictive land use regulations to academically stratified neighborhoods.

April 21 - The Atlantic Cities

Alissa Walker sheds light on the programs and institutions pushing Angelenos to change their commuting behaviors in an effort to recoup some of the 485 million wasted hours that cost the region more than $10 billion annually due to congestion.

April 21 - Good

John Metcalfe spotlights the "shocking, head-scratching and just plain zen tweets from @sheboyganscan, an anonymous Good Samaritan who monitors the police scanner in Sheboygan."

April 20 - The Atlantic Cities

Moira Quinn takes a look at Charlotte, North Carolina, where businesses and local government have teamed up to keep office buildings green as the central business district grows.

April 20 - Urban Land

Earlier this week, Charlie Rose hosted a roundtable discussion with the mayors of Chicago, Baltimore, Jacksonville, and Louisville on how they're working to revitalize their cities in challenging economic times.

April 20 - Charlie Rose

In the first of a five-part series, Angie Schmitt pays tribute to three "visionary bureaucrats" who are changing the face of transportation in the United States.

April 20 - Streetsblog

Ariel Schwartz identifies where people have the best and worst eating habits based on self-supplied data gathered by a food-picture-taking and healthiness-rating application.

April 20 - Fast Coexist

Steven Greenhut opines on the lucky break he believes residents of Sacramento received earlier this week when owners of the city's NBA franchise backed out of a partnership to build a new basketball arena in the city's downtown.

April 20 - Bloomberg View

The City Council of Vallejo, California, approved the first city-wide Participatory Budgeting process in the US this week. Residents will directly decide how to spend around $3 million from new sales tax revenue.

April 20 - Times Herald

Kaid Benfield laments the capital's "blah"-inspiring National Mall, and discusses three design competitions underway that could give it a second life.

April 20 - Switchboard

Stymied by multiple attempts to leverage one of his key political victories as mayor - the passage of a half-cent tax increase to fund transit in LA - Villaraigosa announced another bid to speed up the expansion of the region's mass transit system.

April 20 - Los Angeles Times