The Daily Source of Urban Planning News

The process by which creative types colonize a distressed neighborhood, making it safe for hipsters and developers, has become a common template for urban revitalization efforts. Neeraj Mehta asks who is served, and who isn't, by these forces.

October 30 - Next American City

In a prescient article for the events of this week, John Seo looks at how the global march towards increased density (in technology, land use, and financial markets) has consequences, both beneficial and catastrophic.

October 30 - Foreign Policy

With supporting evidence from a USA TODAY analysis, Thomas Frank examines the LEED points system and finds that certification, and the tax breaks and other rewards that go with it, can be easily obtained without proven environmental impact.

October 30 - USA Today

The silence on climate change during the presidential debates was deafening. With Hurricane Sandy disrupting the final week of the campaign, Mother Nature is having the last word.

October 30 - The Political Environment

In case you missed it, <em>The Atlantic Cities</em> has compiled some of the most arresting photos of Hurricane Sandy's historic visit to Manhattan, as reported on social media and elsewhere Monday evening.

October 30 - The Atlantic Cities

Last week, networking infrastructure company Cisco announced that the Orlando community of Lake Nona will be the site of the first of the company's nine planned "Smart+Connected" cities, which will endeavor to "unify urban development and IT."

October 29 - Beta News

Sommer Mathis writes about the largest planned shutdown ever of train and bus service in the U.S. as New York City, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Washington, D.C. cancel service on the eve of Hurricane Sandy's arrival along the mid-Atlantic seaboard.

October 29 - The Atlantic Cities

As D.C.'s J. Edgar Hoover Building reaches the end of its 40 years of service as the headquarters of the FBI, one of the city's last examples of Brutalist architecture is getting little love from preservationists as discussion begin over its fate.

October 29 - The Washington Post

For the next few days, America's eyes will be on the East Coast, where a historic storm is already making its presence felt. Quartz has posted a list of webcams to provide you with a first-hand experience of the storm, from the safety of your desk.

October 29 - Quartz

On the eve of landfall of Hurricane Sandy, Matthew Yglesias recalls Mitt Romney's 2011 response to a GOP primary debate question in which he called federal disaster relief spending "immoral."

October 29 - Slate.com

Pershing Square occupies a special place in the physical and historical landscape of Los Angeles. But the city's first park has been the victim of poor redesigns and a "massive failure of civic vision." Can anything be done to fix it?

October 29 - Los Angeles Times

BLOG POST

Students investigating options often ask if it makes a difference where the planning school is located. The short answer is it matters less to students than many think.

October 29 - Ann Forsyth

How to care for S.F.'s 110,000 street trees and 130,000 park trees was the subject of a hearing last week called by Supervisor Scott Wiener. The Department of Public Works is engaged in a controversial program to transfer care to property owners.

October 29 - The San Francisco Examiner

Joining a host of other Midwestern cities establishing land banks to help corral, clear, and repurpose their vacant properties, Kansas City will begin transferring 3,500 vacant properties it recently acquired into a city-owned land bank.

October 29 - The Architect's Newspaper

A lethal combination of a rapidly expanding modern skyline and the intersection of several major migratory flight paths have rendered Toronto one of the world’s most deadly cities for migratory birds, reports Ian Austen.

October 29 - The New York Times

With the federal government unable to agree on much of anything, state and local taxpayers are bearing the burden for repairing and replacing America's aging infrastructure says a new report from Standard & Poor’s Rating Services.

October 29 - The Washington Post

Planner and urbanist Brent Toderian explains why Halloween is his favorite holiday.

October 28 - Huffington Post British Columbia

Announced at a recent United Nations summit on biodiversity, India’s pledge of $50 million to assist developing countries with conservation efforts marks a significant shift in the way environmental protection is funded worldwide.

October 28 - The New York Times

An informative infographic produced by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation illustrates the role of walkable, bikeable, and transit-oriented communities in producing healthier populations.

October 28 - New Public Health

Urban Planning has become increasingly complex with the rise of big data, inflating costs, diverging politics, and the advent of new technologies. To work with all these elements requires an inclusive approach to produce a useful outcome.

October 28 - Humanitarian Space