The Daily Source of Urban Planning News
Long-Awaited Pompeii Preservation Plan Unveiled
Elisabetta Povoledo reports on a long-term plan unveiled last week to protect Pompeii from the impact of nature, tourists, and organized crime.
As the Enclosed Mall Era Fades, Learning Lessons, Both Bad and Good
For all the bad press that the traditional enclosed mall receives today from planners, there are certainly retail strategies they excelled at that will be pertinent long into the future, argues Geoff Dyer.
CicLAvia: A Celebration of the Street, Minus the Roaring Engines
Hillel Aron unravels the long and arduous journey that community activists took to make LA's newest public tradition a reality.
Do Compact Cities Dream of Electric Cars?
New research suggests that the electrification of automobiles can undermine planning efforts to create denser development patterns and may work against policies that encourage non-motorized forms of mobility, such as biking and walking.
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Avoiding Undesirable Self-Fulfilling Prophecies
Planners strive to anticipate future needs, which sometimes creates self-fulfilling prophecies: by preparing for a situation we help cause it. This is particularly true of automobile dependency. Planning decisions intended to accommodate automobile.
New Visualization Tool Could Transform Project Impact Analysis
Ariel Schwartz profiles a promising new 3-D tool that allows planners to visualize traffic, noise, and pollution impacts of proposed projects.
Winning an Uphill Battle for Transit
Marie Cusick reports on a community driven effort to bring bus service to a challenged neighborhood in Albany, New York.
The Surprisingly Cheap Path to Halting Climate Change
James West reports on the findings of a new report from the United Kingdom's leading climate change watchdog that confirms stopping climate change is much cheaper than you might think.
Is Generation Y Weaning Off the Automobile?
Angie Schmitt discusses new research from U.S. PIRG indicating youngsters are relying on their cars less than the generation before them, motivated by more than just thinning pocketbooks.
Held Up by Environmental Litigation, Playa Vista Finally Gets Its Own Downtown
After a hard-won legal battle, Los Angeles' youngest coastal community can finally begin construction on its mixed-use downtown, report Roger Vincent and Martha Groves.
When Does It Make Sense for a City to Downsize?
Roberta Brandes Gratz examines New Orleans' Lower Ninth Ward to make the case that even neighborhoods past their prime are worth fighting for.
Little Boxes on the Hillside, in China and Beyond
Nate Berg offers his take on the replicas of Western subdivisions that have come to define social status in the burgeoning economies of the Middle and Far East.
Establishing Public Health As An Integral Part of Decision-Making
Ben Goldman looks at the findings in a new paper released by the Pew Health Group and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, that aims to identify opportunities to increase the utilization of Health Impact Assessments (HIA).
No Allen Key Required
The furniture giant Ikea is planning a huge urban renewal project in East London -- a privately-owned, eco-friendly development in which all housing is rented. Doug Saunders visits the proposed site to see the future of managed living for himself.
High-Speed Rail's Cap & Trade Gamble
While the revised business plan did shave off $30 billion, there remains a $55 billion funding shortfall. Dependent on federal and private funds that may never appear, could revenue from the sale of carbon credits bridge the funding gap?
Friday Funny: Cats + Buildings = Fun
Some architecture students at UC Berkeley were incredibly busy over Spring Break. Polishing their portfolios or getting ahead on course reading, you ask? Nope. Developing a trove of Architectural LOLCATS.
Downtown LA Stadium Developers Release 10,000 Page EIR
David Zahniser and Ari Bloomekatz report on yesterday's release of the EIR for a proposed $1 billion football stadium in downtown LA, by developer AEG, which intends to take significant steps to encourage event-goers to use mass transit.
New Riverfront Rail Trail in America's "Most Livable City"
Pittsburgh is smoothing over the residue of its industrial past, turning an abandoned railway into a waterfront park, Paige Miller reports.
Can Tappan Zee Park Make It Past the Drawing Board?
Plans to transform New York's Tappan Zee Bridge into a park have captured the public's imagination, but some speculate it's just a pipe dream, Peter Applebome reports.
Is a Denser Future Best for Los Angeles?
Inspired by the controversial new Community Plan for Hollywood, <em>The New York Times</em> has invited six debaters to its opinion pages to offer their views on whether Los Angeles should "New Yorkify".
One Hundred Miles
County of Mendocino
planning NEXT
The Architects Foundation
University of Cincinnati Online
Montrose County
Northern Illinois Transit Authority (NITA)
The Pocatello Development Authority
FREE Course: Walkable City 1: Why Walkability?
After describing his path towards focusing on walkability as the essence of good planning, Jeff Speck marches through his five principal reasons for making more walkable places.
Reinventing Malls: Planning Alchemy—Turning Gray Fields Into Gold
The course focuses on the opportunities and imperatives that shape reinvention of mall sites.
