The Daily Source of Urban Planning News

Researchers at MIT have developed a radical new approach to electric vehicles: a liquid fuel carrying electrically-charged particles that could refuel cars just like gasoline.

June 9 - Grist

Millions of federal dollars could be lost if transportation officials in metropolitan Detroit can't figure out a way to combine a variety of transit services into one regional authority.

June 9 - The Detroit Free Press

Construction has begun on a new park beneath a Toronto freeway overpass. <em>The Toronto Star</em>'s Christopher Hume says the park will change the city forever.

June 9 - The Toronto Star

General Motors CEO Dan Akerson told <em>The Detroit News</em> that he wants the gas tax boosted to "nudge" consumers towards more fuel-efficient cars.

June 9 - The Detroit News

Mogro is a new for-profit company in New Mexico that is targeting neighborhoods with little access to healthy food with temperature-controlled grocery trucks.

June 9 - GOOD Magazine

FEATURE

Rebecca Bateman grew up in Joplin, Missouri, which was decimated on May 22nd by a tornado. The the personal nature of the disaster has caused her to reflect on some strategies for city planners to consider before a disaster hits.

June 9 - Rebecca Bateman

The same economic reports from May (namely, the jobs report and the Home Price Index) that have led to some concern about the direction of the U.S. economy overall, tell a very different story about Wahington DC, according to Richard Florida.

June 9 - Creative Class

BLOG POST

<p style="margin-top: 12pt" class="MsoNormal"> <em>Note: This column was originally titled, &quot;A Stupid Attack on Smart Growth,&quot; intended as a pun on &#39;smart&#39; and &#39;stupid.&#39; However, that sounds harsh so I retitled it. - T.L.</em> </p> <p style="margin-top: 12pt" class="MsoNormal"> The National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) has a well-financed campaign to discourage communities from considering <span style="font-size: 16px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif" class="Apple-style-span"><a href="http://www.epa.gov/smartgrowth/tisg.htm">smart growth</a></span> as a possible way to conserve energy and reduce pollution emissions. They contend that compact development has little effect on travel activity and so provides minimal benefits. The NAHB states that, “The existing body of research demonstrates no clear link between residential land use and GHG emissions.” But their research actually found the opposite: it indicates that smart growth policies can have significant impacts on travel activity and emissions.

June 9 - Todd Litman

Last night Apple CEO Steve Jobs pitched plans for a new campus development to the Cupertino city council.

June 9 - Huffington Post

RonConCocaCola says that the New York's new bike lanes have "exposed a clash of long-standing bad habits — such as pedestrians jaywalking, cyclists running red lights, and motorists plowing through crosswalks."

June 9 - RON CON COCA COLA

Donovan Gillman writes that since most of us can't simply get by without cars, we need "more livable and likable places to park them." His post at Sustainable Cities Collective includes photos of some interesting car parks.

June 8 - Sustainable Cities Collective

Calling California's attempts at environmental responsibility a "green jihad," Joel Kotkin argues that the state's "ideological extremism" has led to illogical economic and political decisions - similar to those made in the Islamic Republic of Iran.

June 8 - New Geography

At the National Building Museum's Intelligent Cities Forum, one participant compared creating healthy cities to creating healthy animal environments in zoos.

June 8 - THE DIRT

That's how Christopher Hume describes the Toronto area that will soon be Underpass Park, a mixed-use, mixed-income neighborhood for 6,000 people.

June 8 - The Toronto Star

This two-minute video features U.S. Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood discussing the merits of bicycling and bike friendly places as he and other DOT employees bike to work.

June 8 - Vimeo

A slideshow from <em>Good Magazine</em> highlights the newly opened section of the popular High Line Park in NYC.

June 8 - GOOD Magazine

Public outreach on SB 375, California's climate change bill, began last month in the San Francisco Bay Area. But the East Bay Tea Party had other plans.

June 8 - Contra Costa Times

Vicky Plestis reports that Manhattan's South Street Seaport, long criticized for failing to live up to its potential, is being rethought and redesigned by its developers.

June 8 - The Gotham Gazette

The Philadelphia Housing Authority owns over 3,000 homes and would like to get rid of 1/3rd of them.

June 8 - The Philadelphia Inquirer

Gov. Bill Haslam of Tennessee has slashed 58 jobs from the Department of Economic and Community Development -- including the entire local planning assistance division.

June 8 - Tennessean