The Daily Source of Urban Planning News

Los Angeles is crazy for "cap parks": basically, putting roofs over sections of freeway and building a park on top. The added benefit? Reconnecting neighborhoods riven asunder by the freeway in the first place.

February 25 - The Architect's Newspaper

Facing enormous budget shortfalls created in part by the recession, mayors and governors are increasingly turning to the sale of public assets - often to the very Wall Street businesses that helped fuel the crash, writes Donald Cohen.

February 25 - Huffington Post

The city of Detroit has enough money to tear down between one-quarter and one-third of the city's 10,000 abandoned houses.

February 25 - The Detroit Free Press

OK, there is no such czar, but now that Office of Sustainable Housing and Communities is established, why not be creative? Poticha is former CEO of Reconnecting America, and before that, Congress for the New Urbanism.

February 25 - Builder

<em>The Brookings Institution</em> lists out the five biggest myths and misconceptions about the Census and the way demographics change in the U.S.

February 25 - The Brookings Institution

<em>The New York Times</em> reviews a new book about driving in China, and how the vastly expanding roadways are changing the Chinese way of life from the farms to the cities.

February 25 - The New York Times

Longtime president of the National Trust for Historic Preservation Richard Moe is retiring after radically changing the Trust's direction. Will the next president continue Moe's vision?

February 25 - Architect Magazine

FEATURE

While Madrid's urban core is highly dense, the city has sprawled out over the last two decades much further than its growing population requires, says Madrid resident and planning consultant Marco Adelfio.

February 25 - Marco Adelfio

Simon Properties Group is attempting to acquire rival General Growth Properties Inc., giving them a near-monopoly on America's malls. Will complete control of malldom give them the power to bring back this dying breed?

February 24 - Fast Company

Seemingly simple, the Jordanian city of Amman has finally managed to build walkable sidewalks.

February 24 - The New York Times

Seattle is reclaiming it's right of way to create a pedestrian street. Landscape architects SvR Design Co. and Hewitt presented two different concepts for the park, one that is "measured" and one that "meanders."

February 24 - Daily Journal of Commerce

<em>Next American City</em> columnist Christian Madera looks at new efforts to get local government to make municipal data available and accessible, and some of the ways reluctant cities can be convinced to open up.

February 24 - Next American City

This analysis from Nigeria's <em>Daily Independent</em> looks at the challenges facing Lagos, the country's biggest city, as it grows into a global mega-city.

February 24 - Daily Independent

Census takers in New York City will face the tough challenge of tracking down people living in often illegally-built and hard to find small rooms and apartments.

February 24 - The New York Times

Researchers are working on technology to help create 3D models of buildings and places by using large collections of digital photos.

February 24 - The New York Times

This article looks at the five metro areas with the most affordable housing options, and the five with the least affordable options.

February 24 - CNN Money

As the auto industry evolves, the vast car lots that sprung up in many California towns over the past few decades are falling out of use. Cities are looking at new ways to reuse these spaces.

February 24 - Los Angeles Times

This article from <em>The Prospect</em> looks at slums and squatter cities. Author Stewart Brand, editor of the Whole Earth Catalog, calls them "unexpectedly green".

February 24 - Prospect

As sea levels rise and flooding threatens the foundations on which the city was built, the Indonesian capital of Jakarta is literally sinking into the sea. Now the president is pushing a plan to find a new home for the country's capital.

February 23 - Agence France Presse

Preservationists say a new California law that requires new construction to meet stringent green building standards could encourage demolition of historically significant buildings.

February 23 - NPR