The Daily Source of Urban Planning News
The "Crippling" Impacts of Evictions
Recent research explores the impacts of evictions, especially on single low-income black mothers, and finds that they are a poorly-understood factor in the cycle of poverty.
Infrastructure Spending Expected to Rise in Stimulus Year Two
About one-third of the federal government's $787 billion economic stimulus has actually been spent over the last year. During the next year, much of the focus of the remainder will be on infrastructure projects.
Rail Plans Move Forward in Philadelphia
Plans to create a waterfront rail line in Philadelphia are moving forward, as the city approves funding for environmental studies and early design work.
American Commutes, in Font Form
Graphic designer Martha Kang McGill took commuting data from several American cities and made an easy-to-compare representation of the information using no more than a font and some colors.
Google Fights For Mixed-Use Near Campus
Google's headquarters in Mountain View, CA is not unlike many suburban office parks, but now the search giant is advocating for mixed-use development around their campus.
Shanghai Dreams
This profile from <em>National Geographic</em> takes an inside look at the growing and rapidly changing city of Shanghai.
Denser Communities = More Calories Burned
Dr. Lawrence Frank (U. of British Columbia) et.al. looked at Atlanta to make the connection between health reform and transportation reform, devising a clever 'energy index'. While the index rose in denser neighborhoods, it didn't in mixed-use ones.
Representing and Understanding the City Graphically
Columnist Jeanne Haffner goes hands-on to learn how graphic representation is used in the day-to-day work of planning.
How Affordable is Your City?
CNN ranks 10 American cities according to housing affordability, and finds that foreclosures, median incomes and the availability of developable land all influencing housing affordability.
Atlanta Keeps Streetcar Hopes Alive
Officials in Atlanta are pushing forward with plans to build a streetcar, despite being left out of a recent federal stimulus-led package of transportation grants.
Planners to Blame for Lack of Green Building in Ireland
Paul Keogh, the new president of the Royal Institute of Architects of Ireland, says that a politically-driven planning system ran unabated during the Irish boom, emphasizing development at all costs.
Speedy and Successful Downtown Resurgence in Des Moines
Des Moines, Iowa, is undergoing a rapid and thorough urban revival -- at least when compared to other cities. By Des Moines standards, the city's pace is par for the course.
The Science of Resiliency in Cities
Resilience science has typically been applied to ecosystems. But now, scientists are starting to look at how it relates to cities.
The Recession's Impact on American Cities
<em>Next American City</em> kicks off their new podcast by interviewing the Brookings Institution's Alan Berube about how the economic recession is playing out in American cities and metropolitan areas.
Abandoned Train Infrastructure Becomes Amusement Park
The abandoned infrastructure for an inner-city rail project in Lima, Peru, has been adapted into a playful amusement park.
Homebuilding On the Rise in January
New housing and apartment construction was up 2.8 percent in January, according to the Commerce Department. That's 591,000 new units.
Innovations in Healthy Retail Pay Off
Five speakers detail how programs to beautify streetscapes, improve neighborhood retail climates and bring fresh food to urban stores paid off for store owners and community residents alike.
FEATURE
The Importance of Being Urban
If we are "urbanists," does that mean we're anti-suburban? Or do choice and economics define our choices? Architect Fanis Grammenos reflects on his own history of shelter and the ideology of urbanism.
Infrastructure Emergency
Bob Herbert asks, 'What's wrong with us?' in this editorial on America's crumbling infrastructure and the uphill battle to get it fixed.
Dallas Streetcar is 1 of 51 Projects to Receive Federal Funding
DOT Secretary Ray LaHood announced $1.5 billion in transportation grants this morning, including $23 million towards a streetcar project in Dallas.
Pagination
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.