The Daily Source of Urban Planning News

Ray LaHood rejected raising the gas tax, then President Obama rejected a vehicle-miles-traveled fee. What's left is "out-of-the-box" ideas like tolling and public-private-partnerships.

March 11 - The Wall Street Journal

As money-poor mega-developments become less feasible to construct, builders may soon have to revert to developing at a smaller scale--a strategy that makes still more sense economically.

March 11 - Greater Greater Washington

Car-free for more than 15 years, Chicago opened its dying pedestrian mall on State Street to vehicular traffic in 1996, with huge success. Should Boston planners and officials consider a similar strategy for its Downtown Crossing?

March 11 - The Boston Globe

A group of surfers has successfully blocked an environmentally-harmful beach dredging and repair project in Florida, at least temporarily. The project was meant to counteract beach erosion problems, but was protested over concerns about local reefs.

March 11 - The New York Times

This piece from <em>Metropolis</em> looks at a rail line that was converted into a bike trail in Detroit, and how it has become a well-used neighborhood connector.

March 11 - Metropolis

The Seasteading Institute claims to be only a few years away from launching a prototype of a floating city.

March 11 - CNN

As commercial vacancies increase, cities are feeling the pain of lower tax revenues.

March 11 - BusinessWeek

Roads and bridges are crumbling in America. The Highway Trust Fund is broke and new revenue other than stimulus funds are unlikely, so some state transportation officials are applying innovative methods to spread the road funding they have secured.

March 10 - Parade

BrandWeek says that the downturn in the economy makes more ads in public spaces 'a no-brainer', because cities get revenue and advertisers get exposure in previously untapped locations.

March 10 - BrandWeek

BLOG POST

<p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; line-height: normal" class="MsoNormal"> <span style="font-size: small; font-family: Calibri">Is a $50,000 annual income wealth or poverty in North America? By historical or international standards such an income should be considered wealthy and luxurious, but most people I know consider it poverty because of the high cost of living. </span> </p>

March 10 - Todd Litman

State legislators have proposed a plan to break up a state agency in charge of managing growth. The move is one of a host of measures proposed by lawmakers to stimulate the state's economy.

March 10 - St. Petersburg Times

The $8 billion in stimulus funds allocated to high speed rail marks a turning point in a road-airport dominated U.S. transportation network, but the politics of allocating the funds may prevent results needed to showcase HSR.

March 10 - Washington Post

<em>Los Angeles Times</em> architecture critic Christopher Hawthorne offers three pieces of advice to recently re-elected L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa for improving his city -- and his urban planning credibility.

March 10 - Los Angeles Times

The Olympic Forest Park in Beijing is standing out as one of the rare Olympics-related projects to remain in use after the 2008 event. Hu Jie, the park's designer, talks about its planning and the role of public space in Beijing.

March 10 - Bangkok Post

CA's Air Resources Board has issued a new regulation to reduce carbon from fuels - and the ethanol industry isn't happy.

March 10 - Los Angeles Times

BLOG POST

In January 1992, The New York Times Sunday Magazine ran a piece by Columbia’s Nicholas Lemann, titled “The Myth of Community Development”.  It was then - timed to provoke critical thinking about the Clinton Administration’s vanilla urban policy of Empowerment Communities (EZ/EC) - a poignant evaluation of community development, and it asked hard questions.<br /> <br /> Questions about the capacity of local organizations, the wisdom of economic development efforts in the hands of anemic CDCs.  Neither wholly right nor wrong, the piece put on the table a necessary skunk:  was it sensible to try to revitalize the inner city using the tools and thinking then at hand?<br />

March 10 - Charles Buki

Designs for the new Transbay Terminal in San Francisco may not be able to handle the amount of passengers expected by 2030, according to transportation officials. Some are calling for a redesign of the plans, set to begin construction next year.

March 10 - San Francisco Chronicle

BLOG POST

<p> <span style="font-size: x-small">This month&#39;s Broadway &quot;opening&quot; proposal is as much a clarion to the new thinking of public street space in America as it is a gift to the people of New York City.<br />

March 10 - Ian Sacs

Half a year after the area erupted in violence, the South Ossetia region of Georgia is struggling to rebuild.

March 10 - International Herald Tribune

Three years after the publication of The High Cost of Free Parking, Prof. Don Shoup's work has begun to take hold across the country. Cities from San Francisco to Washington, DC, are starting to curb traffic and recognize the true cost of parking.

March 9 - InTransition Magazine