The Daily Source of Urban Planning News

At a recent event in Los Angeles, Cecilia Estolano, CEO of the Community Redevelopment Agency of the City of Los Angeles, presented her vision for the Downtown of the future in one of the country's most notoriously diffuse urban centers.

March 7 - The Planning Report

The state of Michigan is getting ready to institute an emergency manager to effectively take over the financial operations of the auto industry city of Pontiac, which has struggled economically for more than a decade.

March 7 - The New York Times

According to the Pew Research Center, suburban dwellers are the most content with where they live, despite reports that also find that suburbs are not regarded the most ideal places to live.

March 7 - Pew Research Center

An new exhibition in Toronto called Carrot City: Designing for Urban Agriculture includes a concept for Pig City, a high-rise swine farm.

March 6 - The Toronto Star

The Heritage Foundation decries Obama's anti-sprawl policies, claiming that smart growth strategies have only managed to raise housing prices around the country.

March 6 - The Heritage Foundation

Atlantic City's convention center features the largest solar panel array in the United States.

March 6 - CNN

BLOG POST

<p> <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'"><span style="font-size: small">Having become something of a junkie who overdoses on political and economic news, it is only natural that I try to help justify that time investment by scouring the news for tidbits that have professional relevance.<span>  </span>Just this past week several things have come across my monitor that have made me reflect.<span>  </span></span></span> </p>

March 6 - Steven Polzin

A quarry in San Diego is on a path towards conversion into a $1.5 billion mixed-use housing and retail project, one many thought unlikely in today's tight market.

March 6 - The New York Times

No one expects the $8 billion to build any one single high-speed-rail system in the U.S. But the U.S., with its vast distances and low gas prices, is not Europe or Asia, and some question whether the investment will produce any substantial results.

March 6 - The Boston Globe

The former GM auto industry town of Anderson, Indiana, which struggled as factories closed, is experiencing rebirth as a new industry plans to move in.

March 6 - The New York Times

New data show that in 2008 traffic congestion in the nation's cities declined by 30 percent, the result not of new roads or transit, but of modest declines in VMT.

March 6 - CEOs For Cities

About one out of every five homes in America is worth less than what is still owed on its mortgage. The highest rates of negative equity are in Nevada, Michigan, Arizona, Florida and California.

March 6 - Time

As air travel security tightens and high speed rail expands, getting in and around Spain is becoming easier on the rails than in the sky.

March 6 - NPR

The Obama Administration has outlined plans to assist nearly 4 million homeowners in danger of foreclosure. The total cost to taxpayers runs close to $75 billion.

March 6 - The New York Times

BLOG POST

<p> Once again, US Air (a.k.a. <a href="http://tinyurl.com/dcedrj" target="_blank" title="US SCARE">US-SCARE</a>) has made my life difficult. I was hoping to fly back from Myrtle Beach, SC to Denver yesterday and they cancelled my flight (Myrtle Beach is where the <a href="http://www.csc.noaa.gov/geotools/" target="_blank" title="GeoTools Conferencce">GeoTools</a> conference was and a meeting of the Ecosystem Based Management Tools <a href="http://www.ebmtools.org/" target="_blank" title="EBM Tools Network">Network</a>).  <br />

March 6 - Ken Snyder

With severe budget shortfalls, Philadelphia has turned to its citizens to see where the city should make cuts and what citizens are willing to pay to save.

March 5 - Reuters

Slums have garnered some positive attention lately, from academics (Teddy Cruz) to royalty (Prince Charles). This article looks at just what it is we can learn from them, as well as the challenges that face legitimizing the world's shantytowns.

March 5 - The Boston Globe

In this fourth and final installment on Bus Rapid Transit, Streetsblog and Walter Hook discuss how to make BRT work along 1st or 2nd Avenue--two ready-made BRT corridors.

March 5 - Streetsblog

One blogger makes the case for walkable urbanism, in the context of the social and physical well-being of adolescents specifically.

March 5 - Greater Greater Washington

The Highway Act of 1956 that resulted in the construction of America's Interstate Highway system has gathered a lot of praise recently as a model economy-boosting public works project. But based on the problems it's caused, that praise should stop.

March 5 - Financial Times