The Daily Source of Urban Planning News

<p>Waynesville, North Carolina Mayor Gavin Brown is forced to give up on pedestrian-friendly design to save potential jobs from Best Buy.</p>

May 31 - The Smoky Mountain News

<p>Americans are notoriously bad at navigating European-style traffic circles, but it seems Canadians are also confounded.</p>

May 31 - The Edmonton Sun

<p>Portland, famed for its progressive policies and smart growth, is facing criticism that the same growth they are applauded for is squeezing other groups out- particularly African-Americans.</p>

May 31 - The New York Times

<p>Transit ridership is spiking across the country as gas prices go up. Is this a tipping point for America's car culture?</p>

May 31 - The Philadelphia Inquirer

<p>A punch was thrown and hair was pulled at a recent meeting of the Guilford, Maine, Historical Society after tension arose over the removal and display of historic photos from the town museum.</p>

May 30 - Bangor Daily News

<p>At the World Science Festival in New York, visions of future cities mix the usual Blade Runner-esque architecture with abundant greenery.</p>

May 30 - Tim Halbur

<p>Railroads are overcoming decades of resistance from environmentalists by touting their greener aspects.</p>

May 30 - Wall St. Journal

<p>"Honey from the Hood" is one of the home-grown prodcuts from a Kensington neighborhood garden. To avoid soil contamination from this former industrial site, plants are grown in raised beds or hydroponically.</p>

May 30 - The New York Times

<p>City commits to adding over 450 miles of new bikeways/lanes linking neighborhoods, parks, downtown, and employment centers over the next 20 years and making an initial investment of $20 million.</p>

May 30 - The Columbus Dispatch

BLOG POST

<p style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"> <span style="font-size: small; font-family: Times New Roman">Randal O’Toole’s recent policy study from the Cato Institute, “</span><a href="http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=9420"><span style="font-size: small; font-family: Times New Roman; color: #800080">Roadmap to Gridlock</span></a><span style="font-size: small; font-family: Times New Roman">” is s worthy read for <strong>all</strong> professional planners, no matter what their ideological or professional stripe. Undoubtedly, most planners probably consider someone who maintains a blog called the “</span><a href="http://www.ti.org/antiplanner/"><span style="font-size: small; font-family: Times New Roman; color: #800080">Antiplanner</span></a><span style="font-size: small; font-family: Times New Roman">” more of a bomb thrower than a serious policy analyst. But this dismissive attitude throws an awful lot of good work by the road side, and a good example of that is O’Toole’s “Roadmap to Gridlock.”

May 30 - Samuel Staley

<p>In this guest column, Washington Governor Christine Gregoire, Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels, and King County Executive Ron Sims argue that Seattle needs to find a creative solution to the problem posed by its aging inner-city freeway.</p>

May 30 - The Seattle Times

BLOG POST

<p> America is facing more than just gasoline price inflation. The contemporary media is overwhelmed with stories on the impacts of higher fuel prices. The fingers are pointing in every direction. Planners are proposing everything from 50 year transit plans to build a handful of rail lines to forecasting a radical transformation of urban form and travel behavior. After exhaustive research to understand consumer responses to higher energy prices the analysis is complete and the results are in. </p>

May 30 - Steven Polzin

<p>In California's Inland Empire, abandoned houses are plentiful- the fallout from the subprime mortgage mess. Bill Fulton reports on what some cites are doing to keep the abandoned houses from dragging down neighborhoods.</p>

May 30 - California Planning & Development Report

<p>Gina Olszowski's first book focuses on the personal stories of rural residents impacted by sprawl.</p>

May 30 - The Beacon News

<p>Household sewage is currently fueling cars in Sweden, and has for years. But Swedish industry has given up on the idea, investing in ethanol-based gasoline.</p>

May 30 - International Herald Tribune

<p>Will laser-projected pedestrians make crossing the street safer in South Korea?</p>

May 30 - Streetsblog

<p>Tyson's Corner, an auto-oriented suburb of Washington, D.C., reveals ambitious plans to become a dense, urban community. Officials are bracing themselves for tough opposition from locals. The Washington Post story includes a video report.</p>

May 29 - The Washington Post

<p>As the cities in the arid Western United States face huge water shortages, officials and scientists are trying to convince the public that recycled wastewater can be clean and safe.</p>

May 29 - Governing

<p>With dramatically increasing fuel costs, European consumers formerly amenable to "green" taxes are turning against them, leading to fears that ambitious emission-control policies may not be achievable.</p>

May 29 - The Globe & Mail

<p>New schools are consistently built far from community centers, while historic school buildings near where people live are demolished, The Blue Ridge Press reports.</p>

May 29 - The Blue Ridge Press