The Daily Source of Urban Planning News

<p>A proposal to stack millions of concrete blocks containing ashes of the deceased in a gigantic pyramid in Germany is attracting proposals from architects -- and some skepticism.</p>

March 14 - BBC

<p>The coal industry, electric utilities and manufacturers are in line to get trillions of dollars in federal funding to reduce carbon emissions, leaving virtually no money for smart growth and transit solutions to climate change.</p>

March 14 - California Planning & Development Repot

<p>City councilors in Washington D.C. have proposed a plan to throw out exemptions that allowed hundreds of landlords to evict residents with little or no notice so they could convert buildings to high priced condos.</p>

March 14 - The Washington Post

<p>A recent report form the U.S. Public Interest Research Group highlights the arguments for increased investment in public transportation.</p>

March 14 - U.S. PIRG, the Federation of State Public Interest Research Groups

<p>This article from the <em>Brooklyn Daily Eagle</em> looks at the increasing public demand for Complete Streets in Brooklyn.</p>

March 14 - The Brooklyn Daily Eagle

<p>Measures are moving forward in Connecticut and Vermont that would protect the rights of residents to dry their laundry on clotheslines -- an act many opponents say drives down property values.</p>

March 13 - The Boston Globe

<p>The mega cities of the developing world are expected to experience increasing rates of growth in the coming decades. The growth in population will be a challenge, but so will be dealing with the increase in air pollution.</p>

March 13 - CNN

<p>Included in the budget of any new county building in Los Angeles County is a 1% line item for the creation of public art -- part of a public art program initiated in 2004. The first building to utilize this line item has just been completed.</p>

March 13 - The Los Angeles Times

<p>Denver is not providing enough resources to undertake historic preservation efforts, according to this open letter to Mayor John Hickenlooper.</p>

March 13 - The Rocky Mountain News

As a part of Chicago's $1.4 billion "Plan for Transformation," the once massive Cabrini-Green project has been redeveloped into a mix of affordable, public and market housing. But 80% of the former tenants have moved away.

March 13 - GOOD Magazine

BLOG POST

<p> I'm reposting this from my <a href="http://cities.iftf.net">Future of Cities</a> blog. You're all invited to join our conversation over there: it's sort of for urban studies what Planetizen is for urban planning and design. </p><p> Some of you may know that my wife and I welcomed a little girl to the world last month (Stella!). Despite the fact that my mother was a nurse for 40 years - or perhaps because of it - I've never spent a lot of time around hospitals. In fact, like many of you I share an aversion to the centralization of sick people. </p>

March 13 - Anthony Townsend

<p>The Aborigine population in Australia is on the rise, and the shift in demographics is posing problems for the country's school system.</p>

March 13 - The Sydney Morning Herald

<p>Recent reports are highlighting the dire effects climate change will have on transportation infrastructure.</p>

March 13 - Associated Press

<p>In order to raise money to provide much-needed housing for its soldiers, the Russian Army has plans to auction of millions of dollars worth of property -- from huge mansions to entire towns.</p>

March 13 - BBC

<p>South Korea's new president has proposed the engineering and construction of a huge cross-country canal -- a plan he hopes will revive much of the country's depressed villages and offer an attractive venue for tourists and shipping companies.</p>

March 13 - The New York Times

<p>Plans for streetcars in Cincinnati are moving forward, as advocates have formally requested nearly $1 million to perform the preliminary studies required to apply for federal funding.</p>

March 13 - The Cincinnati Enquirer

<p>A recent ruling that upholds the right of local communities to control overbuilding may prove to increase the crackdown on McMansions -- and demand for design professionals and architects.</p>

March 12 - Architectural Record

<p>New scientific reports laying out the potential impacts of global warming on cities are being directed to planners, whom some say are not reacting to the changing climate adequately.</p>

March 12 - The New York Times

<p>Downtown waterfront redevelopment is attracting a new kind of resident to Yonkers, New York.</p>

March 12 - The New York Times

BLOG POST

<p style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-indent: 0.5in" class="MsoNormal"> <font face="Times New Roman" size="3">Why plan? That’s an important question for a planning skeptic like myself. I’m not at all convinced that conventional public urban planning has much value, despite (or because of?) spending eight years on a city planning commission. Yet, I don’t consider myself an “antiplanner”. I’m happy to leave that role to my friend and virtual colleague </font><a href="http://www.cato.org/people/otoole.html"><font face="Times New Roman" size="3" color="#800080">Randal O’Toole</font></a><font face="Times New Roman" size="3"> at the Cato Institute. (He even runs a blog called “</font><a href="http://www.ti.org/antiplanner/"><font face="Times New Roman" size="3" color="#800080">The Antiplanner</font></a><font size="3"><font face="Times New Roman">”.)<span> </span></font></font> </p> <p style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-indent: 0.5in" class="MsoNormal"> <font face="Times New Roman" size="3">Urban planning has a role even though, IMO, on balance, its application has had a negative impact on communities and cities. Notably, even the free market (and Nobel Prize winning) economist </font><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friedrich_Hayek"><font face="Times New Roman" size="3" color="#800080">F.A. Hayek</font></a><font face="Times New Roman" size="3"> recognized a role for planning in his classic book on political economy <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Constitution-Liberty-F-Hayek/dp/0226320847"><font color="#800080">The Constitution of Liberty</font></a></em>. </font> </p> <p style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-indent: 0.5in" class="MsoNormal"> <font face="Times New Roman" size="3">The question is: what <em>is</em> planning’s role and, perhaps more importantly, how has this role changed or shifted in modern times?</font> </p>

March 12 - Samuel Staley