The Daily Source of Urban Planning News

<p>This article from <em>Reason</em> looks at a regulatory system in Alexandria, Virginia, that seeks to maintain the city's historic Old Town neighborhood. But is the regulation burdening local businesses owners to the point of hurting the economy?</p>

December 12 - Reason

<p>With increasing train ridership and more people shying away from the gas pump, Neal Peirce asks whether now might be Amtrak's time to shine.</p>

December 12 - The Washington Post

<p>In Toronto, planners have unveiled a street design that separates a planned streetcar line from auto traffic, bike lanes, and parking. Many are calling it a first for the city -- making the street decidedly transit- and pedestrian-friendly.</p>

December 12 - The Toronto Star

<p>This blog post from <em>Wired</em> takes a look at the expanding subway system of Beijing, China -- a system that is expected to become the world's second largest by 2015.</p>

December 11 - Wired

<p>Thanks to a series of "lousy" public policy decisions, Ottawa - Canada's national capital - is growing increasingly dysfunctional, writes Jeffrey Simpson.</p>

December 11 - The Globe & Mail

<p>This video from <em>Current</em> profiles Lagos, Nigeria, the world's fastest growing megacity.</p>

December 11 - Current

<p>On the tail of a recent announcement that Washington D.C. would decommission up to two dozen public schools, columnist Roger K. Lewis suggests that the closings can be a good thing, and that they open the door for adaptive reuse.</p>

December 11 - The Washington Post

<p>Temporarily pedestrianized streets in London brought nearly a million people out for a day of walking and shopping recently, resulting in more than $200 million worth of sales.</p>

December 11 - The Evening Standard

<p>More and more walls are rising in Baghdad neighborhoods, giving areas a calmer, safer feel. But the walls also create a prison-like atmosphere and many residents are conflicted about the tradeoff.</p>

December 11 - The Christian Science Monitor

<p>In a gentrifying neighborhood in Washington D.C., residents are campaigning against a local liquor store they say encourages littering and public drunkenness. But longtime neighborhood residents defend the store, calling it a neighborhood staple.</p>

December 11 - The Washington Post

<p>County officials in New York are looking to award more than $87 million to small towns to increase their stock of affordable housing -- an effort aimed at luring and keeping young professionals. But opposition to this development type is a hurdle.</p>

December 11 - The New York Times

<p>At the current rate of infrastructure spending for sewer construction and other sanitation measures, there won't be universal access to sanitation in Brazil fore more than 115 years.</p>

December 11 - Inter Press Service

<p>Devastating floods in the southern Washington community of Chehalis have many tracing the roots of the problem back to clear-cut logging and a long pattern of unchecked floodplain development.</p>

December 11 - The Seattle Times

<p>This article from the <em>Warsaw Business Journal</em> looks at how the concept of the Garden City is gladly embraced by developers to market their housing projects, but rarely are its design characteristics included in the actual development.</p>

December 10 - Warsaw Business Journal

<p>The seven western states dependent on the Colorado River for their water are on the verge of coming to an agreement on a management plan to ensure a steady supply of water from the increasingly stressed source. But some say the plan won't do enough.</p>

December 10 - The Arizona Republic

<p>A report by <em>The Boston Globe</em> finds that the Boston area transit system costs less to operate than other major American transit systems -- but it has one of the worst on-time arrival performances in the nation.</p>

December 10 - The Boston Globe

<p>With more and more land receiving federal protection as National Heritage Areas, property rights activists are butting heads with the preservationists they say are taking rights away from landowners.</p>

December 10 - The Washington Post

<p>The city may consider a heavy rail subway system after overturning a light rail ballot initiative.</p>

December 10 - The Kansas City Star

BLOG POST

<p> It seems that global cities across the world are running up against an unforeseen brake on their future growth - airport and airspace congestion. </p>

December 10 - Anthony Townsend

<p>Plans to demolish low income housing and remove FEMA trailers are putting the poor of New Orleans in a tight spot.</p>

December 10 - Bloomberg