The Daily Source of Urban Planning News

<p>In this reprinted excerpt from his 1999 book The Ecology of Fear, Mike Davis recounts the fire-prone history of Malibu and shows that development there has succumbed to repeated disastrous fires.</p>

November 2 - Radical Urban Theory

BLOG POST

<p><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana">Some of you may remember my observations in an earlier post on the wonderful event I participated in earlier this year, with New York&#39;s Forum for Urban Design. Its rare indeed to get the opportunity to discuss and debate issues of urbanism over 2 days with the chief planners for New York, Boston, London, Singapore and Toronto. Months later, I&#39;m still thinking about some of the perspectives I debated about with my peers in these great cities. You can see my earlier comments on the discussion, titled &quot;World Urbanists take Manhattan: Lessons learned and left&quot; at: </span></p><p><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana"><a href="/node/24956">http://www.planetizen.com/node/24956</a> </span></p>

November 1 - Brent Toderian

<p>Toronto city officials recently approved a $1.5 billion capital budget to tackle some of the city's most pressing infrastructure issues.</p>

November 1 - The Toronto Star

<p>A number of cities in California are adopting policies to limit the conversion of industrial lands to housing and, in some case, retail development. Cities insist they need to defend their industrial job bases.</p>

November 1 - California Planning & Development Report

<p>The American embassy under construction in Baghdad will be the largest, most heavily fortified and most expensive such facility in the world. And probably the most unnecessary, writes William Langewiesche.</p>

November 1 - Vanity Fair

<p>Proponents say carbon trading is an essential market-based strategy for combating global warming while critics argue that it provides cover for corporate polluters.</p>

November 1 - Democracy Now!

<p>Experts say smarter land-use planning is needed as risk from wildfires and droughts caused by global warming increases.</p>

November 1 - The Washington Post Writers Group

<p>Droughts are causing many Georgia municipalities to tightly restrict water use, but just across the border in Alabama is a city that has plenty of water to spare.</p>

November 1 - The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

<p>Plans to build an expansive mid-city park in Dallas may be squashed as voters consider whether they want to pay for a six-lane tollway and various other highway improvements to mitigate the loss of transportation routes through the proposed park.</p>

November 1 - The Wall Street Journal

<p>Seattle has shown that Kyoto Protocol-level reductions in greenhouse gases are practical and achievable, and won't hurt the economy. But with car use rising, much more needs to be done.</p>

November 1 - The Seattle Times

<p>An enormous Iraqi dam that was "fundamentally flawed" when constructed is on the verge of failure, according to a recently released audit.</p>

November 1 - The Baltimore Sun

<p>Bogotá, Colombia has made significant efforts to integrate bicycling facilities into its TransMilenio Bus Rapid Transit system. The New York City Streets Renaissance team was there to learn more and take a look.</p>

October 31 - Streetsblog

<p>As part of a new effort to increase access to housing, advocates are working in three target areas to try to find the best ways to create affordable workforce housing in areas that are typically too expensive for many blue-collar workers.</p>

October 31 - The Washington Post

<p>Strategies used by cities such as Miami, Philadelphia, New York, St. Louis, Seattle, &amp; Denver for reducing homelessness are working.</p>

October 31 - The Los Angeles Times

<p>The recurring theme in horror movies of newly-arrived tenants being haunted by former tenants and vengeful spirits may be seen as a metaphor for gentrification, writes Sam Miller.</p>

October 31 - AlterNet

<p>The Canadian government has recently announced a plan to improve spending on transit, but with a shortfall of more than $60 billion, many are calling on the government to focus on other less "sexy" infrastructure projects.</p>

October 31 - The Vancouver Sun

BLOG POST

<p class="MsoNormal">As education has become more expensive students wonder about what they are getting for their money. Evaluations of faculty, rankings of programs, and internet chat-room gossip all aim to find how to purchase the best value for money given a specific set of preferences. However, it is a misunderstanding to see students as primarily consumers of instruction. Rather the best students collaborate with faculty and other students to produce their own learning. </p> <p class="MsoNormal">What does this mean? In planning, as an applied profession, the activity of producing learning has a number of components. The following represent just a few of these mechanisms.</p>

October 31 - Ann Forsyth

<p>Bike lanes will be required for all new roads built in the Chinese city of Guangzhou, according to government officials. The city is hoping to get more people out of cars and onto bikes.</p>

October 31 - China Daily

<p>Already lagging behind Mississippi, Louisiana has finally approved the construction of 75 "Louisiana Cottages" (AKA Katrina Cottages) as an alternative to FEMA's temporary trailers, long thought to be a sub-standard and undignified form of housing.</p>

October 31 - New Orleans Times-Picayune

<p>After a rash of violence at its annual Castro district Halloween festival in recent years, San Francisco has put the kibosh on this year's festivities. City officials are hoping word of the party's cancellation has been heard.</p>

October 31 - The San Francisco Chronicle