The Daily Source of Urban Planning News

<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

<p>In response to the latest Southern California wildfires, site locations and climate must be more carefully considered by the people who build and approve subdivisions, writes Christopher Hawthorne.</p>

October 31 - The Los Angeles Times

<p>The health of Lake Superior is facing a serious threat from pollution and runoff caused by development along its shores, according to a panel of scientists.</p>

October 31 - Associated Press via Minneapolis-St. Paul Star-Tribune

BLOG POST

<p>Over the past three months, my girlfriend and I have made three trips to the suburbs of Miami. Twice to the Whole Foods we desperately lack on Miami Beach (Yes, Wild Oats is okay, but for us food snobs it just does not compare) and once to the brand new, soul-killing, 283,000 square foot IKEA to partially outfit our 450 square foot South Beach studio apartment. </p>

October 30 - Mike Lydon

<p>In a clear message to L.A.’s transportation leaders, a U.S. Department of Transportation representative told the city's transit agency to consider congestion pricing as a method to both reduce congestion and show ‘the true costs’ of freeway driving.</p>

October 30 - The Los Angeles Times

<p>Groundwater supplies in Northeast Florida may only be able to support growth until 2030, when demands on water will overshoot available resources.</p>

October 30 - The Florida Times-Union

<p>A government report claims that greatly expanding Britain's transportation infrastructure will not work against its goal of reducing carbon emissions, but will actually help push transit technology to be more environmentally-friendly.</p>

October 30 - The Guardian

<p>Despite its tax benefits, a big mixed-use project in Salt Lake City is being blamed for making the downtown a virtual deadzone.</p>

October 30 - Deseret Morning News

<p>Due to the success of Portland's downtown streetcar, city officials are already in the beginning stages of planning future lines throughout the city.</p>

October 30 - The Oregonian

<p>While catastrophic, the California fires will not have nearly the destructive impact as the other firestorm still in progress: the subprime meltdown.</p>

October 30 - The Huffington Post

<p>Designers and architects are teaming up to provide the Gulf Coast region with pre-fabricated buildings meant to serve as temporary general stores and community centers for areas still struggling to recuperate.</p>

October 30 - Metropolis Magazine

<p>Southern California's wildfires have emphasized the fact that many people choose to live in disaster-prone areas all across the country. Many of them say the benefits outweigh the inherent risk.</p>

October 30 - U.S. News & World Report

<p>Housing activists are pushing city officials to adopt a type of eminent domain to take over neglected buildings and turn them into affordable housing. That idea is easier said than afforded by city coffers.</p>

October 30 - The Toronto Star

<p>The border towns of El Paso, Texas, and Juárez, Mexico, are increasingly becoming more and more alike -- from demographics, to land development types, to housing prices.</p>

October 30 - The New York Times

BLOG POST

<p style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><font size="3"><font face="Trebuchet MS">You drank the Kool-Aid; you know that if you link transit and land use to create transit-oriented development (TOD) the result is fewer car trips and a host of benefits. From Portland to Miami, Boston to Los Angeles, a record number of TODs are being built in the US. Yet most bankers, developers and regulators are drinking from a different cup. As a result the majority of new development adjacent to transit stops in America has been built in a manner oblivious to the fact that a rail stop is nearby.

October 29 - G.B. Arrington

<p>A look at the interesting architectural features of the new skyscraper in Mumbai that will serve as a corporate meeting facility and private residence for India's richest person.</p>

October 29 - Architectural Record

<p>Smart Growth projects are having trouble gathering support in Long Island, New York, mainly because of their large scales.</p>

October 29 - The New York Times

<p>Participatory planning in Philadelphia creates a new vision for the city's Delaware River waterfront.</p>

October 29 - The Philadelphia Inquirer

<p>Belo Horizonte is by no means a well-known city from the South American country of Brazil. But with more than 12,000 bars, the city is gaining notoriety as one of the world's best places to drink.</p>

October 29 - The New York Times