The Daily Source of Urban Planning News

<p>A recent report by Joel Kotkin and the Greater Houston Partnership offers an alternative to Richard Florida's Creative Class model for the future of cities -- using the Sunbelt metropolis as a case study.</p>

June 7 - Greater Houston Partnership

<p>Assaults and property crimes are also up in 2006, according to recently released FBI data. City officials are hoping the increase is a one-time occurrence, and not a trend that could endanger its ongoing urban revitalization efforts.</p>

June 7 - The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

<p>The Lord Mayor of Sydney has used very blunt language to characterize the city's future, yet planning to counter anticipated problems is still in the early stages.</p>

June 7 - The Sydney Morning Herald

BLOG POST

<p>The solution to so-called &quot;automobile dependence&quot; within the contemporary planning community is almost alway more mass transit: more trains and buses. But is this realistic, particualarly given current strategies and approaches to providing mass transit? Most investments in mass transit are patently unsustainable, requiring huge investments in capital and dramatic reductions in mobility (measured by travel time) to achieve ridership goals. </p><p>Proof of mass transit&#39;s unsustainability is obvious to anyone willing to look at it objectively: </p>

June 7 - Samuel Staley

<p>A recent editorial argues that the successful model of regional planning in the Sacramento region known as the "Blueprint" provides an alternative to sprawl that needs to be applied statewide, and identifies current state legislation to do just that.</p>

June 7 - The Sacramento Bee

<p>In an effort to improve its world headquarters, Campbell Soup wants to expand its campus in Camden, New Jersey. The only problem is that the company's plans include knocking down a nationally registered historic building.</p>

June 7 - The New York Times

<p>Fewer and fewer parents are allowing their children to leave the house unattended. Citing safety concerns, nearly half of parents prefer to keep their kids home.</p>

June 7 - BBC

BLOG POST

<p><img src="/files/u10403/accessj.jpg" alt="" width="225" height="155" align="right" />Do yourself a favor: Go check out the latest issue of IEEE Spectrum, either online or in hard copy. Spectrum is the trade magazine for the international engineers&#39; society—it&#39;s really quite good—and this issue features an extensive package on megacities.</p><p>This is the engineer&#39;s take on many of the issues we all grapple with on Interchange. So it&#39;s not about making public meetings go more smoothly or trying to understand how to use GIS for placemaking. It&#39;s about building stuff and making sure it&#39;ll keep working.</p>

June 6 - Anonymous

<p>Space for the dead is an increasingly tight commodity in England, so the government has pushed plans to increase the density of its graveyards. Under the new plans, older gravesites could be altered to accommodate up to six additional coffins.</p>

June 6 - BBC

<p>In both the US and the UK, local governments are looking to offer wireless internet access in public spaces as a way to get more people out on the streets and near businesses. But they are carefully considering the idea's sustainability.</p>

June 6 - The Seattle Times, BBC

<p>Mukesh Ambani, India's richest man, has plans to build a 570-foot, 27-story skyscraper in Mumbai as a home for his six-person family, a stark contrast to the city's many crowded slums. Some planners predict similar skyscraper projects will follow.</p>

June 6 - The Guardian

<p>Transportation expert Reid Ewing appeared in Napa to tout higher densities and mixed-use development. The county is updating it transportation plan and considering a second attempt to pass a transportation sales tax measure.</p>

June 6 - Napa Valley Register

<p>Minneapolis' signature street has fulfilled its promise as an urban oasis. But belching buses and sidewalk cafes don't mix.</p>

June 6 - Minneapolis Star Tribune

<p>Located on the site of a major rail transit hub in Brooklyn, the Atlantic Yards project has the opportunity to be one of the highest profile transit-oriented developments in the world. But will it really promote transit use and reduce congestion?</p>

June 6 - The Gotham Gazette

<p>Tokyo is rapidly developing -- and redeveloping. One of the unique characteristics about the city is the temporal nature of its buildings and spaces, which are often replaced after very short lives with new visions of the city's future.</p>

June 6 - Wired

<p>This article from <em>The Seattle Times</em> takes a look at the long-term financing schedule associated with extending the region's light rail system.</p>

June 6 - The Seattle Times

<p>Researchers at Virginia Tech are looking at ways to attract companies considering moving overseas to relocate to low-cost rural areas of the U.S. -- a concept dubbed "farmshoring".</p>

June 6 - Virginia Tech Office of Economic Development

<p>The primetime Fox television show "The OC" and MTV's "Laguna Beach" may have helped increased real estate prices in Orange County, California.</p>

June 6 - The Financial Times

<p>Brooklyn, New York, has a long and soiled history when it comes to fuel production. Now comes plans for two more plants, but so far they are welcomed by the city and surrounding neighbors.</p>

June 6 - The New York Times

BLOG POST

<p style="text-indent: 0.5in" class="MsoNormal">Although the latest immigration bill being debated upon in congress has attracted relatively little attention from planners, the planning implications of reforming or not reforming current immigration policy are huge.<span> </span>Immigration impacts labor markets, and thereby commuting patterns, transportation planning and economic development.<span> </span>Immigration swells the population of many cities and towns forcing planners to rethink their plans for housing, schools and other public services.<span> </span>Often overlooked, however, is f immigration’s impact on the planning process itself.</p>

June 6 - Lance Freeman