The Daily Source of Urban Planning News

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<p class="MsoNormal">As planners and most allied professionals know, the federal government lacks cohesive urban and environmental policies, and especially during the tenure of the current Bush administration, there has been a relative lack of investment in cities, public transportation systems, and alternative sources of energy.<span> </span>With the ongoing war in Iraq and perennial issues like social security, healthcare, and immigration dominating the political landscape, important domestic issues like affordable housing, public transit, and compact urban growth seem little more than a microscopic blip on the radar screens of potential 2008 presidential candidates, if they discuss these issues at all.</p>

March 6 - David Gest

<p>With a number of big transportation and road projects in the queue for the state, Oregon remains unsure about where it's going to get the money to build them.</p>

March 6 - The Portland Tribune

<p>Under advice from parking guru Donald Shoup, North Carolina's capital is rethinking its parking requirements.</p>

March 6 - The News & Observer

<p>Baghdad's mayor Sabir al-Isawi expresses frustration with American authorities over sluggish repairs to smashed infrastructure.</p>

March 6 - Telegraph

<p>SustainLane surveyed the largest 50 US cities in 2006 as to the percentage of their city vehicles fleets using alternative fuels including biodiesel, hydrogen, ethanol, compressed and natural gas, as well as electric vehicles, gas-hybrid vehicles.</p>

March 6 - SustainLane Government

<p>Can smart cards change the way transit is used?</p>

March 6 - The Montreal Gazette

<p>Security influences design of buildings and public spaces, just like in the Middle Ages.</p>

March 6 - The New York Times

<p>With public bus service to the Fredericksburg train station, Richmond commuters can then ride regional rail to Washington, DC.</p>

March 6 - Richmond Times-Dispatch

<p>Chicago Transit Authority board members prefer to drive, leading the mass transit riding public to think they don't understand system problems.</p>

March 6 - The Chicago Tribune

BLOG POST

<p>The message from last weekend&#39;s two-day symposium at Columbia University, the Queens Museum and the Museum of the City of New York on Robert Moses: many aspects of the master builder&#39;s place in history haven&#39;t been told, despite Robert Caro&#39;s 1,162-page Pulizter Prize-winning biography; and that New York may need to rethink the paradigm for big plans and community engagement as the unique metropolis makes new investments in transit, roadways and large redevelopment projects from Ground Zero to Hudson Yards.</p>

March 5 - Anthony Flint

<p>As consumers grow more aware of global warming, corporate giants launch eco-friendly efforts to protect their bottom line.</p>

March 5 - The Los Angeles Times

<p>When the cropland to power an SUV can feed a person for a year, attempts to wean America off of oil through biofuels raises some serious moral questions.</p>

March 5 - AlterNet

BLOG POST

<p>Scrambling to grab that elusive “American Dream” of homeownership, millions plunged into the subprime mortgage market to build wealth through appreciation (if not speculation). Pundits cheered as the ownership rate crept up, lauding the pluck of aspirational minority and immigrant families.</p><p>There’s a reason it is called subprime, though. Lenders offered a smorgasborg of loan “products,” but the bottom line was that they are all very costly for the borrower – often entailing adjustable-rate surprises in the 30 percent or higher range.</p>

March 5 - James S. Russell

<p>UCLA urban planning professor Michael Manville offers four explanations about why US cities don't implement congestion pricing, despite widespread agreement that it works.</p>

March 5 - Urban Planning Research blog, by Randall Crane

<p>Technology advances and oil prices above $50/barrel permit companies to extract far more oil from existing wells using secondary and tertiary recovery methods and target 'heavy' and other 'nonconventional' oil supplies as light oil reserves diminish.</p>

March 5 - The New York Times

BLOG POST

<p class="MsoNormal">The merit of rent regulation is a recurring debate in New York City.<span> </span>On one side are tenant advocates arguing that rent regulation is desperately needed to help poorer households, maintain socioeconomic diversity in New York City, and prevent the City from becoming the preserve of the super rich.<span> </span>Real estate interests on the other hand argue that rent regulation deprives property owners of the right to market their apartments as they see fit, causes landlords to under-invest in their properties, and that in many instances the beneficiaries of rent regulation are affluent.<span> </span>What makes the debate so bedeviling and contentious is that both sides are correct.</p>

March 5 - Lance Freeman

<p>The Bayside neighborhood's economic, cultural and racial diversity is reflected in housing types, restaurants, scrap yards and grocery stores.</p>

March 5 - The New York Times

<p>The almost three-year-old, four-mile, privately built and run, driverless Las Vegas<br /> Monorail has seen its ridership plummet by more than 30% since increasing its adult fare by 67%, so it will report ridership numbers quarterly rather than monthly.</p>

March 5 - Las Vegas Review-Journal

<p>The New York Times urges the city's next transportation chief to promote public transit, walking, and cycling.</p>

March 5 - The New York Times

<p>The effects of climate change are claiming a small Alaskan island community, with rising water levels and melting permafrost eroding the land beneath the homes of the village's 600 people. Relocation seems to be the only option to save the village.</p>

March 5 - BBC