The Daily Source of Urban Planning News

<p>The land rights battle that spurred the passage of Oregon's Measure 37 may come to an end, with a county-approved expedited process that would divide 22-acres of land into 8 lots.</p>

February 1 - The Portland Tribune

<p>California's governor supports infrastructure funding and fights global warming, but he has no love for high speed rail. His proposed budget may kill a high speed rail agency, and he wants a $9.95 billion rail bond removed from the 2008 ballot.</p>

January 31 - The Sacramento Bee

<p>Writing in Land Lines, Professors Amnon Lehavi and Amir N. Licht offer a new conceptual approach to land assembly problems that attempts to circumvent the problems that arise in using eminent domain for private development.</p>

January 31 - Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, Land Lines

<p>The English village of Ashton Hayes is looking to become the country's first carbon-neutral community. Cooperation village-wide has enabled the installation of solar panels and used recycled building materials in new structures.</p>

January 31 - The Guardian Unlimited

<p>New Orleans Mayor C. Ray Nagin testified to a Senate committee recently that a lack of local control over federal funding is severely limiting the Gulf Coast recovery. He says he doesn't see the federal government's will to rebuild New Orleans.</p>

January 31 - CNN

<p>A new study about the effects of local highway pollution on children's health has determined that living near highways can cause lifelong health risks. The results may cause many planners to reconsider where new housing and schools are developed.</p>

January 31 - The Los Angeles Times

<p>A city ordinance in Orlando, Florida, does not allow social service groups that help the city's homeless population to expand or renovate their facilities, out of fear that development will be hindered. Many groups are looking to change this law.</p>

January 31 - Orlando Weekly

<p>A license has been granted to the city of Manchester to host the United Kingdom's first "supercasino" -- a 5,00 square meter gambling and hotel complex similar to Las Vegas casinos. However, many in the UK are worried about resulting social problems.</p>

January 31 - The Guardian Unlimited

<p>A cadre of architects, planners, and designers descended upon Detroit for the 9th annual University of Michigan Detroit design charrette. The focus: a more livable and inhabited downtown for the country's most maligned, but up-and-coming cities.</p>

January 31 - The Detroit News

<p>Interest-only loans and ARMs once touted as a panacea have now become the vehicle for massive foreclosures as financially distressed owners can no longer afford their expensive homes.</p>

January 31 - The Sacramento Bee

<p>As Rome tries to provide transit options for its millions of residents and visitors, city planners and preservationists have struck a delicate balance between providing modern transportation and acknowledging the city's rich buried history.</p>

January 31 - The Wall Street Journal

<p>Funds have been approved to identify site selection for a multi-modal transit center in downtown Boise. The city is also pushing its public transit system to create fixed bus stops so that riders won't have to flag down buses to get a ride.</p>

January 30 - The Idaho Statesman

<p>Critical of the current proposals for alternative energy, James Howard Kunstler provides a "wake up call" for citizens, and provides a glimpse at life after the world makes its inevitable transition to a post-oil society.</p>

January 30 - Orion Magazine

<p>Can Frank Gehry's plan for Downtown L.A.'s Grand Avenue transform it into the cultural center civic leaders have been chasing for decades?</p>

January 30 - The New York Times

<p>Geoff Manaugh interviews Architect Ed Mazria about his efforts to promote ecological literacy and his challenge to the architecture and planning community to stop climate change.</p>

January 30 - BLDGBLOG

<p><em>Wired</em> presents this slideshow of some of the extravagant and futuristic buildings planned for Dubai.</p>

January 30 - Wired

By focusing on certain "pressure points" in urban areas, a city can dramatically increase its quality of life, argues Jaime Lerner, the former mayor of Curitiba, Brazil.

January 30 - WorldChanging

<p>Some fear that New York has lost its foothold as the pedestrian capital of America.</p>

January 30 - The New York Times

<p>Leasing the New Jersey Turnpike, Garden State Parkway, and Atlantic Expressway to private companies may bring a payment equal to the state’s debt of $30 billion, but the political repercussions for Governor John Corzine could be severe.</p>

January 30 - The New York Times

<p>A broad study of the travel habits and neighborhood choices of more than 18,000 Atlanta residents has found that a third of the people living in suburbs would have preferred a more walkable neighborhood.</p>

January 30 - The Atlanta Journal-Constitution