The Daily Source of Urban Planning News

Most people think of nature and cities as separate. According to a new Urban and natural environments are not necessarily conflicting notions but must be integrated at many different scales, for sustainable, healthy settlements to occur.

May 3 - The Toronto Star

Royal Architectural Institute of Canada (RAIC) and the Canada Council for the Arts announce the Governor-General's Medals in Architecture.

May 3 - The Globe and Mail

To fund a week-long charrette with over 40 architects, planners, and engineers, New Urbanism founder Andres Duany chipped in $150,000 of his own money. As a result, one neighborhood is much further along in the planning process than its counterparts.

May 3 - The Wall Street Journal

A team of researchers use satellite data to create a grid of 8.7 billion data cells tracking the evolution of land use in the continental United States. The findings are surprising

May 3 - TerraDaily

Democratic Governor Jennifer Granholm works with Republicans to break new ground on funding public transportation.

May 3 - Michigan Land Use Institute

Columnist John Tierney takes a bipartisan swipe at federal responses to $3 gallon gasoline. He suggests a "revenue-neutral gas tax" whereby the tax paid at the pump would be returned to the taxpayers as "something that works".

May 3 - The New York Times

Canada's new Conservative government tabled its budget yesterday, and with it reversed the previous government's commitment to the Kyoto Protocol.

May 3 - The Washington Post

A law firm renovates the interior of an historic Louis Sullivan building in Buffalo.

May 3 - Buffalo Rising

Architectural styles, affordability, convenience, walkability, and economic development are the foci of this "Main Street" event.

May 3 - Louisville Courier-Journal

Weakened rent stabilization laws help landlords evict market-rate tenants. In Manhattan, more than 7,000 apartments are slated for conversion.

May 3 - The New York Times

BLOG POST

Next weekend -- that'd be May 6-7 -- a bunch of GPS geeks are going to map the entire Isle of Wight, off England. Not much on the Isle, apparently, but whatever's there is gonna get mapped. Says the <a href="http://www.newscientist.com/blog/technology/2006/05/gps-island.html"><em>New Scientist</em> blog</a>:<br /> <br /> <blockquote>These high-tech cartographers will drive, cycle and ramble all over the island, using their GPS receivers to record the co-ordinates of roads, natural landmarks and points of interest. They'll use this data to create a completely digital map which will be available online to anyone.</blockquote>

May 2 - Anonymous

Columnists Roger K. Lewis looks at the profession of landscape architecture today.

May 2 - Abhijeet Chavan

Grist interviews retiring Republican environmental leader Sherwood Boehlert.

May 2 - Grist Magazine

Both political parties are to blame for the nation's energy crisis, writes Ronald Brownstein.

May 2 - The Los Angeles Times

Churches in New York, Chicago, and Washington, D.C, are selling land and air development rights to provide major funding for outreach programs.

May 2 - The Washington Post

Ronald Bailey believes free markets will address the world's oil supply problem.

May 2 - Reason

Amtrak's Capitol Corridor, connecting the Bay Area to the state capitol, Sacramento, is the third busiest Amtrak route in the country. Yet it faces formidable obstacles -- because it runs on Union Pacific tracks.

May 2 - The San Francisco Chronicle

Mui, only 53, was one of the few first-generation Chinese Americans to successfully run for political office, becoming mayor of San Gabriel in 2003. He also worked for a number of Southern California community groups on civil rights and other issues.

May 2 - The Los Angeles Times

How one non-profit design competition led to the creation of temporary housing for the homeless using a simple formula: asking future residents what they wanted.

May 2 - The New York Times

Twin Cities residents are realizing that the seemingly affordable homes bought far from the region's core are not quite as affordable when transportation costs -- which have escalated as a result of high gas prices -- are taken into account.

May 2 - Minneapolis-St. Paul Star Tribune