The Daily Source of Urban Planning News

Trying to find parking in Downtown Los Angeles is going from difficult to near-impossible as ever more surface lots are converted to housing. The Downtown News offers the first in a three-part series.

March 26 - Los Angeles Downtown News

Los Angelenos cannot agree on what to call different lines of their city's growing Metro transit system.

March 26 - The Los Angeles Times

We usually look at familiar urban places as our habits dictate, rarely changing from our default viewpoint. This narrowed perspective limits our effectiveness as designers and planners, writes Bruce F. Donnelly.

March 26 - Terrain: A Journal of the Built & Natural Environments

Official neglect, prejudice, cronyism and political inertia are crippling reconstruction efforts in the Gulf states, writes Mike Davis.

March 26 - The Nation

The New York Thruway Authority will be offering a new "Green Pass" discount plan for motorists who use E-ZPass and drive fuel efficient vehicles, starting this spring.

March 26 - Times Union

The city looks to join countries -- the U.S. not included -- who have agreed to meet the environmental provisions outlined in the Kyoto Protocol. Widespread car use is the biggest obstacle to compliance.

March 26 - The Seattle Times

BLOG POST

<a href="http://www.surveylab.co.nz/What_is_ike.html">This</a> is cool, right? A gadget called ike that combines "an array of different sensors, e.g. GPS, Laser Distance Meter, Compass, Camera and operating software into a rugged hand held mobile device, for rapid data capture." Not so useful for a desk jockey like me, but talk about going off to find yourself....<br /> <br /> Via <a href="http://pruned.blogspot.com/2006/03/prunings-xix.html">Pruned</a>

March 25 - Anonymous

The Bay Area Council has published "The Innovation Economy: Protecting the Talent Advantage" that portrays a stark future for the area, largely resulting from the "unaffordability" (second only to NYC) of the nine-county northern California region.

March 25 - SF Chronicle

First there was the "one-child" rule. Now China attempts to do to consumption what it did to population growth -- stem it, in this case by raising the "consumption tax".

March 25 - BBC News

A new study finds that, if we do not act soon to slow global warming, an irreversible process will ultimately raise sea levels by 13 to 20 feet.

March 25 - The New York Times

The Los Angeles River can be considered either the most neglected or the most scrutinized and engineered waterway in the nation. Long entombed in concrete, the river is gaining a new lease on life thanks to a master plan process that seeks to reinvent the resource.

March 25 - The Planning Report

Only 11% of the system can be used by the disabled, and significant improvements to the situation may be impossible.

March 25 - New York Press

Would you be able to hear conversations like this in your personal car? Of course not.

March 24 - New York Press

Do you think the housing bubble will burst? Will it continue to grow? Thanks to a new index fund, you can now put your money where your mouth is.

March 24 - The Wall Street Journal

Arlington County, Virginia, and the City of Alexandria approved a plan for restoration of a 2.3-mile stretch of Four Mile Run; the vision would transform the neglected urban stream into a natural amenity and destination in the D.C. area.

March 24 - The Washington Post

To "end our addiction to oil", ethanol, a bio-fuel, seems a likely transportation fuel to boost. However, from an air quality and global warming perspective, if the ethanol is going to be produced from coal-fired plants, is it worth it?

March 24 - The Christian Science Monitor

Anticipating major transportation improvements to serve explosive population growth, the City of North Las Vegas is considering adoption of a transit-supportive land use plan featuring a Regional Fixed Guideway (RFG) system.

March 24 - Northern/Aliante View

Celebrities, students and others from around the world are flocking to the city, under a president who has labeled George W. Bush's administration a terrorist regime.

March 24 - The New York Times via International Herald Tribune

A lawyer from the landmark 1966 public housing desegregation case has written a book that helps inform a similar case in present-day Baltimore.

March 24 - The Baltimore Sun

The former home of a prominent Jewish-American newspaper now represents the hottest conversion in the fast-changing New York neighborhood.

March 24 - The New York Observer