The Daily Source of Urban Planning News

By adopting creative strategies, small towns revitalize spaces left behind by empty big boxes.

July 23 - Commercial Investment Real Estate

Growing architecture firms are adopting structures modeled after law firms that share ownership with multiple partners.

July 23 - The Globe

To be environmentally smart, we need only to be less stupid.

July 23 - Environmental Science And Technology

The National Park Service has recommended to withdraw the landmark status of Chicago's newly renovated Soldier Field. Some have also recommended removing it from the National Register of Historic Places.

July 23 - The Chicago Tribune

The Mayor of London wants to levy a double congestion charge on SUVs. Are SUV owners "bad people"?

July 23 - The Guardian Unlimited

Southern California's Inland Empire city of Ontario moves to remake its civic center.

July 23 - The Slatin Report

Dan Rosenfeld pins down the ubiquitous yet evasive term, smart growth and argues that UCLA Extension's Smart Growth Conference has advanced the smart growth cause among the development community..

July 22 - The Planning Report

Under a nationwide campaign, nonprofit groups and the Japanese government hope to get one million people to dump water on city streets in August.

July 22 - Daily Yomiuri

A new report claims pollution from coal-burning power plants could be cutting Rocky Mountain snowfalls by as much as 50%. Without water, the success of the West could be its own undoing.

July 22 - Las Vegas Sun

For the third straight year, Paris' City Hall will pedestrianize a riverside motorway by creating a two-mile long beach complete with sand, palm trees, and swimming pool.

July 22 - Yahoo! Newswire

Is low-density development, a.k.a. sprawl, really more costly than more compact development? Wendell Cox and Joshua Utt of The Heritage Foundation question the assumptions behind the popularity of "smart growth."

July 22 - The Heritage Foundation

Research into whether people living close to nuclear power plants are more likely to get cancer is not conclusive.

July 22 - Environmental News Network

New projects are challenging the popular notion that green buildings are too expensive.

July 22 - The Washington Post Writers Group

BLOG POST

Where can I buy one?<br /> <br /> <img src="http://www.autoweek.com/weekart/2004/0726/mitfuture345.jpg" align="right" alt="GM Anti-Sprawl Concept Car"> Bill Mitchell's Smart Cities group at the MIT's Media Lab has joined forces with architect Frank Gehry and General Motors to design and build a concept car that attempts to tackle urban sprawl.<br /> <br /> The article is reported in this week's AutoWeek magazine <a href="http://www.autoweek.com/cat_content.mv?port_code=autoweek&cat_code=carnews&loc_code=index&content_code=08915187">"M.I.T. lab searches for intelligent life in the fast lane"</a>

July 22 - Chris Steins

Continuing the sprawl vs. smart growth debate, Todd Littman of the Victoria Transport Policy Institute responds to The Heritage Foundation's recent study that argues lower-density development, or sprawl, is less costly than smart growth.

July 22 - Victoria Transport Policy Institute

An aerial link could shuttle tourists between Philadelphia and Camden, bringing new income to the cash-strapped cities. Critics claim the whole scheme could be yet another boondoggle along the waterfront.

July 22 - USA Today

Strategies for dealing with urban sprawl and the lack of quality land to develop is presented by an industry practitioner.

July 22 - Land Development Today

Fort Lauderdale rejects swapping beach land to save land near historic site.

July 21 - Sun-Sentinel

Engineering News Record publishes its annual list of the top 250 U.S.-based design builders, whose total 2003 revenue exceeded $53 billion.

July 21 - Engineering News Record

Opponents of chain stores say the companies spread suburban sameness and ruin the distinctive character of neighborhoods.

July 21 - USA Today