The Daily Source of Urban Planning News

Leadership change is coming to one of the best local sources of planning news in the country, after Greater Greater Washington founder and executive director David Alpert announced plans to move on.

July 16 - Greater Greater Washington

Hong Kong, hailed as an early success in containing the virus, is seeing a resurgence that threatens to exceed the initial outbreak. While minimal by U.S. standards, the government is enacting its strictest restrictions to date to extinguish it.

July 16 - Bloomberg News

The San Diego Planning Department wants to change the system that currently funds improvements to public amenities, facing considerations about the implementation and legality of the proposed alternative.

July 16 - Voice of San Diego

The eviction moratorium put into effect by the CARES Act, applying to residents in public housing authority and Housing Choice Voucher programs, is set to expire later this month.

July 16 - U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development

The state of Utah created Envision Utah in the late 1990s to address growth while maintaining quality of life and protecting the environment in the state. The plan set goals for 2020, so it's time to evaluate its success.

July 16 - The Salt Lake Tribune

Ithaca took historic action by passing a resolution to offer rent forgiveness to support its large population of renters during the current economic crisis. The city still has work to do to deliver on that promise.

July 16 - Shelterforce

In a move called "one of the biggest — and most audacious — deregulatory actions of the Trump administration," President Trump yesterday announced plans to weaken the National Environmental Policy Act for federal infrastructure projects.

July 16 - The New York Times

PLANOPEDIA

Local governments use zoning codes to define what can and cannot be built. While comprehensive plans and other kinds of plans lay out a vision for the future, zoning codes offer the legal tools to implement that vision.

July 15 - James Brasuell

The story is similar in Washington, D.C., Philadelphia, Los Angeles, Miami, Cincinnati, and Boston: scenes of widespread destruction—the fires, looting, and property damage of civil unrest—sow the seeds for redevelopment and gentrification.

July 15 - The New York Times

The governors of Arizona, California, Florida, Texas, and other states where COVID-19 infections are threatening to overwhelm hospitals should consider what their counterpart in Victoria, Australia, did on July 7 to contain the coronavirus.

July 15 - The Guardian

Due to its popularity, Honolulu is extending the Kalakaua Open Street Sundays program through the end of July. The program was first launched on June 14 in a collaboration between the city and the Hawaii Bicycling League.

July 15 - Pacific Business News

FEATURE

The 10th anniversary of "Cities for People" offers the occasion for this interview with Jan Gehl, who has devoted a 60-year career to ideas about humanistic city planning—ideas of increasing relevance in 2020.

July 15 - Jan Gehl

The state of Maryland is moving forward with a highway widening plan that would spend $11 billion in a private-partnership to add toll lanes to two Capital Beltway highways.

July 15 - DCist

The popularity of the mortgage forbearance program enabled by the CARES Act is one reason not to fear a housing crash like the Great Recession, yet.

July 15 - The Washington Post

Bad news for one of the most innovative transportation planning schemes in the country, with long-term impacts on planning and construction in New York City.

July 15 - New York Daily News

London announced another sweeping round of changes to its transportation priority, further cementing the future of active transportation both during and after the pandemic.

July 15 - Forbes

Unarmed public works officials could replace Berkeley Police officers in monitoring minor traffic violations pending approval of a proposal to be considered by the Berkeley City Council.

July 14 - The New York Times

The nation's most significant rollback to date of a state reopening plan occurred Monday when California Gov. Gavin Newsom closed seven categories of indoor businesses statewide and an additional six categories of indoor operations in 31 counties.

July 14 - San Francisco Chronicle

New homes, located mostly on the fringe of developed areas, are selling at a torrid pace this summer.

July 14 - CNBC

The lawyers for Breonna Taylor accuse police in Louisville of acting on behalf of a redevelopment plan led by the city with funding support from the federal government.

July 14 - Louisville Courier Journal