The Daily Source of Urban Planning News

Tomatoes

Florida Preempts Local Zoning Laws That Prohibit Gardens

Many gardeners in Florida celebrated this week, as Senate Bill 82 went into effect, by planting fruits and vegetables in their yards, legally, whether their city liked it or not.

July 4 - NPR

Fast Food Restaurant

McDonald's: Where the Nation Feels Welcome

McDonald's takes a lot of heat for the quality of the food, but most Americans still associate the fast food giant's restaurants, and others like it, with family, community, and good times.

July 4 - CityLab

National Parks Service

Scarce National Park Fee Money Will Fund Today's 'Salute to America'

The Trump administration's lack of concern for the National Park Service's growing maintenance backlog will be on display today, along with everything else.

July 4 - The Washington Post

California Wildflowers

Where, and Why, Allergies Are Worst

Your senses (or lack thereof) aren't deceiving you. Some cities really are worse for seasonal allergies than others, and some of the reasons are entirely preventable.

July 3 - The Guardian

San Francisco Street

Curb Data Platform Expanding Reach, With Plans for More

More cities are leveraging technology to better manage one of the most confusing and congested spaces in the public realm: the curb.

July 3 - Smart Cities Dive


Air Travel

Air Quality Slips After Decades of Progress

Southern California has long been leader in air quality management, but lately the news has not been good.

July 3 - Los Angeles Times

Northern California Wilidfires

Op-Ed Supports Congestion Pricing for San Francisco

An opinion piece by Josh Wilson makes a case for a congestion pricing plan tailored specifically for the realities of living and working in San Francisco.

July 3 - The San Francisco Chronicle


Rural Nursing Homes Closing at Rapid Rates

Nursing homes are closing in large numbers in rural communities as a result of a confluence of market pressures.

July 3 - MPR News

Zurich

The Problem With All Those 'Livability' Rankings

Why is it that smallish cities in western Europe always score so well? Perhaps the underlying assumptions behind ostensibly data-driven "livability" rankings cater to a certain audience and leave most of us out.

July 3 - CityLab

San Francisco Bay Bridge

Bay Area Planners Acknowledge the Need for Regional Housing Solutions

While most Bay Area communities are pursuing housing solutions "individually," local planners acknowledge the need for strategies that address the regional as a unified whole.

July 3 - Lincoln Institute of Land Policy

Downtown Philadelphia

Consensus on Changes to Property Tax Abatement Too Challenging for Philadelphia

Despite over a year of proposals, counter proposals, and heated debate, the city of Philadelphia has yet to broker a breakthrough on proposed reforms to the city's ten-year property tax abatement program.

July 3 - PlanPhilly

Campaign Rally

Updated: Census Citizenship Question Officially Cancelled

The U.S. Department of Commerce was not successful in achieving a highly consequential change to the 2020 Census form, after the Supreme Court ruled it needed a better reason to make the change.

July 3 - BuzzFeed News

Miami, Florida

All the Places Mentioned in Last Week's Democratic Debates

Candidates drop names for a reason.

July 3 - CityLab

Boston, Massachusetts

Design Review: Boston's Posh New High Rise

One Dalton Street, the third tallest building in Boston, is almost complete.

July 2 - The Boston Globe

Woodlands

The Search for Natural Silence

With more cars on roads and planes in the sky than ever before, finding truly noise-free places with pure natural sounds has become ever more challenging.

July 2 - KUOW (The Wild)

Gaslamp Quarter

Climate Crisis, Housing Crisis on a Collision Course

Sprawl might relieve the housing crisis, but it would also exacerbate the climate crisis. Tough choices will be necessary in regions like San Diego, where the question of where to accommodate growth is very much in question.

July 2 - The San Diego Union-Tribune

Kennebec River

20 Years of Dam Removal Projects

Dam removal has its benefits, according to the example set by a particularly historic dam removal in the United States, which took place on July 1, 1999.

July 2 - American Rivers

Subway Homeless

A New—and Hopefully Better—Way to Deal with the Homeless Crisis on the N.Y.C. Subway

More homeless people are using the subway as temporary housing, and the delays and disruptions have increased as well. A new city program will replace fines with outreach to provide better access to social services.

July 2 - The New York Times

Portland, Oregon

What Went Wrong With Oregon's Climate Bill?

The Oregon Climate Action Program, which would have priced carbon emissions by establishing a cap-and-trade program similar to the one in California, was defeated on Saturday, the penultimate day of the 2019 legislative session.

July 2 - The Oregonian

Victorian Architecture

Seattle Sets a New Standard for Residential Zoning

Seattle is the latest in a series of cities, states, and counties to alter the landscape of land use regulation by approving what the Sightline Institute describes as the "most progressive" ADU policy in the United States.

July 2 - Sightline Institute

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Senior Manager Operations, Urban Planning

New York City School Construction Authority

Building Inspector

Village of Glen Ellyn

Manager of Model Development

Central Transportation Planning Staff/Boston Region MPO

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