The Daily Source of Urban Planning News

Affordability is elusive in many of America's cities, but some of them made concrete efforts to fight that trend in 2017.

January 18 - Next City

In September, 238 applicants dreamed the impossible dream of attracting the second headquarters of Amazon, along with some 40,000 jobs. Today, all but 20 of those applicants will have to find a new quest.

January 18 - The New York Times

The drop in crime in cities has extended American life expectancies, especially those of black men, and brought more wealthy people into urban areas.

January 18 - The New York Times

Faced with commercial vacancies around 11 percent and the prospect of new office supply coming online soon, D.C. stakeholders are pushing for a bill that would provide incentives for conversions of office buildings into residential units.

January 18 - The New York Times

The city of Pittsburgh is responding to complaints by residents of poor road conditions after snow and ice coated the city's rad this week.

January 18 - Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

FEATURE

A manifesto for street livability, health, and humanity in the era of driverless cars.

January 18 - Bruce Appleyard

Around the world, car crashes are the tenth leading cause of death, and while the United States is spending money on transportation, that money isn't making the roads safer.

January 17 - Curbed

A study from the USGS using five decades of data shows salinity and alkalinity are up in waterways across the United States.

January 17 - Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Oregon was the first to conduct a pilot program in 2006, followed by California and Colorado last year. With financial backing from the U.S. DOT, at least four more states are exploring charging by the mile driven rather than the fuel burned.

January 17 - Governing

Pundits predicted that a privately-funded passenger rail system in Florida would fail to materialize. Those predictions were wrong, and now company officials are eyeing regional expansion.

January 17 - Modern Cities

A statewide zoning reform bill that made it part of the way through the Massachusetts State Legislature in 2016 is back up for consideration this year.

January 17 - The Boston Globe

A $20 million hole in the Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority's (RTA) budget means 15 bus lines around the city will run less frequently. More cuts are soon to come.

January 17 - The Plain Dealer

A controversial proposal has incited new debate about the causes of Vancouver's skyrocketing housing prices. Potential solutions depend on an accurate diagnosis.

January 17 - CBC News

CES has wrapped up in Las Vegas, but not before event offered numerous experts a chance to prognosticate about the timeline for autonomous vehicles to arrive on the market.

January 17 - The Information

Chicago is one of the first cities to consider the use of "textalyzers," which would allow police officers to scan phones to see if they were in use during an accident.

January 17 - Chicago Tribune

The UAE has created a storage facility under the desert that can provide up to 100 million liters per day in the event of an emergency.

January 17 - Quartz

The conservative bastion of Orange County will soon begin on construction on the mode of transit favored by the Obama Administration: the "modern streetcar."

January 16 - OC Register

A short and simple "explainer" post makes sense of why there seems to be so little ground on affordable housing issues in expensive urban areas.

January 16 - Vox

New registration requirements have proven an effective disincentive for thousands of short-term rental hosts in San Francisco.

January 16 - San Francisco Chronicle

While the 2.8 mile Wave Streetcar project has secured $195 million, proposals for design and construction are coming in higher than expected, which would leave Broward County and Fort Lauderdale responsible for half the extra cost.

January 16 - Sun Sentinel