The Daily Source of Urban Planning News

California State Senator Scott Wiener has established himself as one of the most ardent supporters of pro-housing policy in the state. His announcement this morning continued the theme.

January 4 - Medium

The largest private landlord in the U.S. faces a discrimination suit for refusing to rent to people with criminal records.

January 4 - Center for Investigative Reporting

The Los Angeles Times follows-up an earlier article on the dangers of building too close to freeways. It's a trade-off that the California Air Resources Board acknowledged last April with new guidelines that recognize the dire need for housing.

January 4 - Los Angeles Times

Citing the psychological impact of doughnuts and the American Red Cross, one opinion writer questions the wisdom of a recent sponsorship deal.

January 4 - Urban Milwaukee

Conceived as a stop-gap measure, New York City's cluster site program essentially pays landlords to house homeless people. Now, Mayor de Blasio wants to convert some of those sites directly into affordable units.

January 4 - The New York Times

The history of how homeowners came to wield expansive power over the development of entire neighborhoods and cities is complex and can't be traced to any one policy or market trend.

January 4 - The New York Times

For some delivery workers, many of whom are middle aged, getting around the city without an electric bike is impossible.

January 3 - The Washington Post

The county agency that had hoped to do downtown cordon pricing now wants to add express lanes on Highways 101 and 280, but city supervisors are divided on charging solo drivers the option to buy into managed lanes. Both freeways lack carpool lanes.

January 3 - San Francisco Examiner

John Portman, an exemplar of post-modern architecture around the world, died on December 29, 2017.

January 3 - The New York Times

BLOG POST

A historic summit with Denver mayors about responsible growth, and a take-to-the-streets protest of gentrification in the city, suggest the need for a better conversation about today’s challenges to urban sustainability.

January 3 - Dean Saitta

Observers say the Trump Administration might be threatening to "kill the hostage" in a hardline negotiation tactic on the Gateway project to build a replacement rail tunnel under the Hudson River to connect New York and New Jersey.

January 3 - Crain's New York Business

The mapping community was sad to learn this week that the Mapzen open source mapping platform would cease operation at the end of the month. Many of Mapzen's open source tools will live on, for those that now how to use them.

January 3 - Mapzen

In 2017, the Southern California city no longer had to be concerned about water quantity, but was plagued by issues of water quality.

January 3 - Voice of San Diego

Cities have become obsessed with going viral.

January 3 - CityLab

Virginia's 66 Express Lanes feature uncapped tolls that change every six minutes with the level of congestion, with most revenue benefiting transit. Carpools travel free, but solo-drivers in electric vehicles pay like others.

January 3 - Business Insider

New York City officials, including Mayor Bill de Blasio, are responding to a wave of terrorist attacks and other tragic events with a proposal to build protective bollards around the city.

January 3 - CBS News

Many cities say they've adopted Vision Zero, but the numbers show they aren't actually getting any safer.

January 2 - Streetsblog USA

The cause of last month's deadly Amtrak crash south of Tacoma above Interstate 5 is attributed to the train traveling at 78 mph through a curve with a speed limit of 30 mph. The original plan for the bypass called for the elimination of that curve.

January 2 - New York Post

BLOG POST

It's understandable if you were too busy reveling in the holidays to catch the details of a controversy between Elon Musk and Jarrett Walker. The disagreement took on a life of its own on social media.

January 2 - James Brasuell

While commercial real estate outlook remains strong in 2018, leading economist predicts that prices will be at a standstill.

January 2 - Modern Cities