Crippling violence and dangerous streets in the Rose Town area of Kingston, Jamaica, have motivated Prince Charles to bring his Foundation for Architecture and Urbanism to the island ghetto to attempt a rebirth.
"Prince Charles will arrive in Rose Town on Wednesday to launch a plan to rebuild the area in what is his most ambitious regeneration initiative yet."
"It is an unlikely combination. The Prince's Foundation for Architecture and Urbanism which coordinates and raises funds for the £4m project is more used to designing new towns and villages such as Poundbury in the genteel surroundings of Dorset. Rose Town is part of the dangerous and impoverished west Kingston ghetto made famous by Bob Marley who lived in neighbouring Trench Town."
"But next week the partnership will start to bear fruit and Prince Charles will open a library, the first part of a plan to build hundreds of new homes and local facilities. For the residents it is their best hope of rebuilding a community that has been ravaged by three decades of political and gang violence."
"The aim is to follow the guiding spirit of the "model village" of Poundbury, an experimental community - praised by some and criticised by others - which started to take shape in 1993 on land on the outskirts of Dorchester owned by the Duchy of Cornwall."
"Prince Charles sees Poundbury, home to 5,000 people, as an antidote to the kind of "carbuncle" town planning he so famously dislikes. The Prince's Foundation's plan for Rose Town is to try to foster new values in a stronger community."
FULL STORY: Can a little slice of Poundbury bring peace to this Kingston ghetto? Charles thinks so

Florida Considers Legalizing ADUs
Current state law allows — but doesn’t require — cities to permit accessory dwelling units in single-family residential neighborhoods.

Manufactured Crisis: Losing the Nation’s Largest Source of Unsubsidized Affordable Housing
Manufactured housing communities have long been an affordable housing option for millions of people living in the U.S., but that affordability is disappearing rapidly. How did we get here?

HUD Announces Plan to Build Housing on Public Lands
The agency will identify federally owned parcels appropriate for housing development and streamline the regulatory process to lease or transfer land to housing authorities and nonprofit developers.

EPA Terminates $116 Million in Grants for Reducing Emissions from Construction Materials
C-MORE grants were earmarked for industry trade groups and universities.

BART Closes $35 Million Deficit
Cost control and revenue generation measures prevented service cuts.

The New Parisian Hearse is a Bicycle
Sleek, silent, and sustainable, a green trip to the graveyard has hit the streets of the French capital.
Urban Design for Planners 1: Software Tools
This six-course series explores essential urban design concepts using open source software and equips planners with the tools they need to participate fully in the urban design process.
Planning for Universal Design
Learn the tools for implementing Universal Design in planning regulations.
City of Moreno Valley
Institute for Housing and Urban Development Studies (IHS)
City of Grandview
Harvard GSD Executive Education
City of Piedmont, CA
NYU Wagner Graduate School of Public Service
City of Cambridge, Maryland