Urban Development
The former mayor of New York is launching the "American Cities Initiative." The initiative comes with a scathing critique of the federal government's treatment of urban areas.
New York Times
Recode reveals a radical idea for how Amazon could consolidate delivery services in urban areas.
Recode
An in-depth feature in Architect magazine surveys the affordable housing landscape and finds architects, planners, and developers trying to find a better way through an inefficient system.
Architect
Along comes a developer, wanting to build something that doesn't conform to a 2013 plan, with the support of the local councilmember, and local stakeholders aren't happy.
PlanPhilly
San Francisco is starved for ideas for ways to meet growing demand for housing, and skyrocketing prices. Here's a big idea: how about building space for some 20,000 new residents on Treasure Island, located in the middle of the bay?
The Architect's Newspaper
The benefits of Prop 13's limit on property taxes will pass from generation to generation in California, at the expense of state and local coffers.
California Legislative Analyst's Office
According to Joe Cortright, a slowing pace of rent inflation in most large cities in the United States, combined with decreasing rents in many cities, shows how adding supply can help balance the market.
City Observatory
Friday was the first day the public could walk into Los Angeles' new iconic skyscraper. The Wilshire Grand is noteworthy for more than just its height.
KPCC
Looking for a new laptop? Go to the building that resembles a laptop.
DNAinfo Chicago
People usually plant bamboo as a privacy screen, but it can quickly turn into an invasive nightmare for everyone else. Cities around New Jersey are passing regulations that allow the removal of bamboo if it gets out of hand.
North Jersey
The city of Pittsburgh has ambitious plans for a $27 million cap park over Interstate 579, built to reconnect the Lower Hill neighborhood with the rest of the city.
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Planning for resilience might mean more than preparing for climate change, according to this opinion piece. Urban terrorism, in its current, tragic form, will require planners to prepare for the worst.
The Washington Post
The mayor of San Diego has acknowledged the ongoing crisis of housing affordability by pushing to make it easier to build housing at higher densities and with less parking. Marin County…not so much.
The San Diego Union-Tribune
Chicago's North Branch Framework Plan and Design Guidelines, approved in May, is already having the expected effect: big, flashy developments in the pipeline.
Chicago Tribune
Detroit will spend $4.3 million to buy land along the Detroit Terminal Railroad for the purposes of creating a 7.5-mile leg of the planned Inner Circle Greenway.
Detroit Free Press
The tributes to Branden Klayko, one of the hardest working and influential writers on the subjects of urbanism, have been steady and heartfelt.
The Architect's Newspaper
The editors of the Tacoma Weekly speculate that someday governments might uphold their agreements. They don't expect the Tacoma Tideland sub area plan to be one of those times.
Tacoma Weekly
The struggling, industrial South Bay city of Carson wants to shake its image as the site of Los Angeles' landfills and waste treatment plants. It has embarked on a $1 million overhaul of its general plan, despite having a $4.1 million budget gap.
Daily Breeze
Regulatory issues have delayed a proposed casino mega-development in South Philadelphia.
The Philadelphia Inquirer
Hand of Fate Brewing took over a closed Dollar General in downtown Petersburg, Illinois and became an anchor for the city.
Curbed
