California

Set to launch this summer with 700 bikes at 70 locations from San Jose to San Francisco, the pilot bike-share program run by Alta Bike Share will be the first regional program in the country, reports Molly Schremmer.

March 27, 2013 - SPUR

To celebrate its 50th post, Jeremy Rosenberg has handed over the reins of his "Laws That Shape L.A." column. The focus of this week's guest feature: the special overlays and site-specific designations that cover 60 percent of the city's geography.

March 27, 2013 - KCET.org

At a raucous community meeting held last week, the opposition to a proposal to replace curbside parking along Polk Street with bike lanes and parklets made their opinions known to city planners, reports Maria L. La Ganga.

March 26, 2013 - Los Angeles Times

The updated designs for an ambitious project to remake car-clogged Figueroa Street as a transit-, pedestrian-, and bicycle-friendly complete street have been made public in advance of a community meeting next month.

March 26, 2013 - LA.Streetsblog

Driving accounts for 62 percent of all trips in San Francisco - the same level as when the city's pioneering transit-first policy was adopted 40 years ago. Aaron Bialick looks at the reasons why the policy has led to "scant visible progress."

March 25, 2013 - SF.Streetsblog

Christopher Hawthorne continues his exploration of the changing face of Los Angeles, as seen along its boulevards, with an examination of the street where the city has perpetually "embraced and tested out the future" - Wilshire Boulevard.

March 25, 2013 - Los Angeles Times

How well could today's futurists predict how everyday life will change by 2038? This was the task that the Los Angeles Times Magazine embarked on in 1988. A class of graduate students at USC has been looking into which predictions came true.

March 24, 2013 - Los Angles Times

If you paid attention to the visions unveiled a year ago by the teams competing to develop a master plan for the area around L.A.'s Union Station, you might expect to see a development-focused final product. Apparently, you'd be wrong.

March 23, 2013 - Curbed LA

This week, Los Angeles Mayor Antonio announced that the city will wean itself completely from using coal as an energy source by 2025, when it will become "the largest municipal utility in the country to be coal free."

March 21, 2013 - Fast Company Co.Exist

The Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (Metro) has kicked off a new bicycle safety campaign designed to raise awareness of cyclists' legal right to take a full traffic lane.

March 19, 2013 - The Source

From plans to maximize development opportunities around bustling Union Station to newly operating congestion pricing schemes and rail lines that have shattered ridership expectations, Los Angeles is making progress towards a transit-rich future.

March 15, 2013 - Los Angeles Times

James Kelly, formerly of Southern California Edison, moderated “Smart Grid: Real or Hype?” at this year’s VerdeXchange conference. Featuring utility and grid specialists, the panel addressed the challenges of implementing the smarter grid.

March 13, 2013 - The Planning Report

Nathan Masters collects astonishing images and histories of L.A.'s vanished train depots, some of which rival the city's greatest architectural treasures. As L.A. rebuilds its lost transit infrastructure, these images are especially heartbreaking.

March 13, 2013 - KCET

In a video documentary, Matthew Gordon examines the elements of Fresno's General Plan update, which seeks to reorient the city around a more sustainable urban form, and turn around the fortunes of one of the country's most impoverished cities.

March 9, 2013 - InfrastructureUSA

A new arena for the NBA's Warriors and a $1.6 billion mixed-use development south of AT&T Park are among the projects planned for San Francisco's waterfront. But a transit system already at capacity presents a formidable challenge for planners.

March 8, 2013 - The San Francisco Examiner

Rick Cole, the former City Manager of Ventura, California, and a well-known civic leader in Southern California, defends the need for CEQA (California Environmental Quality Act) while calling for returning to the law's key roots.

March 8, 2013 - The Planning Report

While state legislatures and governors are struggling whether to raise state gas, sales, or income taxes or user fees to fund transportation projects, an arcane state board of five elected members voted 3-2 to increase CA's gas tax by 3.5 cents.

March 8, 2013 - Los Angeles Times

One of the few times the Golden Gate Bridge's older sibling made headlines was for frightening reasons during the Loma Prieta earthquake. This week, the utilitarian Bay Bridge received a dose of elegance, as the world’s largest LED light sculpture.

March 7, 2013 - POLIS

Terry Pristin examines two pivotal projects currently under construction in Santa Monica that are poised to reconnect the city's historic civic center to the vibrant, walkable beachfront community.

March 7, 2013 - The New York Times

WSJ editorial write Allysia Finley opines on the out-migration of working class Californians in search of employment and lower housing costs, contrasting it with in-migration of the same class of Americans during the Depression - also on video.

March 7, 2013 - The Wall Street Journal