United States

Plan documents tend to be static, long, and—let's face it—boring. See how three planning organizations started thinking outside the PDF box to encourage more informed citizen participation.

February 15, 2014 - Engaging Cities

At a Senate Environment and Public Works Committee meeting on Feb. 12, leaders from big labor, big business, AASHTO, and AMTRAK testified to the importance of keeping the Highway Trust Fund solvent. The first two specified increasing the gas tax.

February 14, 2014 - The Hill

A new report argues that city governments have some of the same incentives for de-emphasizing single-occupant commuters as colleges—such as attracting younger workers and freeing up land used for parking.

February 14, 2014 - Governing

A recent study called “America’s Rental Housing: Evolving Markets and Needs” by the Joint Center for Housing Studies at Harvard smashes myths about the rental market—of particular importance given the recent rise in rents around the country.

February 14, 2014 - Sustainable Cities Collective

Analysis of the USDA’s 2010 National Resources Inventory, which tracks land use, shows the growth rate of suburban sprawl peaking in the mid-1990s, declining by two-thirds since then, even through the most recent housing boom. How did that happen?

February 13, 2014 - Greater Greater Washington

Should dying cities like Detroit get their own visa programs to attract skilled foreign workers? What about prosperous cities like New York and London?

February 13, 2014 - Future Cities

Say what you will about growing corn for fuel, and there are many criticisms even coming from the environmental community, corn ethanol has its benefits, and one of the most important is reducing oil's stranglehold on America's transportaton fuels.

February 13, 2014 - Inside Climate News

A recent news broadcast showed the mayor of Tacoma with a backdrop of the city of Seattle. The feeling of being hidden in the shadow of larger, older neighbor cities is familiar all over the world, but what are “kid sister” cities to do about it?

February 12, 2014 - New Geography

With jaywalking enforcement policies recently making news in New York City and Los Angeles, more of the media is pushing back on long-held assumptions about who rules the road. Here’s a primer on how jaywalking became a crime.

February 12, 2014 - BBC News Magazine

The Congress for the New Urbanism releases a Top 10 list highlighting the worst, most ready-to-be-junked urban freeways. New Orleans, Syracuse, and Detroit make the list. Boulevards are a viable and much-needed alternative, says CNU.

February 12, 2014 - Congress for the New Urbanism

Realtor.com has conducted a survey on the characteristics and trends in that feeling familiar to many a house hunter—falling in love with the perfect house. Yes, a “home crush” is a thing.

February 12, 2014 - The Wall Street Journal

The USA Today takes a closer look at data from the recent “Has Motorization in the U.S. Peaked?” report by Michael Sivak for the University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute.

February 11, 2014 - USA Today

Cities around the country are implementing alley improvement programs as a tool for neighborhood revitalization, with benefits to the economy and the environment. A recent article celebrates the strides cities have made in reclaiming alley spaces.

February 11, 2014 - Urbanophile

Reflecting a growing desire by seniors to live at home and stay in their lifelong neighborhoods, so-called ‘senior villages” are marshaling support and resource networks so seniors around the country can age in place.

February 11, 2014 - The Washington Post

Propane prices in some parts of the midwest and south had tripled; governors have demanded investigations into price gouging, and shelters have opened for those unable to afford the steep prices increases, yet production increased 15% from last year.

February 10, 2014 - The New York Times

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service wants to take the grey wolf off the Endangered Species list across most of the continental U.S. but a key panel determined their decision was based on questionable science that dealt with species identification.

February 9, 2014 - LiveScience

Last Wednesday, an estimated 700,000—more than the city's population of 635,000—welcomed the Seahawks home, without major incident. Writing in The Atlantic Cities, Chuck Wolfe describes five lessons for placemaking through words and photographs.

February 8, 2014 - The Atlantic Cities

An enterprising blogger has produced a slew of urban maps with an overlay of publicly available data on exercise routes. In addition to being fetching, the patterns revealed show how runners make use of the public realm.

February 7, 2014 - FlowingData

Up and down the West Coast, Texas, and in some places on the East Coast, starfish are dying off and washing up on shore in distressing quantities. The so-called "sea star wasting syndrome" has also been called a “mass mortality event.”

February 7, 2014 - PBS NewsHour

Many of us grew up with the telephone as a central appliance in our homes, around which much energy and attention revolved. The days of the land-line telephone, however, are numbered.

February 7, 2014 - National Journal