United States

Americans are much more willing to consider buying a foreclosure than in the recent past, according to a new survey by online real estate site Trulia.

May 21, 2009 - Builder Magazine

The results are in! We asked for you ideas for reusing the empty car dealerships cropping up around the country. Urban gardens? Flying car launch pads? These ideas may seem far out, but the number one answer may surprise you.

May 21, 2009 - Nate Berg

Wendell Cox argues that the growth of the suburbs is not attributable to flight from cities, but to residents of small towns and the countryside moving to denser living.

May 21, 2009 - New Geography

Taco trucks are coming under fire in a lot of cities, as officials try to figure out how to handle the nomadic restaurants. As the Hispanic population grows, so does the popularity of the trucks.

May 20, 2009 - The Los Angeles Times

This piece from Scientific American looks at the jurisdictional challenge of conserving water in the cross-state Ogallala Aquifer, one of the world's largest sources of freshwater and the backbone of the nation's farm economy.

May 20, 2009 - Scientific American

George Will, fresh from denouncing denim as 'the infantile uniform of a nation', is disturbed to find that Ray LaHood has bought the Obama administration's beliefs in regards to mass transit, bicycling, and 'transformation'.

May 20, 2009 - Newsweek

Real estate brokers are looking towards local and atypical businesses to fill empty retail space left behind by shrinking and bankrupt national chains like Starbucks and CompUSA.

May 19, 2009 - International Council Of Shopping Centers

The Obama administration has announced that it will issue new emissions and mileage requirements for cars and light trucks tomorrow to create a single national standard.

May 18, 2009 - The New York Times

Cities like Portland and Austin have been magnets for young professionals. Amid the recession, these cities have few jobs to offer. But the hipsters keep coming.

May 18, 2009 - The Wall Street Journal

This piece from Color Lines looks at how the economic downturn is affecting low-income populations, and how social services are having trouble keeping up with an increasing demand for help.

May 18, 2009 - Color Lines

This week's episode of Smart City explores what makes a city successful and tracks the future of the green job market.

May 18, 2009 - Smart City

The Democrats of the U.S. House of Representatives have passed a bill that would create a green school building program in the U.S., investing more than $6 billion in its first year to build more environmentally friendly schools.

May 18, 2009 - NPR

In an age of rapid technological improvements in almost every aspect of life, it's difficult to understand how a technology like trains could actually be less advanced now than it was in the 1940s, writes Tom Vanderbilt.

May 16, 2009 - Slate

Beth Noveck, deputy director for Open Government in the Obama Administration, talks about dealing with the noise of online collaboration and how to make social networks functional for civic participation.

May 16, 2009 - Government Techonlogy

The Onion reports on the "window-shattering ceremony" officially opening Detroit's newest slum, a neighborhood designed with the "latest in high-risk, hopelessly impoverished housing options."

May 15, 2009 - The Onion

...or not. Only 3 senators bothered to show up for his confirmation hearing. The discussion centered around the failure of the FTA to get funding to ailing transit systems across the country.

May 15, 2009 - Streetsblog

With the auto industry struggling and car dealerships closing shop, what future do you see for empty car lots? Vote on ideas submitted by the Planetizen community, or suggest your own.

May 15, 2009 - Planetizen

Legislation is being introduced in Congress to guide the course of the next five years of federal transportation spending, focusing on reducing per capita vehicle miles traveled and decreasing truck freight shipping.

May 15, 2009 - The Washington Post

Minorities are on the rise in the U.S., but the rates of growth for Hispanics and Asians are slowing down, according to recent Census figures.

May 15, 2009 - The New York Times

Anthony Flint says that we have a lot of work ahead of us to retrofit America for the next century, from replacing water heaters to replacing old government structures with new, more regional ones.

May 15, 2009 - Citiwire.net