The Daily Source of Urban Planning News

Developer Nick Kujawa shares his experience with mix-use development, and provides commentary on a new Community Builders report, "RESTORE: Commercial and Mixed-Use Development Trends in the Rocky Mountain West."

July 26 - Community Builders Blog

$87.7 million in voter-approved funding, a $63 million TIGER grant, a $6 million New Starts grant, and $35.6 million in other regional and local funding built the Sun Link streetcar. A whole weekend of festivities will welcome its opening.

July 26 - Tucson Sentinel

Called one of the most complex public works projects in Denver's history, Denver's new Union Station will lie at the center of a rapidly growing rail and transit network.

July 26 - KWGN

After no small amount of debate, delay, and controversy, the first phase of D.C. Metro's Silver Line will launch passenger service today. The line will connect Washington D.C. to northwestern Virginia, including four stops in Tysons Corner.

July 26 - The Washington Post

At the Serious Gaming workshop held in South Africa, game-maker Tygron showcased their game "The Climategame" and examined game play for lessons in how planners might improve their professional practice.

July 25 - Future Cape Town

Seattle is hoping to transform the 2nd Avenue bike lane from the cities worst—location of 60 bike collisions in the last four years—to a demonstration of the state-of-the-art in bike infrastructure design.

July 25 - Crosscut

Californians who take low property taxes and high quality drinking water for granted might have reason to rethink both those realities if the state's water districts figure out a way to raise property taxes—the same might be true if they don't.

July 25 - San Jose Mercury News

Can one small port city make a difference? South Portland, home to an oil tanker facility that has long received crude from abroad, has blocked the owner from exporting tar sands crude and hopes to spur other cities to act.

July 25 - NPR

Parking is at the center of proposed urban design and planning responses a recent melee at Montrose Beach in Chicago, which followed an un-permitted concert.

July 25 - Chicago Tribune

A new report finds that residents of Arizona are driving less—much, much less. Arizonans drive less that they did in the 1990s, in fact. Despite these trends, the state government has not adjusted its traffic forecasting models.

July 25 - Streetsblog USA

Braden Lammers provides a dispatch from the Kentucky Chamber of Commerce Business Summit and Annual Meeting, sharing the testimony of one business leader on the state's work force challenges.

July 25 - Louisville Business First

July is "National Park and Recreation Month." To commemorate, WalletHub compiled a ranking system that compares cities by their recreational opportunities.

July 25 - WalletHub

NPR movie critic Bob Mondello gathered ditties from musicals inspired by the glory of transportation.

July 25 - NPR

An agreement that would provide Citi Bike with a substantial capital investment—greatly expanding its geographic reach and number of bikes—is in final stages of negotiations, according to the Wall Street Journal.

July 25 - The Wall Street Journal

The proposed Grand Paris Express program, which began construction this summer and is expected for completion in 2030, will serve 2 million people a day at "wildly fast speeds." Then there's light rail in the United States.

July 24 - the transport politic

The San Francisco Board of Supervisors is considering adopting an "Urban Agriculture Incentive Zone" policy to incentivize the development of urban gardens on empty lots (which actually do exist in San Francisco).

July 24 - KPIX

One writer takes issue with the city of Detroit's decision to subsidize a $450 million arena plan for the Detroit Red Wings. The Ilitch family, owners of the Detroit Tigers and the Detroit Red Wings, are worth $3.6 billion.

July 24 - Deadspin

Baltimore is increasing lawsuits against negligent property owners with outstanding code violations. As part of the city's "Vacants to Value" initiative, forfeited properties are transferred to receivership and auctioned to new owners.

July 24 - The Baltimore Sub

It will come as no surprise to those tracking the built environment in Los Angeles that City Planning currently faces a number of challenges.

July 24 - The Planning Report

No, the debilitating lawsuits haven't been resolved, so the HSR Authority still can't tap the $10 billion in voter-approved bonds, but the new state budget based on cap-and-trade revenue for HSR is sparking inquiries from private investors.

July 24 - Inside Bay Area