The Daily Source of Urban Planning News

<p>With tax abatement for 5 to 15 years for renovated properties, the City of Richmond, Virginia, loses $14.6 million each year in real estate taxes. Meanwhile, long-time residents are pushed out by high taxes for unrenovated houses they own or rent.</p>

April 12 - Style Weekly

<p>An interview with Nikos Singeles of EPA's stormwater office reveals the Agency's perspective on managing watershed resources through a combination of smart growth and low impact development.</p>

April 12 - Stormwater

<p>Statistics provided by the Southeastern Wisconsin Regional Planning Commisison (SEWRPC) at the request of the American Civil Liberties Union show that SEWRPC's technical advisory committees are 98% white.</p>

April 12 - The Capital Times

<p>African-Americans and Latinos have been particularly hard-hit by the predatory lending practices of sub-prime lenders, writes Mark Winston Griffith, Co-Director of the Neighborhood Economic Development and Advocacy Project.</p>

April 12 - AlterNet

<p>Despite vastly higher levels of federal affordable housing tax credits awarded to Louisiana, developers are pulling out of projects because they can't make sufficient profits.</p>

April 12 - The Wall Street Journal

<p>The growth in biofuels is putting new pressures on the global food supply chain.</p>

April 11 - The Globe & Mail

<p>A residents' association in Paris is inviting locals to share their ideas about redeveloping a garden and public space in the center of the city by creating them in the virtual reality world Second Life.</p>

April 11 - BBC

<p>Americans' commutes are increasing. The number of 'extreme commuters' -- those who commute over 3 hours -- has nearly doubled since 1990. The longest commute in the nation? Seven hours each way. Is the extreme commute America's newest addiction</p>

April 11 - The New Yorker

<p>Transit officials in Boston are hoping that a new program to install detailed bus maps at subway stations will increase ridership on the city's bus system by helping more people understand it.</p>

April 11 - The Boston Globe

<p>Commuters and transit officials alike are eagerly awaiting the 2008 opening of a suburb-to-suburb rail line near Portland, Oregon. With few other examples of similar lines in the U.S., officials can only hope the line will be a success.</p>

April 11 - The Oregonian

<p>The American transportation system is not only dated, but it also has a huge impact on the climate. The favored solution -- ethanol -- is no solution at all, writes New York Observer columnist Nicholas von Hoffman.</p>

April 11 - The Nation

FEATURE

When membership is not much more than a subscription and decisions are made with little group input, the APA needs to adjust the way it interacts with its members, according to self-proclaimed "APA lifer" Leonardo Vazquez, AICP/PP.

April 11 - Leonardo Vazquez, AICP/PP

<p>On April 12, for the third time in 35 years, there will be a groundbreaking for the long-awaited Second Avenue subway in NYC. This article reveals the troubled history for this long-awaited subway line.</p>

April 11 - The New York Times

<p>Nearly 80% of Pennsylvania's municipalities have populations less than 5,000. Recently released reports say it's time for the state to form regional coalitions that will help improve local economies and harbor regional planning.</p>

April 11 - The Philadelphia Inquirer

<p>In Miami, many plans are brewing for major highway facelifts -- including the creation of a four-level highway interchange. In the meantime, the region looks to deal with congestion by thinning highway lane widths to create more room for traffic.</p>

April 11 - The Miami Herald

<p>Since the late-1960s, an irrigation project have been slowly draining the entire Aral Sea, located on the border between Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. But a new dam project is bringing the sea's water back, and with it the fish that support the region.</p>

April 11 - BBC

<p>Surrounded by major government centers and large new public works projects, Old Town Alexandria, Virginia, is preparing to reveal a plan to redevelop its waterfront -- a revival effort many residents are wary of.</p>

April 11 - The Washington Post

BLOG POST

<p style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><font face="Times New Roman" size="3">The recent exhibitions on Robert Moses at the Museum of the City of New York, the Queens Museum of Art, and Columbia University have revived old debates about Robert Moses, most of which have boiled down to the question: when all is said and done, was he good or bad? When I visited the exhibitions, trying to figure out my own answer, I remembered my father’s favorite saying (lifted from <em>Oedipus Rex</em>): “Would you condemn me for that which made me great?&quot;</font></p>

April 10 - Anthony Weiss

<p>Western states are leading the nation in innovations to build a clean-energy economy.</p>

April 10 - The Los Angeles Times

<p>An interview with Keith Ernst, senior policy counsel for the Center for Responsible Lending, on the devastating impact of subprime loans on home ownership.</p>

April 10 - Democracy Now!