The Daily Source of Urban Planning News

In the first of a four-part series, the Globe and Mail takes an in-depth look at the transformation of Canada's suburbs.

August 1 - The Globe and Mail

Los Angeles Mayor Villaraigosa proposes to waive Metro fees for a week to increase ridership. L.A. Times editorial argues that the idea won't work.

August 1 - The Los Angeles Times

Forums and blogs are appearing on the Internet where many engineers are anonymously speculating about the range of problems to come for the Big Dig/Central Artery Tunnel Project.

August 1 - Design News

A new housing development in Moscow takes its inspiration from the Russian elite's affection for all things British. The largest housing development since the fall of Communism will recreate an English village with a view of the Kremlin.

August 1 - Telegraph UK

New Bloomingdales and related retail uses planned for downtown San Francisco's extremely dense retail district--with exceptional transit access--is bringing parking worries among merchants and the small minority of downtown shoppers who drive.

August 1 - The San Francisco Chronicle

A recent op-ed in the Los Angeles Times outlines the issues around "gentrification" using the city's recent wave of downtown redevelopment as a case study.

July 31 - The Los Angeles Times

Chicago's City Council passed a landmark ordinance yesterday that requires big-box stores to pay a minimum wage of $10 per hour by 2010 plus $3 an hour worth of benefits.

July 31 - The New York Times

An immigrant from Romania growing up in Brooklyn, Winnick spent his life helping to improve low-income urban neighborhoods.

July 31 - The Seattle Post-Intelligencer

In "DISASTER: Hurricane Katrina and the Failure of Homeland Security," authors Christopher Cooper and Robert Block shed light on the series of actions that led to the government's woeful response to the catastrophe.

July 31 - The Wall Street Journal

Universities planning to build new sports facilities are being hit with construction costs twice as high as a decade ago.

July 31 - The Oregonian

Oregon's Measure 37 was just the first of a series of campaigns from the ideological right -- all dressed up in populist rhetoric -- that favor developers and limit the abilities of cities to plan.

July 31 - Tom Paine Common Sense

After years of debate by local officials, Contra Costa County will be asked to approve an urban limit line intended to preserve farmland and open space.

July 31 - The Contra Costa Times

With the condo craze mostly played out, developers in New Jersey are starting to build new for-rent apartments to meet the increasing market demand.

July 31 - The New York Times

FEATURE

July 31 - Patrick H. Hare

A team of planners led by Peter Calthorpe hold their first workshops to develop a new regional planning effort in Lake Charles, Lafayette, Baton Rouge and New Orleans.

July 31 - The Advocate

With its economy humming and housing prices rising, the city of Austin has joined other U.S. cities in looking for affordable housing solutions.

July 31 - Austin American-Statesman

A controversial billboard for new condos at a construction site outrages residents.

July 30 - The New York Times

Report warns that Yellowstone, Yosemite, and other beloved national parks are threatened by global warming.

July 30 - National Geographic

Airborne pollution is crossing the Pacific Ocean and depositing itself in California skies.

July 30 - Forbes

The teardown phenomenon has attracted much public attention. Daniel P. McMillen examines the case of the historic Chicago suburb of Kenilworth to determine the costs, benefits and public policy surrounding teardowns.

July 30 - Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, Land Lines