The Daily Source of Urban Planning News

Richard Baron and McCormack Baron Salazar have big plans for a troubled Baltimore neighborhood.

May 7 - The Baltimore Sun

American architects Munkenbeck and Marshall redefine affordable and shared-ownership living in London with what looks like a super-luxury development.

May 6 - Gabion, by Hugh Pearman

Reuters calculates the world's five biggest natural disasters in terms of insured losses. Eight of the 11 most expensive disasters in history, at least in terms of insured losses, have occurred along the US Gulf Coast in the past four years.

May 6 - Planet Ark

Few countries include bicycling as a significant part of their transportation policy, but city leaders around the world are investing in cycling infrastructure to reap the benefits of clean, quiet transportation that takes up little space.

May 6 - International Herald Tribune

Headed to the governor, then the voters, November ballot is the largest bond issue ever -- four bonds totaling $37.3 billion, consisting of billions for transportation, schools, levees, and affordable housing.

May 6 - The Sacramento Bee

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the District of Columbia continues to lose resident population, although city leaders deny the trend.

May 6 - Washington Citypaper

First came tract housing, then gated communities. Now Americans are shelling out big bucks for places that "seamlessly fuse life with commerce, eliminate the line separating home and shop, individual and commodity." Yes, life in a glorified mall.

May 5 - The San Francisco Chronicle

Frank Gehry makes like an urbanist in his new plans for Related's high profile, $1.8 billion, nine-acre, Grand Avenue project in downtown Los Angeles. Could LA become an architectural mecca?

May 5 - The Slatin Report

Opposition from Governor Romney and Senator Kennedy means a 130-turbine wind farm may not be built off of Cape Cod.

May 5 - The Los Angeles Times

The scale of the global warming problem is unprecedented, according to a draft report by leading scientists. The report has been released early by US officials ostensibly to minimize the impact when the report is officially released next year.

May 5 - The Guardian Unlimited

Commentator James Howard Kunstler responds to New York Times architecture critic Nicolai Ouroussoff's front page article, "Outgrowing Jane Jacobs," calling it "a load of vicious and stupid fashionista crap."

May 5 - James Howard Kunstler

Long the bane of developers and individual homebuilders alike, the Atlanta Bureau of Buildings now averages 40 to 80 days to provide building permits. Meanwhile, in suburban Gwinnett and Cobb Counties, the turnaround time is under one hour.

May 5 - The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

The Living Roadways Community Visioning Program has enabled over 100 small towns in Iowa to improve themselves visually through small urban design improvements that can make a big difference.

May 5 - Associated Press

A small town on the Jersey Shore has turned into a battleground in the eminent domain debate.

May 5 - Asbury Park Press

New England's second biggest city is experiencing a wealth of revitalization, and nowhere else is it more evident than in downcity, a district reconceptualized by Andres Duany in the 1990's.

May 5 - The Providence Journal

Despite a Senate report that recommended FEMA be dismantled and replaced, the troubled agency is still "holding the purse strings" on recovery in New Orleans, and tens of thousands of residents may be cut off from rental assistance monies next month.

May 5 - Tom Paine

Planners find it difficult to convince Southern California communities that the region needs higher density and transit oriented development.

May 4 - The San Diego Union-Tribune

The Reason Foundation's Leonard Gilroy charges in a WSJ opinion that despite planners' respect of Jacobs, they continue to "largely ignore or misinterpret the central lesson" of Jacob's most famous book.

May 4 - The Wall Street Journal

Only four days after President Morales' decision, gas companies in Bolivia are making decisions about nationalizing, or leaving. They have 180 days from May 1 to decide.

May 4 - BBC News

Despite an official "embargo" of the practice, there are reports of people removing "truckloads of architectural elements" from New Orleans every day. Preservationists fear that what isn't stolen will end up in landfills.

May 4 - Architectural Record