The Daily Source of Urban Planning News

Austin Williams presents a critique of New Urbanism and its influence on rebuilding efforts in New Orleans.

February 18 - Spiked

The world is facing multiple energy crises, writes Michael Klare: Accelerating worldwide demand for oil and dwindling supplies and the growing ecological consequences of our oil dependence.

February 18 - Tom Dispatch

Brooklyn's Fulton Street Mall is a shadow of its former self. How will it attract a 'new clientele' without focusing solely on whites, and the possibility of gentrification?

February 18 - The New York Observer

An op-ed in Georgia's Gainesville Times calls Governor Sonny Perdue's roads-only approach to easing traffic congestion a "temporary solution".

February 18 - Gainesville Times

The Union of Concerned Scientists issues a report outlining potential problems for the entire region.

February 18 - Minneapolis-St.Paul Star Tribune

The unattractive finding comes as part of a study linked with a major exhibition on traffic solutions in New York.

February 17 - The Village Voice

California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger's infrastructure program bumps into California's 21st century reality.

February 17 - California Planning & Development Report

Even with a downtown revival, Los Angeles cannot attract amenities such as movie theatres.

February 17 - The Los Angeles Times

In Philadelphia, an exhibition of historic photos of the Big Easy is being viewed in a new light.

February 17 - The Christian Science Monitor

Study finds that Greenland's ice cap is melting at an accelerated rate and more than doubling the amount of ice melted in the last decade.

February 17 - The Globe and Mail

As warehouse and distribution ramp up with global trade, The Slatin Report offers a look at an intriguing new approach to industrial development.

February 17 - The Slatin Report

Downtown Los Angeles's urban development gets a boost with a new theatre, as movies, live performances, cultural events, and even Karaoke are planned for the center, developed in partnership with ImaginAsian Entertainment.

February 17 - The Los Angeles Times

Market forces alone haven't been able to generate needed investments in areas devastated by Katrina, and people have nothing to return to without those investments. A new idea has promise.

February 17 - Common Dreams

The New York Times focuses on the New York metro area; the region will seek federal legislation to assist these declining suburban communities.

February 17 - The New York Times

Atlanta's Atlantic Station introduces a new community to the 'trendy suburban antidote' of New Urbanism.

February 17 - Business Week

Arizona is reclaiming its architectural heritage.

February 16 - The Arizona Republic

BLOG POST

<img src='http://www.planetizen.com/tech/files//CasitasGeo.jpg' width='300' align='right' alt='Mexican burbs' />My link-fu is strong. Please welcome to the Web <a href="http://burbmag.blogspot.com/">Burb</a>, a site dedicated to suburbs and New Suburbanism. From the manifesto:<br /> <br /> <br /> <blockquote>The suburbs, in short, are the American mainstream. Our major writers, dating back to Updike and Cheever, have focused on decoding suburban life, and today Richard Ford, Chang Rae Lee, Rick Moody and others continue that work. Suburban megachurches are the engine of American Protestantism. Eminem is a suburban boy, and a suburban phenomenon, as are the "soccer moms” and "soccer dads” fought over in the last few elections.<br /> <br /> Yet for those who live there, the suburbs can be a bewildering place. Urbanites who have moved out for more space and better schools gaze out the kitchen window into their new garden paradise and ask, "Now what?” Children of the suburbs return to find their sleepy burbs utterly transformed by commercialization. Those on rural routes watch in dismay as farms and tiny towns are supplanted by mass developments and strip malls. All of these people have common problems and solutions, from commuting to child care to what to put on the side of a house. Burb is for all of them.<br /> <br /> We talk about "the suburbs” as a state of mind, but only now have real connections begun to be made among the suburbs of even a single city, never mind nationally. Burb is proposed as a place where mutual recognition and the single purpose that comes from it might be achieved.</blockquote>

February 16 - Anonymous

Mixed-use developments are changing how Americans live, work, and play, according a Business Week review of New Urbanism projects.

February 16 - Business Week

Connections to "disgraced" lobbyist Jack Abramoff are getting in the way of Richard W. Pombo's primary "political obsessions" -- the Endangered Species Act.

February 16 - The Los Angeles Times

Home Builders name energy efficiency as the industry's biggest trend for 2006.

February 16 - Greener Buildings