The Daily Source of Urban Planning News

New Urbanism Cozies Up To A College Campus

DesMoine's Drake neighborhood breaks ground on a new, "New Urban" development.

October 29 - Des Moines Register

Is Any Land Pristine?

What are the long-lasting effects of human habitation and what can be done to make it more sustainable in arid regions in the future.

October 29 - The Christian Science Monitor

Kyoto Treaty Is Not Enough

UN climate chief says more needs to be done to counter global warming.

October 28 - Reuters

Relocating A Village

Erosion is eating away at the Eskimo village of Newtok, Alaska. The village grocer has stepped up to lead the relocation.

October 28 - The Los Angeles Times

Report Criticizes Canada's Environmental Efforts

A report by Canada's commissioner of the environment criticizes environmental progress.

October 28 - The Globe and Mail


Privatizing Chicago's Skyway

Chicago approves a record $1.82 billion deal to lease the Chicago Skyway to a Spanish-Australian consortium.

October 28 - The Chicago Tribune

BLOG POST

Accessibility Tools In Windows XP

I was interested to read in<a href="http://www.gcn.com/23_31/buyers_guide/27674-1.html">Setting sites on Section 508</a> about an accessibility tool built into Windows XP:<br /> <br /> <blockquote>"There is a decent screen magnifier in Windows XP, which also includes a text-to-speech tool called Narrator. It is pretty limited and is only available in English, but it provides a useful tool in Notepad, Wordpad, Control Panel and Internet Explorer, as well as the Windows desktop and Windows setup." </blockquote><br /> <br /> You can launch Narrator easily by pressing the Windows logo key and the U key, which also lets you start and stop the tool.

October 28 - Chris Steins


Fifteen Questions For Bush And Kerry

The Oregonian gets George Bush and John Kerry to respond to questions about their stand on environmental issues.

October 28 - The Oregonian

Are Megastores More Important Than Housing?

The CSM argues that the high court can't let cities and states take someone's land simply to avoid raising taxes.

October 28 - The Christian Science Monitor

Conservatives And Conservation

Presidential candidates quietly vie for the crucial support of traditionally conservative voters who are also serious about conservation.

October 28 - The New York Times

Child-friendly Urban Planning

The Australian Broadcasting Corporation considers the impacts of sprawl on children.

October 28 - Australian Broadcasting Corporation

Is Smart Growth A National Issue?

Bush and Kerry would do well to make metropolitan policy a priority on the national agenda.

October 28 - Smart Growth America

California's Mystery Land Benefactor

The LA Times identifies retired mathemetician David Gelbaum, who has quietly given at least $250 million to preserve California's wildlife corridors.

October 28 - The Los Angeles Times

BLOG POST

Interactive Television is dead! Long live interactive television!

Remember when interactive television was dead? Time-Warner's Full Service Television experiment in Florida in the 1990s was a failure -- people hated it. Something about how the set-top boxes sucked, I think. So the concept went away, fading like CD-ROMs before the onslaught of the Internet.<br /> <br /> At least, that seems to be what the <em>New York Times</em> <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/21/garden/21SOFT.html">remembers</a>. Here's the part I'm talking about:<blockquote>The Microsoft Home is more like a concept car, a design to dream about. Microsoft has imagined a dream house before: 10 years ago the company unveiled its first such demonstration home. At the time Microsoft's designers were intrigued by interactive television, a technology that never became the next big thing.</blockquote>

October 27 - Anonymous

$51 Billion For Transit At Stake On November 2

Over 53 transit ballot initiatives will be voted on this year, worth over $51 billion.

October 27 - USA Today

High Speed Internet: The New Amenity

Fiber optics and high speed Internet are becoming as fundamental as plumbing in new developments. Some developers envision a future as telecom providers.

October 27 - Housing Zone

Study Highlights Benefits of Compact Growth

A new Georgia Tech study suggests that smart growth reduces car trips and improves air quality.

October 27 - The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Kevin Starr's Seventh Volume On California

Kevin Starr has added a seventh volume to his history of the nation's most populous state.

October 27 - The Christian Science Monitor

Architecture Returns To Its Roots

Residential architecture returns to it's roots in Chicago.

October 27 - The New York Times

US falls behind on solar power

For the past five years, growth in solar and wind power has increased by 30% per year. Yet the Bush Administration's energy policy has failed to respond to this opportunity.

October 27 - Salon

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Urban Design for Planners 1: Software Tools

This six-course series explores essential urban design concepts using open source software and equips planners with the tools they need to participate fully in the urban design process.

Planning for Universal Design

Learn the tools for implementing Universal Design in planning regulations.