The Daily Source of Urban Planning News

Using the Wrong Metrics for Creating Great Streets

Gary Toth considers the damage to the quality of our streets and urban environments caused by the use of travel projection models and Levels of Service (LOS) as performance metrics.

February 8 - Project For Public Spaces

BLOG POST

Information Sources in Planning: Principles

<div align="center"> </div> <div align="center"> </div> <div align="center"> </div> <div align="center"> </div> <div align="center"> </div> <div align="center"> &quot;What is an ideology without a space to which it refers, a space which it describes, whose vocabulary and kinks it makes use of, and whose code it embodies?&quot;  </div> <p class="MsoNormal" align="center"> <span>            </span>- Henri Lefebvre, <a href="http://books.google.ca/books/about/The_production_of_space.html?id=SIXcnIoa4MwC&amp;redir_esc=y"><em>The Production of Space</em></a> p. 44. </p>

February 8 - Michael Dudley

Effort to Make NYC Streets Safer Paying Dividends

Jane E. Brody reports on the safety features New York City has instituted as part of an ambitious effort to completely re-engineer city streets.

February 8 - The New York Times

House and Senate Transportation Bills on a Collision Course

As the bi-partisan Senate transportation bill cues up for its first vote on Thursday and the partisan House bill gets roughed up in committee, the prospects for reconciling the bills seems dim.

February 8 - The Washington Post

Using Adaptive Reuse to Scale the Urban Future

Chuck Wolfe uses the urban scale adaptive reuse of the Roman Emperor Diocletian's retirement palace in Split, Croatia to argue for blending the past and future on a broader scale.

February 8 - The Atlantic Cities


The Burden of Frederick Law Olmsted

Mark Hough laments the chronic, debilitating inferiority complex afflicting Landscape Architects and the crutch that Frederick Law Olmsted provides.

February 8 - THE DIRT

The New American Dream: A Sidewalk

Nona Willis Aronowitz reports on a new survey indicating 60% of respondents would sacrifice a bigger house to live in a neighborhood that featured a mix of houses, stores, and businesses within an easy walk.

February 8 - Good


What Has 16 Pedals, 12 Seats, and Goes Up to 10 MPH?

The first bicycle bus for schoolchildren, built by Dutch company Tolkamp Metaalspecials, of course.

February 8 - Fast Co.Exist

Wind Farm Proposal off New Jersey Shoreline Draws Controversy

An independent analysis insists that Fishermen's Energy's 30-megawatt wind farm project could cause a statewide economic disaster, writes Tom Johnson.

February 8 - Next American City

Why Tea Party Criticism Should Matter to Planners

Andrew H. Whittemore contends that planners dismiss the far-fetched theories of a grand United Nations sustainability conspiracy at their own peril.

February 8 - The Atlantic Cities

New Study Ties Housing Affordability to Sustainability

Sarah Laskow reports on a new study by the Center for Neighborhood Technology (CNT) that seeks to rethink how affordable housing is defined to incorporate transportation costs.

February 7 - Good

Assessing Miami's New Urban Experiment

Three years after its adoption, Sean McCaughan assesses the impact of Miami 21, first New Urbanist zoning code adopted by a major American city.

February 7 - The Architect's Newspaper

Saving the Mall By Returning to Its Ideals

Stephanie Clifford documents the extraordinary lengths malls across the country are going to in hopes of attracting customers in the face of e-commerce and a battered economy.

February 7 - The New York Times

In the Bright Sun of the Desert, a Difficult Compromise is Exposed

Julie Cart writes about the solar power compromises being forged in the deserts of the American Southwest, where the landscape is being sacrificed on the altar of alternative energy.

February 7 - Los Angeles Times

Mastering the Art of Stairway Persuasion

A new study shows that a friendly reminder of the health benefits of taking the stairs can cause a sustainable increase in their use, writes Jeannine Stein.

February 7 - Los Angeles Times

The Obama Administration's Crusade for Homeowners

President Obama's multi-billion dollar proposal to help homeowners involves providing them refinanced, government-backed loans. The plan is not without its doubters, however.

February 7 - PBS NewsHour

See the New WTC Views, 80 Floors Up

This Architizer blog post features breathtaking photos from the WTC Progress Twitter account.

February 7 - Architizer

Toward a More Inclusive Planning Process

Elizabeth Evitts Dickinson raises the issue that there are not enough minorities representing the communities that planners and designers strive to make better.

February 7 - Grist

Waiting for the Subway

When compared to China's accomplishments in completing subway lines, North America's cities look exceedingly timid, where construction timeframes can stretch into decades. Will Doig examined why.

February 7 - Salon.com

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