The Daily Source of Urban Planning News

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<p style="text-align: left"> The concept of ripeness in several realms is elusive. I have never figured out how to properly thump a melon at a grocery store, although I have made a thorough study of it. You might want to<a href="http://aces.nmsu.edu/CES/yard/1998/070698.html"> click here</a>, or <a href="http://www.boston.com/ae/food/articles/2006/08/09/is_a_melon_ripe_for_the_eating_heres_how_to_tell/">here</a>, or <a href="http://www.foodsubs.com/Fruitmel.html">here </a> for some guidance, none of which seems to work when it’s just me in a stare down with a cold, stone faced and silent honeydew. </p> <p style="text-align: left"> Just yesterday one of my younger children from what we call the “second litter” asked me at dinner how I could tell if a coconut was ripe. I paused, realized that I had no answer, and did what every good parent should do and asked instead why they weren’t eating their salad. Yes, attack and divert. </p> <p style="text-align: left"> You think melons and coconuts are tough — try ripeness in land use litigation.

July 28 - Dwight Merriam

Rebuilding is underway in New Orleans. But not with huge conglomerates running the show. Most of the work is being done by non-profits, startups and other community-based organizations.

July 28 - WorldChanging

A fierce battle is brewing over new requirements for sprinklers in homes. Firefighters say the sprinklers are needed, but builders say the Sprinkler Code Coalition is having undue influence on code development.

July 28 - The Center for Public Integrity

Researchers in the U.K. are proposing a plan to utilize streetlamp infrastructure to install traffic monitoring devices in an effort to collect more information and aid transportation planners.

July 28 - EE Times

The Department of Housing and Urban Development and the Federal Housing Administration are looking to increase energy efficiency incentives for homeowners, including opportunities for larger home loans.

July 28 - Los Angeles Times

A huge but largely under-noticed portion of public transit money goes to paratransit -- equipment and services to transport disabled people. Now, cheaper alternatives are emerging.

July 28 - Governing

LA's Metropolitan Transportation Authority has set a toll 'schedule' for solo motorists on the new High Occupancy Toll, or 'ExpressLanes', as the MTA refers to them, on the 10 and 110 freeways. Opening date may be 2010.

July 28 - Los Angeles Times

Organizers claim city money won't be needed as Chicago edges closer to securing the 2016 Summer Olympics, but locals are wary about the costs that could fall on them. The recession is exacerbating concerns.

July 28 - The New York Times

The Philadelphia neighborhood of Francisville is about to get an urban makeover, but two competing visions have very different ideas of what that means.

July 28 - The Philadelphia Inquirer

Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor was part of an appeals-court panel in 2006 that favored a private developer with the authority to seize land by eminent domain.

July 27 - The Christian Science Monitor

The Mannahatta Project is a project of the Wildlife Conservation Society. The website aims to visualize the island of Mannahatta in 1609, before European settlers began developing it.

July 27 - The Mannahatta Project

A new "boutique approach" to parking may revolutionize neighborhood on-street parking in San Francisco.

July 27 - San Francisco Chronicle

A new report identifies ways to incorporate health objectives into transportation and land use planning.

July 27 - The Convergence Partnership

A $276 million mixed-use remake of a 1973-era mall is opening on Interstate 64 in southeastern Virginia. While the retail is trickling in, the housing element is filling up quickly.

July 27 - New Urban News

Cape Town, South Africa is developing into the cultural center of the continent, according to this piece from <em>Travel + Leisure</em>.

July 27 - Travel + Leisure

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<p> <span style="font-size: small; font-family: Calibri">The current U.S. healthcare reform proposal is often described as costing a trillion dollars. That will make it difficult to pass. However, the same program could legitimately be described as costing residents just cents per day (or, “less than a cup of coffee”), which would enhance its chance of success (a trillion dollars over ten years is $100 billion annually, about $320 annually per capita, or less than $1 per day, which can legitimately be called “cents per day”). </span> </p>

July 27 - Todd Litman

Two inventors explain devices that would allow energy to be harvested along highways and from the highways themselves.

July 27 - The New York Times

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<p> You probably already know that the largest mass transit system in North America is in New York City.  Perhaps you didn’t know that this system is supplemented by a very heavily used sister-system between New York City and New Jersey called the Port Authority Trans-Hudson, or PATH for short.  PATH runs two lines through Jersey City, Newark, and Hoboken, carrying tens of thousands of passengers daily.  My hometown, Hoboken, is considered one of the most densely populated cities in the country, and a large number of those residents commute via PATH on a daily basis.  As the popularity of living in the city has increased, so have the swarms of passengers crowding onto PATH each morning and afternoon in their daily commute between New Jersey and Manhattan.  The cars are very old and make for a rickety, sometimes enthralling ride.  So it is not with anything but a huge warm welcome that we began to receive <a href="http://www.panynj.gov/path/new-path-cars.html">new rail cars</a> over the past month.

July 27 - Ian Sacs

Testifying to the Senate Environment & Public Works Committee on July 14, DOT Secretary Ray LaHood clearly states that fuel efficiency must be complemented with livable communities and transit to reduce transportation-related carbon emissions.

July 27 - Fast Lane (DOT blog)

A new study identifies innovative approaches to efficiently manage San Francisco's curbside parking supply, particularly in neighborhoods.

July 27 - San Francisco County Transportation Authority