The Daily Source of Urban Planning News
Bike Activist Becomes The Man
What happens when a city hires a former bike activist to become it's mobility coordinator? No surprises, the city becomes more bike friendly.
Ways to Retrofit the City
You don't have to tear a city down to make it green, according to this piece from the <em>Boston Globe</em>, which offers some emerging ideas.
Cash-Strapped Cities Ditch Fourth of July Fireworks
Tight budgets are causing cities across the country to skip fireworks displays for their Fourth of July celebrations.
Rediscovering the River
Chicago's river has often played second fiddle to its lakefront. A new riverwalk hopes to change that.
Lincoln Center Facelift
A look at the progress in New York's Lincoln Center, as architects Diller Scofidio + Renfro look to refresh the aging public space.
The Wall Street Tax Shelter That Crashed Your Local Transit Agency
How might an obscure tax shelter called a SILO contributed to the D.C. Metro Red Line crash that killed nine this week?
FEATURE
Brainstorm: Can Cities Shrink Gracefully? Should They? How?
As the recession digs in, cities across the country are left with large swaths of abandoned or vacant places. Can these cities shrink gracefully? Do they even need to? Vote on ideas submitted by the Planetizen community, or suggest your own.
Breaking Out of Silos and Across Borders
With interdepartmental cooperation blossoming within the Obama administration, Neal Peirce wonders how things will shake down when policies hit metropolitan regions -- and the municipal borders that can impede and confuse policy.
BLOG POST
Part Time Lover - Is The Car Just An Affair?
<p> America's so-called “love affair” with the automobile, although cliché, provides a vivid description of how attached we really are to driving. Public policy, and the historically overwhelming effect of auto industry lobbying, is only partly to blame for the endemic traffic jams and smog of the twentieth century. Bruce Schaller, a transportation consultant hired by New York City advocacy group Transportation Alternatives, <a href="http://www.transalt.org/files/newsroom/reports/schaller_Feb2006.pdf">recently demonstrated</a> that urbanites with multiple transportation options still choose to commute by car for rational reasons of privacy, convenience, and speed. A chart of his, shown below, demonstrates how perplexing this choice is. Overcoming these reasons is a ser
D.C. Bus Gets Real-Time Locator Application
A new web-based application that tracks the location of Washington D.C.'s Circulator bus has been released.<em>DCist</em> reports.
BLOG POST
Finding Planners with Shared Interests: The Post-Graduation Experience
In recent months many planning students have graduated and are moving on to the next phase of life—jobs, internships, fellowships, and such. For many this will involve a move to a new place. Even those staying in the same metropolitan area will seldom make it back to their planning program, and besides their fellow students will have scattered. Graduate school provides a peer group of those with similar interests and training. How do recent graduates create such a network when they are no longer in residence at a university?
Ownership of Bus Arrival Data Disputed
The story of how an iPhone application charting public transit arrival times led to as-yet-unanswered questions about who owns this public data -- or whether it can be owned at all.
The Shared Woes of the Auto Industry and the Black Middle Class
The downfall of the American auto industry is also having a major impact on middle and working class African-American families. This piece from the <em>The New York Times Magazine</em> looks at the connection.
City Styrofoam Bans Send Food Packaging Industry Scrambling
More than 30 cities and counties in California have passed some form of a ban on the use of polystyrene containers, and a new state law under consideration, AB 1358, would ban the use of polystyrene foam and non-recyclable food containers statewide.
Public Space Starting Small On Philadelphia's Waterfront
A competition to redesign Philadelphia's Pier 11 represents a concentrated -- and viable -- effort to create quality public space along the city's waterfront, according to <em>Philadelphia Inquirer</em> architecture critic Inga Saffron.
Community Colleges Set Green Workforce Training Mission
Already a national leader in green building and looking to expand its leadership, the Los Angeles Community College District is launching several collaborative efforts to train a new, green workforce.
City People Do-It-Themselves
This post from <em>The New York Times'</em> blog examines how city government's are increasingly relying on automated services to keep order and boost revenue, and how citizens are reacting.
Squatters to Gain Legal Land Rights in the Amazon
The Brazilian government has just approved a measure that would grants legal land rights to squatters in the Amazon.
Waterfront Park and Housing Heading to Queens
New York City recently acquired land to develop parkspace and housing for middle and moderate-income New Yorkers in Queens.
Good Parks Good for Urban Economies
Anne Schwartz compiles recent studies on the economic value of parks, describing how an investment in parks by the city will result in a healthier urban economy.
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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.
