The Daily Source of Urban Planning News

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<p> Last week marked the end of my first year of planning school. It’s been by turns enlightening, angst-ridden, sleep-deprived, soul-baringly revelatory, stimulating and intellectually crushing. </p> <p> The bulk of the second semester is occupied by a first-year workshop—kind of a studio with training wheels—in which groups are assigned a client for whom they do a site analysis, come up with alternative solutions and then suggest a final plan and way to implement that plan. You know, kind of like in the real world. </p> <p> And, like in the real world, sometimes folks don’t always get along as well as they should. </p>

May 17 - Jeffrey Barg

Rick Harrison argues that smart growth looks good on paper, but in application the density creates a whole host of problems.

May 17 - New Geography

Las Vegas and Southern Nevada are chock-full of planned communities. The region is also struggling with some of the harshest declines in property values in the nation. Though planned communities are seeing some sales, they are mainly in trouble.

May 17 - Las Vegas Sun

A new study warns that climate change could bring widespread harmful health threats to millions, and that plans for adapting human settlements to climate change need to address social inequities.

May 17 - CBC

Freakonomics argues that eliminating one New York airport would allow the others to operate more effectively.

May 17 - Freakonomics - NY Times Blog

In Bedford-Stuyvesant, the changes that gentrification have brought to the neighborhood are fundamental, not just cosmetic. One planner talks about how neighborhood character could be retained.

May 17 - The Brooklyn Rail (via Feministing)

San Francisco, Houston, and Indianapolis are featuring public art installations that mimic and highlight nature in urban areas.

May 16 - Next American City

In an age of rapid technological improvements in almost every aspect of life, it's difficult to understand how a technology like trains could actually be less advanced now than it was in the 1940s, writes Tom Vanderbilt.

May 16 - Slate

Beth Noveck, deputy director for Open Government in the Obama Administration, talks about dealing with the noise of online collaboration and how to make social networks functional for civic participation.

May 16 - Government Techonlogy

Fuled by casino cash, the Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community is buying up sections of Scott County, Minnesota at a rate that has local planners spinning.

May 16 - Minneapolis/St. Paul Star Tribune

Water shortages and environmentally-based restrictions are leaving Central California's agricultural lands dry. As a result, farmers are increasingly tapping into groundwater sources. Many are calling on the state to monitor the use of its aquifers.

May 16 - The New York Times

The Onion reports on the "window-shattering ceremony" officially opening Detroit's newest slum, a neighborhood designed with the "latest in high-risk, hopelessly impoverished housing options."

May 15 - The Onion

...or not. Only 3 senators bothered to show up for his confirmation hearing. The discussion centered around the failure of the FTA to get funding to ailing transit systems across the country.

May 15 - Streetsblog

A private development of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, City Creek Center will be the largest mixed-use project in Salt Lake City.

May 15 - The New York Times

FEATURE

With the auto industry struggling and car dealerships closing shop, what future do you see for empty car lots? Vote on ideas submitted by the Planetizen community, or suggest your own.

May 15 - Planetizen

According to the 2000 Census, the City of Lowell, Massachussetts has 105,000 people. Mayor Edward "Bud" Caulfield says they were wrong, and is doing everything he can to make the 2010 numbers accurate.

May 15 - The Lowell Sun

Water is predicted by many to be the reason for future conflicts. But are water wars really in our future? <em>SEED</em> magazine asks a panel of experts.

May 15 - Seed

With growing concern over safety, Chico, CA, is considering creating new zoning restrictions to control where medical marijuana can be grown.

May 15 - ChicoER.com

Legislation is being introduced in Congress to guide the course of the next five years of federal transportation spending, focusing on reducing per capita vehicle miles traveled and decreasing truck freight shipping.

May 15 - The Washington Post

Minorities are on the rise in the U.S., but the rates of growth for Hispanics and Asians are slowing down, according to recent Census figures.

May 15 - The New York Times