The Daily Source of Urban Planning News
Lightweight Blocks Cut Rail Costs and Timelines
Light rail developers in Utah are cutting costs and timelines with a new and unlikely track base: foam.
A New Era of National Planning?
Planetizen blogger Rob Goodspeed looks back to America's past to find examples of effective national planning that could be applied today.
Recycling Programs Hurt by Recession
The market for recyclables has taken a sharp nosedive in recent months, challenging cities' ability to provide recycling services.
Are We Too "Stupid" to Save Ourselves?
A new British documentary looks back from the year 2055 to show how humanity gradually destroyed the planet.
End of the Road for the RV?
Between the spike in gas prices in 2008 and the current recession, the RV industry is in serious trouble as the market for enormous homes on wheels dries up.
MTA Service Cuts, Block by Block
Regional Plan Association of New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut has mapped out the impact of all MTA's service cuts for every State Assembly and Senate district in the region. There's also an interactive Google Map.
Kunstler Predicts Extinction of City Planning
In a discussion about how graveyards fit into new forms of urbanism, James Howard Kunstler predicts that city planning departments are not long for this world.
Is This London Project a Landmark, or Blight?
Robin Hood Gardens is a 70s era, Brutalist public housing complex. Preservationists say it is historic; the government wants to tear it down. Reporter Nicolai Ouroussoff pays the project a visit to determine for himself.
BLOG POST
Houston's Housing Lessons
<p style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"> <span style="font-size: small; font-family: Times New Roman">The planning profession’s ambivalence toward Houston has always been a little frustrating. In part, the profession’s attitude is understandable. Houston hasn’t embraced planning’s conventions, so why should the profession embrace Houston? </span> </p> <p style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"> <span style="font-size: small; font-family: Times New Roman">Fair enough. But the downside is losing the opportunity to look at core issues and problems from a completely different lens. This is especially true when it comes to housing development where Houston performs remarkably better than its peers.</span> </p>
Protecting Renters from the Foreclosure Crisis
Renters are the hidden victims of the foreclosure crisis: they are usually the last to know about foreclosure, have few resources to assist them and are being overlooked by federal interventions. But community organizers are fighting back.
Cleaning Out and Keeping Up Foreclosures
As foreclosures spread throughout California's Inland Empire, empty homes need to be cleaned and maintained. To meet the demand, an industry is rapidly expanding.
Texans for Transit
Officials in North Texas showed significant support yesterday for legislation to raise money for billions of dollars in road and rail improvements.
Clean Coal Stimulus Funds Put To Work In Indiana
Duke Energy hopes to tap $3.4 billion of stimulus funds to build the nation's first clean coal plant, burning the coal in a gaseous form and storing the CO2 emissions. It already has received federal funds to build the $2.35 coal power plant in IN.
Will "Ghost" Towers Dominate U.S. Skylines?
Paul Smalera sees in the the ghost towers of Bangkok a disturbing warning for economically distressed urban developments in the United States.
The News Hour Reports On Public Transit In Peril
"Blueprint America" looks at declining public transit subsidies and resulting transit service cuts. The video and report follows two East Bay commuters on suburban bus, BART; the transit agency meeting where bus service is reduced; MUNI LRT footage.
A New Paris, as Dreamed by Planners
Nine-month study commissioned by President Nicolas Sarkozy aims to transform Paris and its surrounding suburbs into the first sustainable “post-Kyoto" city.
BLOG POST
Free Pancakes, Free Rides, and (Almost) Free Beer
We Americans love a discount. Wal-Mart and the discount retail boom are proof enough of that. What we love even more, though, is free stuff. Just slap the word "free" before almost anything and we'll line up.<br /> <br /> This mentality represents some challenges for cities, but also some opportunities. The challenge is that if people don't have to pay for something, they probably won't. And the opportunity is that if people don't have to pay for something, they're way more likely to want it. Let's think of this concept in terms of three innately American traditions: pancakes, mobility, and beer.<br />
Amsterdam Leading Green City Movement
In the next few months, the Dutch capital will make numerous changes to make its infrastructure greener. With the help of private companies like Cisco and IBM, Amsterdam is closer to becoming a "smart city" than any other in Europe.
Habitat Tears Down Shrinking City's Houses
Habitat for Humanity, known for building low-cost, affordable houses, has taken to deconstructing homes in Saginaw, MI. Reselling the materials and building smaller homes in their stead make more sense than rehabilitating an old house, they say.
Maxed Out on Billboards
The city of Waco, Texas, imposes limits on new billboards--hoping to reduce its overall inventory with a "cap and replace" strategy.
Heyer Gruel & Associates PA
Ada County Highway District
Institute for Housing and Urban Development Studies (IHS)
City of Grandview
Harvard GSD Executive Education
Toledo-Lucas County Plan Commissions
Salt Lake City
NYU Wagner Graduate School of Public Service
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.
