The Daily Source of Urban Planning News

Last year, plans for a new museum in San Francisco's Presidio were criticized for being harsh and not in keeping with the feel of the park. Back from the drawing board, John King says the new plans are much more in character and less iconic.

March 3 - San Francisco Chronicle

<em>Forbes</em> has released its list of the most congested cities in America. Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, Dallas and Washington D.C. top the list.

March 3 - Forbes

Philadelphia's Dilworth Plaza is another modernist civic construction that didn't live up to the architect's utopian ideals. A new design aims to create a more park-like atmosphere and improve transit access.

March 3 - The Philadelphia Inquirer

Six architects, planners, public intellectuals and authors give their differing opinions on Bloomberg's plan to turn Broadway into a pedestrian-only space.

March 2 - Freakonomics - NY Times Blog

The Buckminster Fuller Institute has announced the 33 finalists in its Buckminster Fuller Challenge. All contest entries are featured on their website, ranging from an 'Urban Space Station' to an idea for 'making energy from dirt'.

March 2 - The Buckminster Fuller Institute

The National Surface Transportation Infrastructure Financing Commission advises Congress that the U.S. is in an infrastructure crisis, and that they must raise the gas excise tax by ten cents now and begin the switch to a VMT fee.

March 2 - The New York Times: Energy & Environment

Studies showing rising concentrations of poorer immigrant groups in Canada's largest cities is causing concern that the country is becoming polarized. But, writes Doug Saunders, such enclaves may be the first step towards integration.

March 2 - The Globe and Mail

In a report detailing three decades of growth in the SF Bay Area, an urban think tank details how commercial growth has been disproportionately in the non-transit accessible suburban office parks. However, SF shares the blame. Solutions are offered.

March 2 - San Francisco Chronicle

The housing market has bombed, bringing prices and values to devastating lows. But despite lower prices, affordable housing is still in too short of supply, according to this piece from <em>Time</em>.

March 2 - Time

Population centers the world around are caught in the grips of devastating droughts. Though temporary conditions, their increasing frequency should be a call to water-saving action, writes Tom Englehardt.

March 2 - Mother Jones

American Public Transportation Association President William Millar visits <em>Living on Earth</em> to discuss how the stimulus will benefit public transit in the U.S. -- and why it's "the best of times and the worst of times."

March 2 - Living on Earth

Builder Magazine selects 15 picks for the best housing markets to be in in the U.S. in 2009. Houston, Texas comes out on top, and, predictably, Detroit scrapes the bottom.

March 2 - Builder Magazine

A new government-sponsored watchdog website will allow citizens to track stimulus-funded projects. It's an effort to insure accountability. Neal Pierce wonders if that accountability will translate into smarter patterns of development.

March 2 - Citiwire

FEATURE

A new design competition is seeking solutions to L.A.'s transportation problems. But the real solution may not have anything to do with transportation at all.

March 2 - Nate Berg

This commentary from <em>re:place</em> magazine offers tips and insights into how one can ride transit like a pro.

March 1 - re:place

BLOG POST

<p> <span style="font-size: 11pt"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman"> </span></span><span style="font-size: 11pt"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman">Architecture is certainly headed for its own version of the Big Bang. A density of firms are simmering with scarce backlog, delinquent collections, looming layoffs, high overhead, low morale as weakened management relies on a foggy stimulus package to forestall an explosion of great magnitude. After the inevitable, our profession will reconstitute based on a new chemistry.

March 1 - Rick Abelson

The Los Angeles suburb of Industry has approved plans to build a stadium in the city in hopes of luring a football team back to the L.A. area.

March 1 - Associated Press

The new federal budget represents a broad increase in funding for urban programs. New York in particular is to benefit greatly from the new spending plan.

March 1 - New York Daily News

The City of Denver plans to spend more than $15 million over the next decade to purchase real estate near mass transit.

March 1 - The Denver Post

The federal stimulus package has made infrastructure into a hot topic among states. But, as Mary Newsom writes, states are not addressing the land use patterns that drive up the costs and bring down the efficiency of infrastructure.

March 1 - Citiwire