The Daily Source of Urban Planning News

After a recent state ruling requiring Seattle and other Puget Sound cities to control polluted stormwater runoff, smaller cities and suburbs could be brought on board as well.

February 6 - Seattle Post-Intelligencer

Architect Oscar Niemeyer has released plans to build new iconic buildings near the UNESCO-protected cultural and government center he designed in Brasilia 50 years ago. But locals have voiced opposition.

February 6 - Associated Press

Energy Secretary Steve Chu delivers a grim warning for California: Slow the pace of climate change or the state will lose its agriculture and cities.

February 5 - Guardian (UK)

Before officials get too excited about using stimulus money to repair the nation's infrastructure, they should carefully consider design, according to this oped.

February 5 - The Orlando Sentinel

The suburbs are struggling right now, but they are still around, physically. Allison Arieff asks what will happen to them next?

February 5 - The New York Times

Ridership is up on transit in the Twin Cities. Fewer cars are being sold, and tax revenues are down. With little funding expected to fill the gap, transit fare increases may be on the horizon.

February 5 - Minneapolis-St.Paul Star Tribune

This editorial lauds the new president for acting hastily on granting the waiver to allow CA and 13 states to require higher mileage vehicles, but warns it must not be an end in itself. A higher gas tax, it notes, will do more to reduce emissions.

February 5 - Los Angeles Times

In this op-ed, Peter Calthorpe warns against a massive investment to stimulate sprawl as was done after WWII. He notes 3 areas that need smart investment to make the American Dream sustainable: urban transit, environment, and multi-family housing.

February 5 - San Francisco Chronicle

The Old Georgetown Board, the design review board of Washington, D.C.'s historic district, has voted a third time to reject Apple's bid to tear down the current building and put up one of their iconic Apple Stores.

February 5 - National Trust For Historic Preservation

This piece from <em>The Nation</em> looks at the prospect of transit in America, what a renewed nationwide system could accomplish, and what it would take to achieve politically.

February 5 - The Nation

Sierra Nevada Brewing Co. is working with startup E-Fuel to create gas from their brewing yeast waste.

February 5 - Earth2Tech

From Boston to Austin to L.A., more and more cities across the U.S. are making efforts to reduce their carbon emissions and environmental impact by instituting green building codes.

February 5 - Governing

BLOG POST

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial; color: black">Anyone who has picked up a greeting card, coffee mug, or calendar in the past 100 years or so can recognize the sentiments of any number of great American environmentalists: Whitman and his yawp, Thoreau and his deliberateness, Frost and his serene decisiveness. We know the exhortations of Carson, Leopold, Emerson, and Abbey. John Muir, John McPhee, and Barry Lopez are known to have taken a few strolls through the chestnuts. </span></p>

February 4 - Josh Stephens

Some Chelmsofrd, MA residents think gutting their historic town halls--one vacant for 20 years--to bring in much-needed affordable housing units is a great idea. But some still find the idea of marring such architectural icons unacceptable.

February 4 - Lowell Sun Online

Australia's 12-year drought shows no sign of ending, and many are worried that the continent may be the first major victim of climate change.

February 4 - Independent (UK)

Toronto, a land of cheap gas and unclear traffic reduction policies, has a long way to go in improving public transit, according to one architect. But designers are making progress as they make city's new subway stations as enticing as possible.

February 4 - Toronto Star

Maybe they're not in Manhattan, but Queens and Brooklyn are still home to much of New York's diverse middle class. And although facing some economic stress, they're not likely to go anywhere soon, according to Joel Kotkin.

February 4 - New Geography

The newly passed stimulus bill's sustainability elements are blessings for green builders and environmentalists. As far as commercial property owners are concerned, however, those elements may be seen as too much work for little benefit.

February 4 - National Real Estate Investor

Author, WSJ columnist and Huffington Post blogger Thomas Frank cautions against the public-private partnerships that are leasing public toll roads, warning that it isn't in the public interest; that they will become affordable only to the wealthy.

February 4 - The Huffington Post

San Francisco and other cities have historically given developers the incentive to build taller for providing a proportional amount of public space. This article looks at what has worked as well as how it has backfired.

February 4 - San Francisco Chronicle