The Daily Source of Urban Planning News

Peter Katz and Jay Walljasper pick ten notable suburbs that are breaking the mold and creating new, vibrant communities.

January 26 - Utne Reader

America is not just overspent, it is over-malled, and the next wave of foreclosures will hit retail and other commercial real estate.

January 26 - AlterNet

The Pasadena Planning Commission has again rejected famed architect Richard Meier's plans for an Episcopal church in the city center. Commissioners believe the plan does not fit with Pasadena's historic character.

January 26 - The Architect's Newspaper

Underwhelmed by government, communities, organizations (like ACORN) and ad-hoc citizen's groups are coming together to fight back against foreclosures.

January 26 - The Nation

Architect Wes Jones argues that architecture is "an argument for a better world". But the general public doesn't understand how. Neither do most architects, writes Christopher Hume.

January 26 - The Toronto Star

A new study in Britain makes the connection between blighted environments and poor school performance.

January 26 - The Guardian U.K.

While the U.S. waffles over its stimulus package, China is two months into a grand countrywide transportation facelift, building high-speed rail, expanding freight capacity and generally beefing up the country's mobility.

January 26 - The New York Times

The "New American Home" for 2009 debuted last week at the International Builders Symposium in Las Vegas. The 9,000 sq. ft. home features the most recent developments in energy efficiency.

January 26 - The Ground Floor

L.A. is at war with outdoor advertising. Though activists have urged the city to make moves to block video billboards, it's not really clear which side is winning the war, according to this piece from <em>Design Observer</em>.

January 26 - Design Observer

WebUrbanist brings together fifteen innovative, creative, and absurd experiments in parking, from VW's robot stacker to eco parking to parking meters on gravestones.

January 26 - WebUrbanist

The downturn in the economy has hurt the auto industry, leaving many cars unsold. Storage of these cars is becoming a problem for many automakers.

January 25 - Guardian

A new review of Oregon's land use system calls for a reworking of the state's policies to allow counties and regions to make more focused and appropriate decisions.

January 25 - The Oregonian

Light reflecting from streets and glass buildings in cities have been found in a recent study to disrupt animal behavior.

January 25 - BBC

Wannado City in Sawgrass Mills, FL, is a model city in a warehouse that gives kids a chance to play at having jobs. Broward County Transit has chipped in a mini bus, which drives around the city introducing kids to public transit.

January 25 - The Miami Herald

This piece from <em>Bloomberg</em> architecture critic James Russell calls for a unified approach to building the nation's transportation infrastructure.

January 25 - Bloomberg

BLOG POST

<p> The military has recently opened <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/05/us/05army.html?_r=4" target="_blank" title="Urban Tool in Recruiting by the Army - An Arcade - NYTimes.com">a new type of recruitment office</a> known as <a href="http://www.thearmyexperience.com/" target="_blank" title="Army Experience Center Website">&quot;The Army Experience Center&quot;</a> in a Philadelphia shopping mall. It&#39;s like an arcade, where video games and other interactive technologies provide visitors a glimpse of what it might be like to be in the military. It&#39;s a new approach, one that capitalizes on the modern teenager&#39;s affection for video games to attract them to the military life. You could call it persuasive, cajoling, or even a thinly-veiled attempt to con kids with flashy games, but, as it provides exactly what its target audience wants, the bottom line is that it&#39;s very effective. Why couldn&#39;t a city do the same thing?

January 24 - Nate Berg

An obscure new rule pushed through the Federal Highway Administration requires public toll roads to collect 'fair market value' from drivers, rather than to serve the public interest.

January 24 - On The Commons

BLOG POST

<p> Usually planners get involved in the allocation and details of creating both public and private spaces for groups of people engaged in a wide range of variety of activities.

January 24 - Rick Abelson

Boise's degrading air quality and the fear it may lead to a loss in federal transportation funding is causing local governments to improve public transit options to get commuters out of their cars. The alternative, smog testing of cars, is resisted.

January 24 - The New York Times

San Francisco building codes encouraged the creation of privately-owned, publicly-accessible spaces across the downtown. These spaces have gone underused and are little understood. A new report from SPUR attempts to clear the fog.

January 24 - Streetsblog