March 18 2010 Edition: A Service of Planetizen - The Planning, Design & Development Network |
Recent Interchange PostsRecent columns and commentaries from Interchange, Planetizen's blog written by experts in the field.Conventional Planning May Be Contributing to Cleveland's Decline Mar 16, 2010 » http://www.planetizen.com/ Inside the City of RVs Mar 15, 2010 » http://www.planetizen.com/ Parking Policy Reform More Important Than LEED Certification Mar 15, 2010 » http://www.planetizen.com/ News HeadlinesThe 20 most popular headlines from the last three days."Real Simple" Cities That Save Time Mar 15, 2010 -- Real Simple Real Simple magazine offers its survey of America's top "time saving" cities, or those that make getting around and getting things done as easy (and green) as possible. » http://www.planetizen.com/ Ghetto-ization: Avoiding the Pitfalls of Density Mar 15, 2010 -- myurbanist At first glance, the historic Ghetto streetscene in Venice is an appealing new urbanist community. In another place at another time, the virtues of compact, walkable and dense were the very isolation we now abhor. » http://www.planetizen.com/ The Town That Lives Online Only Mar 15, 2010 -- The New York Times Elgin Park is a small city that doesn't exist. But online, through a series of photographs created from tiny models in the house of one Massachusetts man, the time-frozen industrial town of the mid-'60s has come to life. » http://www.planetizen.com/ Woonerfs Are Coming Mar 16, 2010 -- The Toronto Star "Woonerf" is a Dutch word for streets that mix cars and people, but with pedestrians as the dominant mode. Toronto planners are using the concept in their plans for the West Don Lands neighborhood. » http://www.planetizen.com/ 'Sea-Change' Coming To Transportation Planning Mar 16, 2010 -- League of American Bicyclists That's what Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood wrote in his blog after attending the League of Bicyclist's 10th Anniversary Summit, March 9-11 in D.C. And he means it - as reflected in the DOT's Policy Statement on bike and ped accommodations. » http://www.planetizen.com/ Green Features Aren't Selling Houses Mar 15, 2010 -- CNN Money Green housing features like solar roofs and angled walls add cost to a development, and lenders don't see added value. So as CNN reports, green housing currently faces a stiff market. » http://www.planetizen.com/ L.A. Transit: Up a Hill and Out to the Sea Mar 16, 2010 -- True/Slant The historic Angel's Flight funicular reopened yesterday, as Mayor Villaraigosa announces his vision to transform Los Angeles' transit system in 10 years. » http://www.planetizen.com/ Remixing Architecture, Without Breaking the Rules Mar 16, 2010 -- The Philadelphia Inquirer Architecture critic Inga Saffron takes a look at what she thinks is "the most innovative take on the traditional rowhouse that Philadelphia has seen in years." Saffron remarks on how the building obeys the rules and innovates at the same time. » http://www.planetizen.com/ Three High Speed Rail Lines Announced in UK Mar 15, 2010 -- The Mirror The three new high speed rail lines are being called the biggest advancement of the United Kingdom's public transit system in more than 50 years. » http://www.planetizen.com/ Charting Public Data Via Google Mar 15, 2010 -- Los Angeles Times Google has launched a new experimental effort to visualize much of the public data it now searches and displays. » http://www.planetizen.com/ Why do People Choose to Ride Transit? Mar 17, 2010 -- Psystenance Do certain kinds of people - students, elderly, environmentalists - choose to ride transit because of who they are? Or does the proper infrastructure make the difference? » http://www.planetizen.com/ Density Uber Alles Mar 16, 2010 -- The Architect's Newspaper Is density a goal unto itself? John Parman argues that a 38-story building proposed for San Francisco has little to do with walkable urbanism, and continues "a sorry tradition of case-by-case rezoning." » http://www.planetizen.com/ How Prisoners Skew the Census Mar 15, 2010 -- Citiwire At Census time, America's prisoners have typically been counted as residents of the places they are imprisoned. But with nearly 1% of the U.S. population behind bars, where they're counted is counting more to the urban areas they came from. » http://www.planetizen.com/ Is GDP A Good Indicator of Well-Being? Mar 15, 2010 -- The Globe and Mail The Indian state of Kerala has earned an international reputation for its outstanding achievements in social planning. While its GDP typical for India, its social indicators rival many developed countries. » http://www.planetizen.com/ TIGER Grants May Take Transit Off Endangered List Mar 16, 2010 -- New Urban News Less money for highways, more for transit and "complete streets" - New Urban News takes a look at where the $1.5 billion TIGER grants are going. » http://www.planetizen.com/ WalMart Purchase Thwarted, Family Sues City of Rezoning - And Wins Mar 17, 2010 -- The Saginaw News WalMart made an offer to purchase a plot from a family in Frankenmuth, Michigan, but withdrew the offer when the City Council rezoned the land for a limited building size. The family sued, and a federal judge awarded them $3.6 million. » http://www.planetizen.com/ The Fleeting American Dream Mar 17, 2010 -- The Atlantic The American Dream is a concept that's had a rough go for the past few years. A new survey shows that nearly two-thirds of Americans don't think that dream can become reality. » http://www.planetizen.com/ South African World Cup Stadium Costs Highlight Neighboring Poverty Mar 15, 2010 -- The New York Times The costs of a new stadium built for this year's World Cup in Nelspruit, South Africa have heightened tensions between the city's poor and its leading officials. » http://www.planetizen.com/ High Speed Rail from London to Scotland Planned Mar 16, 2010 -- BBC News Take a virtual (5-minute) trip on the 250 mph proposed train from London to Glasgow. All political parties agree on the need for what Secretary of State, Andrew Adonis, terms '21st century transport revolution', but the routing is less certain. » http://www.planetizen.com/ Redevelopment Agencies Circle the Wagons, Fight for Funding Mar 15, 2010 -- California Planning & Development Report Redevelopment agencies, lead by the CRA, are planning their strategy for how to keep their local redevelopment funding from the state. CP&DR blogs and tweets from the California Redevelopment Association conference. » http://www.planetizen.com/ |